Sundown at Dawn: A Liberian Odyssey BOOK REVIEW
Althea Romeo-Mark
Sundown at Dawn: A Liberian Odyssey is the second novel written by Liberian writer. Wilton Sankawulo. It was published by Dusty Spark Publishing in Houston, Texas, USA in 2005 and consists 203 pages. The story starts as a journey of hope and promise and ends with the lost of faith in man and country.
The novel is set between Liberia’s rural society and urban Monrovia, the capital city. In these settings, Dougba Senfenui, nicknamed “Zurong” by his mother, learns life’s lessons. He sets out to fulfil his father’s dream of his son having a “Kwii”, i.e. a Western education. Dougba is almost too naïve, suffers uncountable betrayals, but never appears to become cynical. His character brings to mind a character in the Old Testament called Job who is seen as a model for perseverance in suffering. While Job is tested by God and the Devil, Dougba is tested by rural as well as urban Liberian society dominated by “Americo Liberians,” or the “Kwii” people as they are called by indigenous people. No one understands him and unlike Job, who survives, Dougba is destroyed.
In the opening chapter, Dougba’s father tells him the story about Nagalakemeni “who was born in his parents old age. Not wishing to leave him a helpless, lonely orphan when they died, they sent him to school to become “kwii (p.1).” “Where did he go to school, Dougba asks…..Ducor, Kwii people’s biggest town (p.1).” The father continues the story and tells his son that…”after finishing school, Ngalakemeni got what ever he wanted: money, women, wine and servants-not to speak of cattle, rice, oil, meat, and fish. All he had to do was ask and he was given. He deserved the privilege, though, for he gave up the comfort and security and chose to suffer (p.1).” The boy’s response to the story, which representative of the father’s dream for his son, is, “Must have become a king then ( p.1).”
Dougba’s preparation to become “kwii” begins at a missionary school in what could be called the traditional setting. He is first made ready for traditional society by way of a circumcision ritual, but is denied the opportunity to join the Poro Society because he is sent away to become “civilized.” His foray into the “Kwii” world prevents him from attaining manhood, deprives him of power and special privileges in the traditional one. He does not share the secrets of the “Poro Society,” thus he is not equal to the other men and, like women, is excluded from ceremonies.
At the same time, the way of the “kwii” man puts him in conflict with traditional society. He tells the Zoe that “the mission doesn’t allow boys to tamper with girls….you must first finish school before marrying. Any violators of this law is expelled from school (p.46).” And the old man replies “Foolish law….It’s dangerous to keep boys and girls apart when they are matured! Dangerous for their health and sanity……Son, the mission is not preparing you for life (p.46).” Later, Dougba confesses that “members of the Poro Society warned me to avoid direct contact with the new initiates when they arrived because the Devil hovered about. Unsatisfied by the warning, they had Nan Moba offer him a large sum of money, a white sheep, eight white hens and a goat as a token of peace. Chagrined by the humiliation, I wondered why I had been excluded from the event (p.47).” He is forced to withdraw from the scene out of respect for tradition.
His pitfall-filled journey begins in the care of Ma Miller, a middle-aged white missionary who introduces him to Jesus. At the same time he has to pass up sharpening some traditional skills like farming, hunting, fishing and building a home to the disappointment of some members of his extended family. He meets Caesar Augustus, his civilized city friend and a descendent of a former American slave, who would become his link to Monrovia and “kwii” society. His swift advance at school is put down to witchcraft or a mermaid. He is forced to hide a talisman given to him by a Zoe to protect him from harm as it contradicts Christian teaching. Soon his talk of Jesus and his miracles become an irritant to his people. He has to seek work to support his parent’s effort to give him an education. And he is thrown to the great wolf called life between two opposing world. The “traditional” and modern worlds collide.
Dougba (Zuroung) “ couldn’t get a job on his own mission
during the vacation, even though he [was] hardworking and
good in school. He worked for one of his teachers through
the entire three month vacation but didn’t get a cent; he gave
a whole pack of cartridges to his uncle in Gbangei to hunt for
him, but Gonoh was too crazy and dishonest to be of any help (p.65).”
Dougba had learned at his father’s knee the great sacrifices that were necessary to become a “Kwii” and the great rewards it would bring and continues the pursuit of his education despite initial disappointment. Next, he puts his trust in Teacher Lorkula who is said to have “never consulted a Zoe or joined a secret Society except the Poro, which is compulsory for all males. For him, what you couldn’t get through hard work wasn’t worth pursuing…..Indeed he was one man you could trust (p.68).” And so Dougba takes on the job of manager of Teacher Lorkula’s liquor shop in Zulotaa. Teacher Lorkula who teaches at the mission school, justifies the selling of liquor on the ground that the “missionaries [gave them] the best education but very little pay…..What should we do? Starve to death? Why do we go to school if not to live a decent Life (p. 69).” In Zulotaa, Dougba is faced with temptation, is thrown into conflict with his Christian education, and is betrayed once again by the traditionalist. He finds himself in a society where his manhood is questioned after girls flirt with him daily and he is unresponsive. He is expected to impregnate a woman because he is old enough. There are rumours that he is impotent. In this environment, Dougba, “propped with love and kindness…often thought of quitting school, marrying, and settling in Zulotaa, but [his] pact with his father always chased such thoughts out of his mind. He also realizes that falling in love would make [him] vulnerable to unlimited demands for favors he couldn’t afford (p.73).” Yet, he succumbs to the trap and is “initiated into life.” He finds himself in great debt after crediting alcohol and money is stolen from him. The villager chief tells him that “by locking your door when leaving town….you are indirectly accusing us of being thieves. The spirit of the ancestors watch over this town. If you continue acting like that, they will stop supporting it, and no matter what we do, our lives and properties will never be secure. So, I advise you in the name of the Elders to do as we do here. Lock your door only when you go to sleep (p.75).” Dougba, believing that he would not be betrayed and tricked by his own people, is swindled. He learns quickly that “his own people are [his] own enemy (p.89).”
After a disappointing summer and back at school, Dougba and his parents are persuaded by Caesar Augustus’s mother Mrs. Dennis, to go and live with her and her family in the city where he would become “civilized.” She promised to take care of him and return him in good health. His father warns him “to be on his guard in Monrovia... and to use his head and make friends with the right people (p. 98).” His father had a negative experience with a “kwii” family. Dougba is also sent off with a warning about the “kwii” by his mother. He is told that “the secret societies in the “kwii” world is far more dangerous than [theirs] and… that members of these societies are always dressed in black and spirited away children and even full-grown adults to secluded places and killed and parts extracted from their bodies for juju (p. 102).”
Dougba is given the name Joseph Crusoe by the Dennis family. It is not long before he learns that the promises made by Mrs. Dennis were empty ones. He soon finds that he has to put up with verbal and physical abuse, is treated like a second class citizen and a servant, the conditions that he is living in is worse than that of home and that his chances of going to school is little or none. He is told by a fellow servant that “most native boys serve some civilized family for a year or two or until their masters are satisfied—then they send them to school. That’s the only sensible thing to do if you want education (p.107).” He also learns that they were no better than slaves because “once they spend money you, you’re bought (p.109).”
It is not long after Dougba’s arrival that he is forced to become a fugitive. He learns from one of the boys in the house that Mr. and Mrs. Dennis had been bargaining with a big shot over his price (p.112). Jacob who helps him to escape is shot and wounded. When they manage to escape to Jacobs’ village outside Monrovia, Jacob confesses to his father that Mr. Dennis had “sold this boy to one big shot who paid good money for him (p.115).” Dougba is advised to go home.
Back in the traditional setting, Dougba, now Joseph Dennis, seeks to renew the pursuit of his education and enrols at several mission schools as he climbs up the ladder of formal knowledge. He starts in Sanoyea with help of Ma Miller. He also has to seek work to support himself as he is now “a grown man” and is forced to carry loads to other towns to earn money. School suddenly becomes challenging. He fails a semester.
The following semester takes place at Belefani Mission headed by Teacher Paul Gayflor where Dougba lives on the verge of starvation, but doing better as a student, he is promoted to the seventh grade. This means advancing to Zoror Lutheran Mission in another county. He moves from Kpellaland to Llomaland. On his way to school he encounters another student John Flomo with whom he has a revealing conversation. Dougba (Joseph Dennis) ask John Flomo, “How many children have you?”
“Two—a boy and a girl. My girl is pregnant again: she lives
with my parents. I’m not doing this because I want. We start
school late, Joe. Now, I’m twenty-five. When I finish school,
I’ll be thirty-five or forty. I want to live to see my children
grow up and be on their own. The missionaries expect us to finish
school before raising a family (p.128).”
He moves on remembering the advice Mrs. Dennis gave him; that is, trust his future to the church to get the best education in the country at little cost (p. 132). Dougba’s father is relentless in seeing to it that his son fulfills his dream and introduces Dougba to Pastor Isaac Gbada, an indigenous missionary educated man, who took over the mission school after the death of Ma Miller. Pastor Isaac Bandi tells them that members of the church pay only a part of their children’s school fee in Lutheran Training Institute (LTI). He explains that how much they pay depends on the number of points that students earn during the year (p.134). Later the parents and Dougba are baptized. Pastor Isaac Gbada motivates him with the words “Hardworking people are always in great demand (p.135),” and sends him off to LTI.
Dougba, on his way to LTI after the summer vacation, visits Monrovia in search of Jacob, who saved him from being sacrificed by the Dennis’. He is told that he will find Jacob at Happy Corner, a house of prostitution in Waterside, a slum of Monrovia. His search leads him to a shack where Jacob lives with his girlfriend, Miatta. Dougba learns that they have a very volatile relationship and seeks to advise Jacob about changing his lifestyle. Jacob, however, replies “My man, education without experience is no education (p. 139).” His association with Jacob leads to his arrest and imprisonment. He is accused by the police of being a vagrant and a thief and manages to escape along with Jacob during a prison break. Escaping to Jacobs village, they are advised to stay away from Monrovia.
His educational pursuit briefly sidelined, Dougba decides to seek employment at Firestone Plantation in order to raise money to attend LTI.
Finally there, he supports himself, like most rural students, by cutting logs and conducting evangelism upcountry (p.148). His role as an evangelist pits him against traditional society and he sees further the danger of living and work in the bush among the indigenous people.
“Villagers never took kindly to the unassuming young man
who posed as ‘God’s messenger’ and idled in town all day
living on their sweat. To them, only a lazy person would
want to live by word alone….Many evangelist left behind
pregnant girlfriends at the end of their mission, broke up
marriages, and viciously attacked the well-favored traditional
practices of the tribes (p.149).”
On his deathbed, Dougba’s father gives him further encouragement. “Respect everyone but fear no man! Be strong, brave, and wise! Trust in God….and don’t come back, even for my funeral, until you graduate (p. 159).” Several months after his father’s death, Dougba wins a scholarship to attend school in the U.S.A.
Dougba returns to Haindi, his village, in the midst of great celebration, the place where Life and death [becomes] one celebration, the place where drawing a demarcation between the two was senseless (p.162). He renounces his English name, Joseph Dennis and announces that he is Dougba Senfenui Jr. He forfeits his scholarship when he decides to marry his faithful girlfriend and mother of his child born out of wedlock and serve the land as teacher and missionary. He declares to Pastor Gbador that:
“Father’s chief purpose in life was serving the land he loved.
He believed that it was only through education that we can
carry out this all-important task. Through his unflinching
support, I learned something about book, but the most important
knowledge, I ever gained came from him. Book taught me how
to think, but he taught me how to live. Now I am ready to serve…
(p. 163).”
When one believes that Dougba has sacrificed enough and finally will receive his reward, his life takes a tragic turn. A former schoolmate at LTI, called General who went to Monrovia ‘so that he may not be overlooked (p.155),’becomes jealous of his achievements. Dougba is now head of the mission in Zamei. General, who had experience failure in Monrovia, takes advantage of information Dougba had shared with him in confidence, and begins to spread rumors. These rumors are not challenged. General told the Lutheran Church Council that Dougba “worshiped ancestral spirits,… wore a charm for protection against witches…fathered a child out of wedlock—the worst crime a Christian can commit,….said he was a member of the Poro Society which the church considers evil and un-Christian and said that he had killed old man Dennis (p.166-67).” As a result, the mission which Dougba struggled to build is burned down and his wife is arrested and carried to Monrovia. It is rumoured that she has died of a broken heart. He “turns blind with insane rage (p.167)” and sinks into a mood of despair and feels that “his father was unrealistic in investing him with his unfulfilled dreams and aspirations (p.169). He sets out to Monrovia to seek revenge. His moment of revenge is taken away when he discovers that General is killed in the struggle to destroy him. His wife and child, who were thought to be dead are alive. He feels a moment of liberation when he throws the dagger with which he intended to kill General into the sea.
Dougba’s faith in himself renewed, he takes on a challenging project without the backing of the government and the church, tries to convince the villagers that the work could be done and that it wasn’t necessary “to believe that only foreign governments, churches, and humanitarian agencies should solve our problems (p.175).” Although he is among his own people, they are suspicious of him because he is not a member of the Poro Society and because he is educated. He belongs to neither the indigenous nor the “kwii” world. He is visited by the village chief, his former playmate, who tries to persuade him to join the Poro, but the chief realizes that Dougba has spent too many years with the missionaries who despise their way of life. The chief warns him that people will thwart or eliminate him because he aspires for things beyond their reach (p.177) and that they as not as grateful as he supposes. He further advises Dougba “to eat from no woman but your wife; keep secret any belief you value; talk less in conversation—do more listening; avoid fishing in the river or hunting in the forest, alone (p. 177).” He questions his trust in his people.
But Dougba has great faith in himself and feels that “too much concern about his personal safety [would] breed insecurity, and that life has to go on but make sure it is for a good cause. He feels that “as a son of the soil,” he is entitled to the tribes protection, so, nobody’s witchcraft, malice or conceit could do him harm. In addition, he feels he was under God’s divine protection and if he deals fairly with the people, he has nothing to fear, and finally, he believes that the future belonged to ‘book people’ and that his project is safe (p. 178).
Bolstered by his convictions, he goes to Monrovia to seek support from the government for his private school. In Monrovia corruption becomes an obstacle until he discovers that the Minister of Education is a member of the Dennis family with whom he briefly lived. His hopes, however, is dashed when he learns that the Ministry of Education is broke because the budget had been drained for personal use. He realizes that he has to depend completely on his own ingenuity. The outcome of his hard work is The Dougba Senfenui Academy, a school which ran up to the sixth grade, and has more students than it could handle (p. 182).
His march forward is again hindered by a jealous senator who feels that Dougba has become too powerful. The senator and his followers try to strike fear in Dougba, first through witchcraft, then through the country devil who scares the students and faculty away, steals the animals, and destroy the coffee farm. His people beg him to give up the struggle and leave because they are afraid for their own lives. And Dougba, too, “ponders whether it wasn’t better to abandon the school project, get a fat job, and raise [his] family as others were doing. But missionaries had taught [him] that the value of life doesn’t consist in living for yourself but in serving others (p.186).” In the midst of this chaos, a friend and distant relative who works in the Ministry of Education brings the news that his school will soon be granted a subsidy. He also learns that his school friend, Ceasar Dennis, has taken over the Ministry of Education after the death of his brother, George Dennis.
Dougba’s stubbornness, or sense of fairness, leads him to write a news article, which is published with the aid and encouragement of Forday. This article puts him in direct conflict with the government as the article causes a stir in Monrovia with some people accusing him of treason. And as the school is flourishing once again, he is arrested by the senator and sent to Camp Belle Yahlah, a maximum prison for hardened criminals. He shares a prison cell with his Pastor Gbada, who, also has been arrested for being outspoken. In prison they talk about the fear of change that is responsible for them being where they are and the theory that “Africans are backward because nature is too kind to them, and white people are progressive because nature is too mean to them (p. 198).” They also ask the question “Why are we African…against ourselves…What is holding us back (201).” They realize that they were being punished for wanting to help their people, and for speaking up for progress and perhaps the people might have resented them much less if they were “District Commissioners going about the land with soldiers collecting their children, money, and foodstuff for their own use (202).”
In the end, there is no reprieve. Dougba asks…why should they kill a man of God and a public servant for only speaking their mind (203)? He is told that “Prisoners are not killed here, my friend…There’s no capital punishment in Liberia. People guilty of capital offence either die of natural causes or go for water or firewood. (p.202)”
So Dougba, facing his sundown at dawn, relieves his anxiety with prayer until the moment he is sent to fetch firewood.
The book begins as a heavy read. The opening chapters are laden with sociological and cultural references, which serve to educate the reader about Liberian traditional/indigenous culture. On one hand, the author appears to be consciously preserving traditions and customs for future generations; on the other hand, if you are already familiar with the traditions or are an impatience reader, it could be off-putting. This part of the book is devoted to those who have no prior knowledge of Liberian customs.
After the initial chapters, the novel takes us along on Dougba’s odyssey. It is a cultural journey into the life and ways of the indigenous Liberian. It also reveals the role that the settlers (former slave returnees) and missionaries played in the education and the outlook of indigenous people in an evolving nation
The author, Wilton Sankawulo, presents a very bleak outlook for Liberia. It would appear that the efforts of the indigenous man, who wishes to educate and integrate himself into modern Liberian society, is thwarted at every move. His climb up the social ladder is hindered both by the traditionalists who becomes suspicious of him and the corrupt settlers who feel that he must remain in his place and not share the fruit of their success. It leaves one with the impression that there is a severe power struggle between rural and urban Liberians making everyone pick sides. In reality there is much overlap in practises.
Being a romantic of sorts, believe that Liberians should be offered a sense of hope, although the country has been riddled with conflict between the oppressed indigenous people and the settlers. The message the novel seems to carry is “don’t even bother trying.” On the other hand, the author might be hinting that the older generation had to make great sacrifices in order for the younger generation to take their rightful place in a modern Liberian society.
Perhaps this separation of the rural and urban Liberian is only an artificial one.
The novel takes us up to the mid-seventies—a time right before the indigenous people rebelled and took control of their country after one hundred years of settler rule. The aftermath is a period of upheaval, followed by what we might cautiously call today—a period of truce and healing. From this--and I wish to be optimistic-- a better Liberia might emerge.
The author may also be hinting that this false division (tradition/modern) is manipulated in order for people to take control, and that is what leads to rebellion. Are “Americo-Liberians” really more modern than other Liberians? This seems to be a psychological hold.
The book is a necessary read for anyone who wishes to get a deep insight into Liberian society and it past and gives one a better understanding of why Liberia stands where it is today.
Through Dougba, we journey into an indigenous world where the only hope for an education is to attend schools run by Christian missionaries. And although this road puts Dougba in conflict, both culturally and religious, with his people, he is determined to fulfill his father’s dream of him becoming a “Kwii”-a civilized man. Dougba’s journey up the social ladder tests his faith in himself, his fellowman and God. In the end, he becomes a sacrificial lamb as he paves the road for others who will follow him.
One comes away with the impression that the road to success for the indigenous man is froth with more moments of despair than moments of triumphs. And Dougba is the unrecognized hero.
Althea Romeo-Mark 15 September, 2008
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