By Sherman C. Seequeh (Liberian Journalist and Socio Rights’ Activist)
Liberia has a burgeoning free press that naturally permits a cross ventilation of ideas, even on a single subject, and tolerating it is a noble democratic trait. That’s why I always find it amusing and welcoming when someone reacts to my write-outs—and I often profusely write on various social and political issues.
Nevertheless, I would have had no need to be compelled to break away from such a friendly tolerance tradition had junior brother Sidiki Fofana soberly read and understood my September 9, 2025, re-post of a tribute I did some 18 years ago in honor of fallen G. Baccus Matthew.
In honor of this Liberian legendary progressive, and generally in honor of the Liberian progressive struggle, I since 2007 do have the tendency to re-post the Baccus tribute every other year or between a few years to coincide with the anniversary of his passing.
Last Tuesday, September 9, I excavated the tribute from the cave of my literary archive and placed it on my Facebook page. There were a few reactions in the comment section, but none draws my attention like the one from junior brother Sidiki, who not only ran a rejoinder on his Facebook page, but also syndicated his reaction to the mainstream media.
The central message of Sidiki’s ‘rejoinder’ is that I said or made the impression in the tribute that the progressive struggle began with Baccus and ended with him, and that I did not give credit to other known progressives who also contributed to the spurring democratic space prevailing in Liberia. In his view, this is ‘misleading’.
To junior brother Sidiki and those thinking like him, let me state two things: Firstly, my junior needed to have re-read my article on G. Bac more than once, or perhaps without a distrustful mind before reacting; for there is nowhere in my write-out that I said, by omission or commission, or inferred in any way, that the progressive struggle started and ended with legendary G. Baccus Matthews, or that it marked the ‘birth’ or ‘rebirth’ of the struggle.
Several lines in the Baccus tribute vindicate me: Baccus and his PAL INHERITED the struggle. Take due note of ‘INHERITED’. By saying that Baccus INHERITED the struggle, it means the struggle had existed before him. It means there were pioneers of the struggle from whom Baccus took over. So, how could junior brother have missed, misread or misunderstood such a clear, simple assertion?
Furthermore, I mentioned names like D. TWEH, A. Momolu Massaquoi, Didwho Welleh Tweh, Henry B. Fahnbulleh, Sr., Tuan Wleh, and others who rose up earlier against the oligarchy and paid their dues. I also mentioned the INTRA-TWP struggle that took place long before Baccus was born. I even traced the struggle of the EBONY-SKINNED settlers against their more dominant MULATTO compatriot. I then mentioned MOJA and its work with students, trade unions, etc.
I thought junior brother Sidiki would know that all these narratives–these litanies of clear, copious references would absolutely defeat any inference or argument that I told “the [Baccus] story as if it began and ended with him…”
I am sure if junior brother had noticed these unambiguous historical assertions, he would have no need for his ‘rejoinder’.
Secondly, I was doing a tribute for Bacuss, and for him only. And by tradition, I needed to stick to the subject which, in this case, was Baccus—the man for whom the bell had tolled.
Why I have no doubt that the struggle for Liberia’s democracy and freedom has multiple heroes and heroines, and I respect all of them, sorry, Mr. Sidiki and others thinking like him, I was not doing the history of Liberia’s progressive struggle. That in case, I would have detailed each person’s dues.
I am amply aware that the debate regarding our country’s progressive struggle–including who the most audacious, the most heroic of legends of the struggle are–is ongoing amongst Liberians and friends of Liberia. And there might be those who may have their versions, including their own heroes and heroines that may not necessarily be Baccus.
But for the moment, my write-out, my eulogy, was about Baccus; it was not a comparative analysis report on all the characters of the progressive struggle. This is why I exclusively wrote at length about Baccus and not the rest, most of them I also respect.
Meanwhile, I insist that “the valorous and militant style of progressivism which G. Baccus Matthews added to the Liberian progressive struggle was well-measured, collateral and proportional.
His tactics were extremely outstanding and profound, well-fitted as the panacea for a political establishment that was deeply rooted in its scheme of things, sophisticated and ill-intentioned for 133 years.” Such tactics of Baccus can be credited for quickening the fall of the TWP dynasty, and the birth of all that we all enjoy today—free speech, press freedom, civil liberty, multiparty democracy—the watering down of autocracy.
Bartee!!
