Fatimata Massaquoi Fahnbulleh. Pioneer Woman Educator, 1912-1978. (Raymond J. Smyke .) Known all of her life as Fatima, later “Madam”, she was among the most influential indigenous women in mid - twentieth century Liberia. On the faculty of the University of Liberia from 1947 until her retirement in 1972, she taught in almost every department. In 1956 she became Director, and four years later, Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts. She also founded and served as Director of the Institute of African Studies. A creative person, she authored a number of books, on Liberian culture, wrote a historical drama to celebrate the University’s centenary, helped to found the Society of Liberian Authors and made a significant contribution to the standardization of the V ai script. In addition to an honorary doctorate from her University, she received a number of foreign honors. , Five years after the change of government in Liberia, one begins to lose touch with the ‘way it was’. The period between the two World Wars was difficult for educated women. But, for an educated indigenous woman it was doubly so. Fatima had some advantages: family pride,, brain power, languages and tenacity, yet the frustrations took a toll. Her father, Momolu Massaquoi (1870 - 1938), served as Liberia’s first Consul General to Germany from 1922 until 1929, when he returned to Monrovia to contest the Presidency. Her mother was Madam Massa Balo Sonjo from Bandajuma in Barri Chiefdom, Sierra Leone. Madam Massa was the last of the five dowered women or traditional wives, with whom Momolu had children.1 We are informed of her childhood years because Fatima was a gifted communicator, with a powerful sense of recall. Before the age of forty she wrote an autobiography. A steady correspondent, with a large number of people she had the habit of saving all of her letters. Fatima made several important contributions to Liberian historiography. She left a detailed, personal record, covering a significant period of time, viewed through the eyes of an indigenous person. She also served as a mentor for several generations of young indigenous boys and girls striving for education, understanding, and equality in Liberia. Like her brother Nathaniel, who had a distinguished career in national and international public services, she was gifted in languages - Vai, Mende, English, German, French, Italian, plus many years of Latin and Greek at school. Her father had laid out a program of education from the moment she was born. Later, he even chose a university for her to attend in the United States. Fatima graduated B.A. in Sociology from Lane College in 1938; M.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Fisk University in 1940. She completed the requirements for a Ph.D. in Social Studies at Boston University but never submitted the dissertation. She had earned her own way by teaching French at Lane, while at Fisk, Momolu’s old friend W.E.B. DuBois looked after her. There, she taught folk dancing, assisted with organizing the African Studies Program, compiled a Vai dictionary with Prof. Mark Hanna Watkins and taught at a settlement house. Short of money, just before he died, Momola did what he could. He sent his daughter quantities of Liberian artifacts, including masks, cloth, ivory and the like. To support herself, she would lecture on Liberia at churches and schools in the South, and sell these things after the lectures. A half century before, this is exactly how Momolu earned his way through Central Tennessee College. His mother, Queen Sandimannie, arranged to send cases of what must have been extremely valuable Liberian artifacts which he sold on lecture tours throughout the South. Her life had several significant influences. As a child she lived at her birth place, Njagbacca, Gawula District, Grand Cape Mount County with Momolu’s sister, Mama Jassa, then the oldest member of the Massaquoi clan. Fatima spent seven years with her. It was a two-way arrangement. She was placed there, as was the custom, for early formation. As Mama Jassa aged and became forgetful, it was Fatima’s task to remind her where she left things - glasses, keys and the like, but also to whom she loaned household items. Fatima learned a great deal from the old woman, including a lifelong respect for traditional and herbal medicine. She recalled the sad farewell, when Momolu came to take her to school, knowing she would never see Mama Jassa again. She began in an elementary school organized by Cheeseman Grimes, then went to Julia C. Emery Hall at Bromley Mission, from there to schools in Germany where she ultimately earned the Arbiter.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 03:22:34 +0000
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