Interwoven Histories: Interview
Dr. Emmanuel Mark from Grenada to Liberia
By Althea Romeo-Mark
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Many people from the Caribbean immigrated to Liberia in the 18th and 19th century and contributed to the development of Liberia in many ways. They came from larger Caribbean islands like Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, and countries such as Guyana in South America. You came from one of the smaller Caribbean Islands, Grenada. Where is it?
EMMANUEL MARK: Grenada is in the south Caribbean off the Venezuelan coast, 100 miles south of Trinidad and Tobago.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: When did you arrive in Liberia?
EMMANUEL MARK: 1958.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: So you were a recent immigrant. I believe the last large wave of Caribbean immigrants to Liberia arrived in the 1950s. How old were you when you arrived in Liberia?
EMMANUEL MARK: I was seventeen.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Tell us about yourself and your family in Grenada. How many were you?
EMMANUEL MARK: We were a family of nine. I am the fifth of four girls and five boys. One died in infancy, but my mother later adopted my uncle’s daughter. The youngest of us was born with a deformity. My mother was a housemaid and my father was a groomsman and overseer of an estate. He looked after horses and a plantation for an estate owner. He reared cows and produced fresh milk, which he also sold to neighbors. Out of eight children, only two of us went to high school. After Hurricane Janet in September 1955, the two oldest siblings immigrated to England; later, two sisters followed.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Your great uncle Christopher Rennie moved to New York and later immigrated to Liberia. Did you know him at all?
EMMANUEL MARK: No, I didn’t know him, but I used to hear my mother talk about him.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: What did learn from your mother about him?
EMMANUEL MARK: I learned that he went to New York and later went to Liberia. She always said how kind he was to his sister, my grandmother. She remembered the good things he did while he was in Grenada. He sent money monthly to my grandmother and with that money she was able to help other family members. He returned to Grenada in 1958 for his first visit since he had immigrated to Liberia.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: I understand that your great uncle Rennie was able to persuade several family members to send their sons to Liberia. Can you tell me how many of you went?
EMMANUEL MARK: We were seven altogether. Raphael Thomas, from Grenada, was the first, followed by his brother, Gilbert Thomas, and uncle, Raymond Thomas, who arrived from England in 1957. Raphael Thomas was sent to Liberia to get an education but died one year later as a result of complications due to appendicitis. Raphael had finished primary school and was a teacher. He was very intelligent but his parents couldn’t afford any further education. He would have had to continue to work or immigrate to England. Another cousin, James Thomas, followed in 1957. Gilbert Thomas didn’t remain because he was saddened by his brother’s death. Uncle Christopher Rennie visited Grenada the following year. It was then that he decided to take Ashley Rennie and myself to Liberia. We left for Liberia in December, 1958.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: How did your great uncle persuade your mother to let her teenaged son go to a distant country?
EMMANUEL MARK: I was the first in my family to attend secondary school and very independent. My mother had persuaded my father to sell a cow to help further my education. Then my uncle arrived and saw the family’s poor financial position and decided to assist. My mother agreed immediately because my uncle was well off. My uncle’s wish was to have a doctor in the family.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: How did she convey the proposal to you? How did you feel about it?
EMMANUEL MARK: I thought it was an opportunity for me to get a good education and uncle Rennie promised to educate us once we were willing. The stress on my parents was therefore reduced and later on, I would be in a position to help.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Did you have any communication with your cousins that were already in Liberia?
EMMANUEL MARK: Communication was mainly through writing and was very difficult then. When family members finally heard about the death of Raphael, they were deeply saddened by the passing of a very promising and bright lad.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Were there any cousins who refused to go to Liberia as a result of Raphael’s death?
EMMANUEL MARK: Only his brother Gilbert and his uncle, Raymond Thomas, who both decided to return to England after a short stay in Liberia. They were on their way to Liberia when Raphael died.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: You have a cousin who now resides in Geneva, Switzerland, who was also in Liberia for a short time. Tell me about him?
EMMANUEL MARK: His name is Dr Jeremiah Cox. He arrived in Liberia in 1959. He was head of the Pathology Department at the government hospital in Liberia. He remained in Liberia until 1966, and then returned with his family to Switzerland.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Why did he leave?
EMMANUEL MARK: He had a conflict with the government.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: I believe more cousins arrived in Liberia the same year Dr Jeremiah Cox did. Who were they?
EMMANUEL MARK: Clifton Rennie and Leon Alexander arrived from Grenada. The following year, Clifton Rennie sent for his girlfriend, Esther, from London. They married in Liberia.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Did all of your cousins marry Liberians?
EMMANUEL MARK: Ashley Rennie, Leon Alexander, James Thomas married Liberians and had large families. Gilbert Thomas and Raymond Thomas returned to England without getting married.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: What was your first reaction to Liberia when you arrived?
EMMANUEL MARK: My uncle picked Ashley Rennie and me up in an air-conditioned Lincoln Continental car. We drove on a dusty road with tall trees covering the road until we arrived at the estate. We didn’t realize the trees were rubber trees. It was night. We had a sumptuous meal then went to bed.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Where was the estate?
EMMANUEL MARK: The plantation was called Paradise Estate, located four miles outside Kakata.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: What was your reaction the next day? What happened? What were your first impressions?
EMMANUEL MARK: We had to observe strict table manners. We had to be at breakfast at 7:00 a.m. After that we were chauffeured on a dirt road down to Monrovia to see about our passports.
My first impression was that Liberia was not as developed as Grenada. I noticed how wide the roads were. Roads were dirt-red and unpaved. We learned later that the roads were red because of the iron ore. I noticed that it was a challenge for drivers to be on the road because of the dust. Drivers were happy when it rained as driving without dust was more comfortable for all.
I noticed that plants were similar to those in the Caribbean. My uncle had also brought several plants from the Caribbean—cocoa, nutmeg, dasheen, mangoes, sapodillas, sugar apples, and dwarf coconuts.
On the third day we went to the rubber plantation where our uncle showed us how the tappers extracted the latex from the trees without damage, and how to look for damage on the trees. Each of us was put in charge of a section on the rubber plantation for which we were responsible for inspection. Reports were made after the latex was weighed.
We heard a lot of animal sounds and birds at dawn, of course. The tappers spoke little English and so it was very difficult to understand them at first. We had to learn some Kpelle in order to communicate. I found the language very interesting and challenging.
Our greatest shock was that we were so far away from the Caribbean. We rarely heard news of deaths in the family in the Caribbean. When we did, the news was belated. We were in a blackout zone as far as news and new developments on the island.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Where did you go to school and when did you start?
EMMANUEL MARK: Uncle Christopher arranged for James Thomas and I to attend St. Patrick’s High School. We entered in the junior year in March 1959 and graduated at the end of 1960. After that I attended Cuttington University and James Thomas was sent to Trinity College in Dublin Ireland to pursue Medicine.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Who were some of your classmates at St. Patrick’s?
EMMANUEL MARK: We were about twenty, including my cousin, James Thomas. I can only remember last names mostly. Kellen, Smith, Guy Carter, Jonathan Nimley, Cecil Barnes and Brown. A good friend, Earl Burrowes, whose family was from Jamaica, was a junior at St. Patrick's at the time.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Where did you stay while you attended St. Patrick’s?
EMMANUEL MARK: We stayed with Henry Saar. He was an adopted son of Uncle Rennie. We ate porridge with eggs in the morning. We ate rice and greens or palmbutter for lunch and saved some of that for our evening meal. Occasionally, we had monkey meat with palmbutter. We ate a lot of dried fish. We were given two dollars a week as allowance. On Fridays, we went back to the plantation and returned to Monrovia on Sunday. Uncle paid our way by taxi.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: How long were you at Cuttington University College?
EMMANUEL MARK: I remained at Cuttington University until mid-1962. I was there for a year and a half.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: What did you study at Cuttington?
EMMANUEL MARK: I studied pre-med. It was my uncle’s intention to send me to Ireland, but unfortunately he died.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: What happened to you after your uncle died?
EMMANUEL MARK: Dr. Jeremiah Cox took over my care and helped me to get into the University of Basel, Switzerland. There I specialized in Paediatrics.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Do you remember some of your classmates at Cuttington?
EMMANUEL MARK: There was J.C. Johnson, Wilton Sankawulo, Ruth Reeves, Judith Phelps, Anderson from Cape Palmas.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: What about your other cousins. Where did they attend school?
EMMANUEL MARK: Our cousin Ashley Rennie attended B.W.I (Booker Washington Institute). The rest, Clifton Rennie and Leon Alexander helped to run the farm.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Tell us about how your Uncle Rennie contributed to the development of Liberia.
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| Christopher Rennie passport photo taken when immigrating to New York. |
He contributed to the development of Kakata, assisted the Catholic mission and provided scholarships for students at B.W.I. He was a staunch Catholic and never missed mass and was a member of the Knights of St. John. In general, he contributed to the economic development in Liberia. He had a keen interest in education and assisted many to pay their tuition. C. H. Rennie Hospital, in Kakata, was named in his memory.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Did your uncle Christopher Rennie have children?
EMMANUEL MARK: He had one daughter, Lorraine Rennie-Morris. She was sent to Ireland at the age of nine to a Catholic convent. After graduation, she studied Physio-therapy in Birmingham, England. She later returned to Liberia where she worked as a therapist at JFK hospital.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Who was her mother?
EMMANUEL MARK: Her mother's name was Harriette Rennie Whistnant. Whistnant is her second husband. She was from Bassa County. She was a head nurse at the government hospital in Monrovia. Later, she became the head nurse at the C.H. Rennie hospital in Kakata.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Any grandchildren?
EMMANUEL MARK: He has four grandchildren and three great-grand-children. He didn’t live to see any of his grandchildren.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: When did he die?
EMMANUEL MARK: He died in 1962.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: He had only one child. Did he adopt any children?
EMMANUEL MARK: Yes, he adopted several children. One of them is a Mr. Jallah Prall who became the director of a bank in Monrovia. Another was Blyden Rennie who assisted him on the farm.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Who were his associates in Liberia? Was he in contact with other Caribbean immigrant families?
EMMANUEL MARK: His neighbor was Mr. Paul, another immigrant from the island of Grenada. Another associate was Mr. Dudley Lawrence who was ambassador of Liberia to the Court of St. James in England. Also Mrs. Inez King and her husband, and the Williamson family, Jamaican immigrants. There were others that I can’t recall right now.
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| The Rennie Clan and Friends, Monrovia, 1977 |
The Rennie Clan and Friends, Monrovia, 1977
Christopher Rennie, influenced by Marcus Garvey's "Back To Africa Movement", arrived in Liberia in the 1920s from New York where he had moved to from the island of Grenada.
Front row right to left: Clifton Rennie (grand-nephew of Christopher Rennie), Judith Grisby-Campbell (wife of Logan Campbell), Lorraine Rennie-Morris (daughter of Christopher Rennie), Ellen Bruce-Williams (sister of Gloria Bruce-Thomas), Dr. James Thomas (grand-nephew of Christopher Rennie). Back row right to left: Mr. Logan Campbell of Grenada (family friend), Richard Morris (husband of Lorraine Rennie-Morris), Dr. Emmanuel Mark (husband of Althea R. Mark and grand-nephew of Christopher Rennie), Althea Romeo-Mark (wife of Dr. Emmanuel Mark), Leon Alexander (grand-nephew of Christopher Rennie), Gloria Bruce-Thomas (wife of Dr. James Thomas).
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: You and your cousin Dr. James Thomas returned to Liberia after your studies abroad. When did you return and where did you work?
EMMANUEL MARK: Dr. James Thomas returned from Ireland in 1971 and worked as a medical consultant at the J.F. K Memorial Hospital. He then worked at Dr. West's clinic, which he later took over. I returned in June 1975 and took a position as deputy chief of Paediatrics at the J.F.K memorial hospital. The chief at that time was Dr. Kate Bryant. I also taught at the A.M. Dogliotti School of Medicine, University of Liberia. Later, I became a partner with my cousin, Dr. James Thomas, at West Clinic on Lynch Street, Monrovia.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: What other immigrant families were you acquainted with in Liberia?
EMMANUEL MARK: I knew the King family from Jamaica; the Thomas family, shopkeepers from Grenada; the Williamsons from Jamaica, who were chemists and instructors at the university of Liberia and also made perfumes and hair products; the Mitchells; The Wilsons from Jamaica who owned a butcher shop; Lucien and Luke Mathelier, twins who were builders from Haiti; Dr. Lafantante, a paediatrician, from Haiti; Mrs. Doris Harding from Jamaica who was once head of the state department and owned a printery; Mr. Dixie Peters, from Guyana, who headed the INA insurance company, which subsequently became CIGNA insurance; and the Campbells. Mr. Campbell, a Grenadian, headed the Water and Sewer Authority. There are others who I cannot recall at the moment.
ALTHEA ROMEO-MARK: Thank you very much for the interview.
EMMANUEL MARK: Thank you too. It was a pleasure.
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My mother is a childhood friend of Dr. Emmanuel Mark from Grenada. She was just telling me the story of how he came to leave Grenada when I decided to do a Google search and found your blog. Her name is Gertrude Rennie-Hannibal. If you can, please contact me if he wants to reach out
ReplyDeleteVery interesting read. I know the offspring of many of the families mentioned. Thank you for sharing your story with us.
ReplyDelete