Sawyer’s 80 Birthday Celebrated Posthumously -ACS Foundation Hosts Myriad Events, Launches Lecture Series

MONROVIA – One of Liberia’s most celebrated intellectuals and political scientists was no doubt Professor Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, former interim president of Liberia, who would have been 80year June 15 this year if the cold hands of death had not visited him. Howbeit, his legacy is colorfully and spiritedly celebrated annually by fellow academics and other Liberian citizens who continue to admire his life works and vision. The Amos C. Sawyer Educational Foundation, to the build-up of the birthday, organized befitting celebratory events, amongst them the inaugural lecture series and an annual dinner and awards in his honor, as The Analyst reports.

On the eve of Dr. Amos C. Sawyer’s birthday, Saturday, June 14, the ball room of the Monrovia City hall was the center of attractions, setting the tone for what would be memorable for the dignitaries and eminent personalities who attended the dinner and awards evening. Musical renditions and moving orations from some of the best and brightest minds of Liberia kept attendees on the edges of their seats.

Honoring Personalities

The organizers of the former interim president’s 80^th birthday conferred upon two most deserving and distinguished personalities—Rev. Dr. Abba Karnga, and posthumously Prof. Agnes Nebo von Balmoos—prestigious awards in recognition of the enviable contributions to society.  

Dr. Abba Karnga was honored in recognition of a life dedicated to education, spiritual leadership, and the empowerment of communities across Liberia. He was the first recipient of the Amos C. Sawyer Prize for Education.

As the visionary founder of the World Wide Mission Churches in Liberia, Rev. Dr. Karnga has been a guiding light in both faith and education. His groundbreaking works in reforming the translation and interpretation of the Holy Bible into the Bassa language has provided unprecedented access to scripture for thousands, promoting biblical literacy, cultural identity, and spiritual growth among indigenous communities.

Rev. Dr. Karnga’s legacy is one of unwavering commitment to education, peace building, local empowerment, and the unification of language and faith. His contributions embody the values of democratic inclusion, civic leadership, and educational transformation for which the Amos C. Sawyer Educational Foundation stands.

There was also the posthumous recognition of Professor Agnes Nebo von Ballmoos (February 21, 1938 – March 29, 2000).

With solemn admiration, the Board of Directors of the Amos C. Sawyer Educational Foundation honored the late Professor Agnes Nebo von Ballmoos—a pioneering Liberian ethnomusicologist, conductor, composer, and educator.

For nearly three decades, Professor Von Ballmoos devoted herself to the preservation and celebration of Liberian folk traditions, meticulously collecting, transcribing, and arranging indigenous songs for choir and classroom.

Under her leadership, the University of Liberia’s chorus gained international acclaim, performing in many parts of the world specifically at the 1974 International Choral Festival at the Lincoln Center, New York. This marked Liberia as the sole African nation represented, and at several Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States of America, as well as at historic Pan-African occasions in Uganda, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) and the Central African Republic between 1976 and 1979.

Her scholarship did more than archive music; it elevated it—showing Liberians and Africans the dignity of their own cultural heritage.

Through her Krao Liberian traditional training and upbringing and her Fulbright-backed graduate studies at Indiana University, Prof. Ballmooos refined her expertise and brought learning back home to nurture future generations of musicians.

In addition, she became a legal practitioner after earning a degree from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law in 1989

Though the Liberian civil war of 1990 forced her into exile, Professor von Ballmoos remained a beacon of artistic vision and national pride until her passing in London in 2000.

Her legacy lives on in the generations she inspired, the folk melodies she preserved, and the Music Department she helped build and led at the Liberia College, now renamed, the Amos C. Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Liberia. To her credit, there exists an Alumni Choir that continues to perform her compositions today.

It was based on those reflections of fact and history that the Board of Directors of the Amos C. Sawyer Educational Foundation awarded Professor Agnes Nebo Von Ballmoos the Amos C. Sawyer Prize for Culture, partly in other for her memory to be a melody carried forward by all who believe in the power of culture, education, and song.

During this most enriching evening filled with fun, laughter and music, there were hypnotizing performances by Liberians Ace comedian Joseph Dean alias Cousin Mae and contemporary musical Liberian legend Sundaygar Dearbor who provided beautiful indigenous Bassa music along with some of his most famous songs, including Bayjay.

Remarks from Personalities

The President of the University of Liberia, Dr. Layli Marpayan, commended the ACSE Foundation for the great initiative and said she looks forward to working closely with the foundation as it seeks to promote the works of Prof Sawyer.  

She promised that the University’s new city on the Fendel Campus would certainly welcome a reading room, a library and future Museum for Dr. Sawyer in whose name the former Liberia College was renamed.

Earlier in the program, the chairman of the board of directors, Justice Kabineh M Ja’neh, recounted his personal encounter with Professor Sawyer in the social sciences classroom which had a profound impact on his appreciation of what Sawyer would call the “Liberian mosaic in contemporary socio-historical and political context”.

The former associate justice of the Supreme Court extolled the patron-saint of the Foundation and said he was pleased to be closely working with all across the political, religious and socio-economic strata of society to keep the vision of Amos sawyer active and vibrant in all walks of life.

Also making remarks was former Senator of River Gee County, Conmany B. Wesseh, who served closely with Dr. Sawyer, at a point being the former interim president’s special envoy and advisor on the peace process. It can be recalled that, later, both men worked at the Center for Democratic Empowerment, an established NGO.

Sen. Wesseh provided the historical context for the awards as a long held desire by Prof. Dr. Sawyer to acknowledge the brilliance of these contemporary patriots whose works and service to country are immeasurable and impactful.

Nimba County District #7 lawmaker, Businessman Musa H. Bility, along with Mrs. Felecia Akobade, officially launched the Foundation.

Hon. Bility said his life was directly and positively impacted by Dr. Sawyer and that he looked forward to providing however little an annual contribution to the foundation to ensure that the ideals of Dr. Sawyer lives on to “ensure that we as Liberians have a vision to mode and guide our lives”.

The Honoree, Rev. Dr. Abba Karnga, expressed joy and delight for the recognition most especially from someone who he has always had immense respect and admiration when he and Dr. Sawyer met at the University of Liberia many years ago.

He recounted the struggles and challenges to gain access to formal education and recounted his story of entering first grade at age 18 years.  That journey of persistency took him to obtaining his terminal research degree with a doctorate of philosophy he earned.

Rev. Dr Abba Karnga was accompanied to the program by two of his most well-known with name recognition and fame who are considered nationally prominent and famous children, President Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence and her Brother Garmodeh Karnga, several apostles from the World Wide Christian Missionary Society in Liberia as well as the lone surviving sibling of Abba Karnga.

In a related development, Sis Mary Lauren Browne presented the posthumous award for Prof. Agnes Nebo Von Balmoos and it was received by Cllr. Abla Gadegbeku Williams, niece of the iconic Liberian ethnomusicologist.  

In her remarks, she expressed the family’s gratitude for the honour, for the works of her aunt and once Matriarch of the Nebo family and her works which continue to be utilized given the significance even up to today.

Dignitaries at the Occasion

Dignitaries at the occasion included current and former government officials of government, business people, civil society leaders, the president of the University of Liberia and deans, as well student representatives of university faculty.

There were also corporate sponsors, Deputy Central Bank governor James B. Wilfred, accompanied by other bank officers, including Nathaniel Toe.

Longtime associate Prof Amb. Dew Tuan Wleh Mason, who delivered the inaugural lecture on Friday at the Fendell Campus of the University of Liberia was amongst those who marked the front tables along with Dr. Togba Nah Tipoteh and Dr. Khalifah Bility, a prominent business executive.  

Also present were former Foreign Ministers Banke King Akerele and family D-Maxwell Sarh Kemeyah and spouse, current Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for International relations, Dr. Ibrahim Nyei, Small Arms Chair commissioner James Fromoyan, former Monrovia City Mayor Ophelia Hoff Saytumah, legal luminaries, Cllr Pearl Brown Bull and Cllr Syrenius Cephas, family members of Dr. Sawyer.

The University of Liberia table was chaired by the President of the University, Dr. Layli Marpayan, and deans of other colleges. 

Students of the Amos Sawyer College of Social Sciences and the Humanities joined the celebrations in their numbers with the dean of the college, Prof. Dr. Josephus Gray and other faculty and staff.

Key Speakers of the Event

Earlier on June 13, the Lecture Theatre of the Amos C Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities came alive when Prof Amb. Dew Tuan Wleh Mason delivered the inaugural lecture of the Educational Foundation in whose honor and memory the college is named.

Prof Amb. Mason is a lifelong trusted academic and political colleague of Dr. Sawyer. He was given the herculean task to enlighten the well-attended forum of university students and faculties on the life, works and vision of Prof Dr. Amos C Sawyer.

In a compact and concise lecture punctuated with the battle cries and joyous chants characteristic of University of Liberia intellectual culture, Prof Amb. Mason recalled the sojourn of Amos sawyer from their boyhood days in Torbohyehn in Greenville, Sinoe County, and that during those early days, Amos Sawyer as a young leader exhibited scholarship and brilliance in the sixties when he was selected as a youth leader to visit the United States and had the occasion to meet president John F. Kennedy of USA.

His academic pursuit up to the terminal degree at Indiana North Western University and a brilliant academic thesis, Prof Mason recalled the several works of Dr. Sawyer, and requested the foundation and the college to ensure that active life must be breathed into those works to hold more discourses and dialogues to help prepare the minds to the generation of young minds.

Prof. Mason’s most brilliant expose through memory lane of family, society and academic works, encouraged students of the Amos C. Sawyer’s college, and all students in pursuit of tertiary education to emulate the works of a man whose life encapsulated the virtues of brilliance and honesty.

He recalled Dr. Sawyer’s contributions, serving as the interim president of the country, when the nation state had collapsed and his country men and women had faith in his ability to bring peace.

Dr. Mason traced the Sawyer for Mayor Campaign in the late seventies as yet an attempt not to be a mayor but to bring to the fore the problems of rights and freedom of those days.

The forum brought together some high profile personalities such as Amb John Ballout, Dr, Yarsuo Weh Dorliah, Cllr Tiawon Gongloe, close members of the Sawyer family, Cllr. Pearl Brown Bull and all the heads of department and ranking faculty members of the ACS College of Social Sciences and the Humanities.