The Liberia Philosophy Guide | A New Day With Priscilla Mah-Belloh

Added: 2026-05-12

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[00:01:03]>> This is Focus on Liberia and I am J >> and I am Thank you. Good. Good evening. I'm sorry. Good morning for my everyone.

[00:01:20]This is a new day on Liberia and I'm sure it's even in Liberia. So, good evening to Liberians out there following this broadcast. Um, today we have with us Dr. Kumin. Before I start the conversation, I just want to briefly share how I met Dr. Moren. I met him um at the University of Liberia when I was a student. It was 23 years ago. I remember because I was there with my son and that woring of class to be really g you know young scholars are so eager to learn from someone like him or very brilliant man.

[00:02:12]You hear from him yourself. So you go to class and there are no seats. So I'm heavily pregnant weeks into class and standing. So I know he wouldn't feel people but he used that to get to you know pay attention and be a little decent um or show compassion. So he announced one day he saw me in a class standing and he said the next time I come to this class and I see that pregnant lady standing and all these guys sitting all these sitting I feel all the men in this class and afterwards people started rolling to offer me the seat and then for the week I follow seats off as soon as I be like Dr. you know, people will start offering me seat and I never stood up. um a few weeks later again I mean and then a few I lost confidence um who and then since our society is misogynist misogynistic like most part of the world blame women for men decisions for anything wrong that happens to men think that The man did it on his own back. But if it's wrong, it is the woman's fault.

[00:03:48]Anyway, so I was going through all the accusations, people crazy stories. She killed a boy, you know, just a medical doctor was just graduating by his parents graduating from the medical school and she did this, she did that. I remember, you know, going to school and just being surrounded by bunch of people trying to hit on attack me and then someone came in the m and a guy and a lady pull me from there and the th building and I mean s uh I could just hear people coming around because I was coming on campus and someone to me and then from across I said story and then somebody said what happened to God say oh there lost her oh the medical doctor that want people started coming around and she the one did that she did that kind of wicked thing and so anyway it was just all over the place I didn't feel safe I'm dealing with repress grief because I was pregnant I'm being told you have to think about the baby months pregnant they got left think about a baby I'm going through that repress brief period I'm in shock you know something traumatic just happened this guy we had all these left and and then attack lack of accusations and when I look after some time some girls went to visit me and said Dr. Moren talked about you in our class. He was asking people to think like university students. He was like, "So you're saying this girl just wants to raise her child by herself.

[00:05:48]She's still with this guy because I learned they've been together for like eight years all through his time in medical school. She wait for them to start really well and close him so that she stop the research and I wasn't there but the things they said he just as question you know if you can't think then you should not be in this class something along that line and so they said after that they were able to really consider then I had people visiting me and thinking and I remember him from of that experience. That was a very um difficult time in my life. Um I remember now feeling a little safe to go on campus and then when I went because then I was missing classes and one of the lecturers who said go back and just take care of yourself. I just make sure we get some makeups done before semester is over. Um so because and then the next one I had regret. So dealing with post um pattern depression and then losing your loved one and then going through everything else that was happening. This man that I remember that you know a dark moment in my life a voice of reasoning. I remember almost at going back and he was to give me my my makeup and I was able to to pass that course that year that semester since that time I've never you know I few years I stay in like until I left I came to the US um I was able to reconnect with him but yeah or something his work just his And this is my first time seeing on camera since I experienced 23 years ago.

[00:07:56]My kid is 23 now. Um it's a human being that I admire. So I just in thank you that we have so good for me to know him on this level as a student and as someone who I have on my children.

[00:08:18]Thank you so much Dr. I know you don't remember these things like why does she go so but I wanted to share this say thank you for being a light thank you for your kind words and kind introduction.

[00:08:38]This is how we ought to govern ourselves as human beings.

[00:08:46]And perhaps you will be the one to eulogize me.

[00:08:50]You have already become today my professor because you're going to be putting those difficult questions to me which I used to put to you.

[00:09:01]So the second thing would be my eulogy and I expect from your mighty pen because I read your writings religiously uh that you will be able to pen something better when we make our transition but thank you so much. I didn't remember half of what you said, but students have the uncanny ability to remember good and ill. So, it's very very essential to treat student with fairness, with equity, with justice and with love because they will not forget.

[00:09:46]Trust me, even the littlest ones. Thank you so kindly. I feel so eulogized. I don't need to say anything else.

[00:09:55]But um before you today, I brought my pen and I brought my paper just in case you threw an exam or quiz like I used to throw to you guys when you unexpected.

[00:10:08]>> Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, I I always carry that with me. I remember that. Thank you for being a kind person.

[00:10:16]Um so yeah audience thank you for joining us. This is a new day where we invite um u change makers that are leading change in our world today. So Dr. Ketum Marin is a Liberian uh writer and a civic voice whose work engages questions of constitutional order, historical continuity and moral philosophy. And that's not all. Drawing upon both African intellectual traditions and western political thought, he examines the interplay between heritage and modern governance.

[00:10:53]As in quote America Liberian, unquote, his reflections often consider the shared historical currents linking Liberia and the United States within broader narrative of republican development.

[00:11:09]uh the general theme I've got I got from the readings I've been doing on his work is Liberia philosophy memory and a moral future of Africa. So you see this conversation framework draws on major philosophical themes that emerge throughout Dr. Marine forthcoming Liberia philosophy guide. So the goal here is not merely to interview him but to facilitate a profound civic cultural historical and philosophical dialogue for Liberia, Africa and the diaspora.

[00:11:49]Um so we are entering conversation that reaches beyond politics and beyond headlines into the moral imagination of us as people.

[00:12:00]Dr. Marine is helping to articulate what may become one of the most important philosophical projects emerging from Liberia in this generation. And I'm so glad that I can read it while he's here in the life with us. You know, he is doing some important philosophical project emerging from our generation. a recovery of African thought, memory, ethics, spirituality, justice, and identity through what he calls the forthcoming Liberia philosophic guide.

[00:12:38]Through provice, ancestral wisdom, history, anthropology, theology, and philosophical reflection, he invites us to rethink who we are, where we come from, and what kind of civilization we wish to build.

[00:12:57]Um there are so many themes and topics I really want to go through with him but just because his first visit with us coincides with mother's day I would like to focus on womanhood and motherhood that's something else that he wrote about that blew my mind so that our conversation today is going to be on that it's going to be a bridge of uh two of his essays that look at the sacredness of womanhood Africa's in quote Africa first century unquote which establishes the civilizational cultural and anthological sacredness of womanhood and motherhood together we will create a layout modern day conversation one grounded in African cultural philosophy the other in philosophical theology and symbolic interpretation One speaks to the womb, our civilization, first century. The other asks whether sanctuary, the other asks whether our spiritual and institutional language has fully honored that that reality together people stay with us for the extraordinary rich conversation. So Dr. Marie um in the sacredness of womanhood you argue that womanhood is civilization first century the womb as humanity's first homeland um you go on asking a deeper philosophical question if women were foundational biologically culturally and ser c serializational why have many society structure spiritual institutional authority overwhelmingly around masculine symbolism.

[00:14:55]>> Well, first of all, let me thank your CEO for making Liberia worth fighting for. Some people say they fought for Liberia and they created in us and them syndrome or division, but some people like you, you have made Liberia worth fighting for. And I think I must pay tribute to you and to your CEO and your supporters, your board for organizing this kind of program to speak to the Liberian imagination and psyche.

[00:15:37]>> Men are intimidated.

[00:15:39]If you look at uh your Bible, it tells you that uh man was created first and that woman or the woman came out of a rib of a man.

[00:15:56]When biologically and ontologically you know that women were the first through the mitochondria DNA all persons on earth are descended from our common ancestry. A woman a black woman who lived between 150 and 250 years ago.

[00:16:20]If you look at the human body, you will also see that there are certain knots on men in the chest because all human beings are born as female.

[00:16:36]It is in the first trimester that a transformation takes place where the Libya turns into the testicular advantage and the other part into the testes.

[00:16:55]So we are first born but based on the X Y or XX chromosomes you determine what or is determined biologically whether it would be a male or a female. That's from a bi purely biologic standpoint.

[00:17:17]Uh >> women women are the sanctuary because they are the ones who bear us in the womb for 9 years and nine months and many women have left in this stage of of creating us. They have not been able to pull through except modern medicine has made it different and made a difference.

[00:17:44]But many women passed off. So it is a sanctuary to be in your mother's womb.

[00:17:50]It's another sanctuary to be in the lapa. And that particular lapa or the loin cloth or brush cloth as it's called formally is blessed by the midwife.

[00:18:04]And a woman who throws her child on the ground has created taboo in the traditional sense.

[00:18:14]Even a little child, a young girl about 9, 10, 11, 12 who helps the mother with the child, she does not make that slip knot loose. If that she will have serious sanctions, they will carry her down to advise her and she will be sanctioned very severely. which I'm not at liberty to discuss here.

[00:18:38]So that's why we say that a woman's womb is the first century. Her arms are the second, her back the third and then the house and home she creates for the family to be in over the fire.

[00:18:55]Her eyes burning carrying wood on her head while the husband swinging his hands with a cutlet saying he's there to protect if any wild beasts come, which of course was true in the past. We could be sprung upon any time by uh the silver tooth tiger and taken away.

[00:19:15]But the woman driving the uh the birds from the farm, the woman helping to dub the house, put the mud around it. She has been a sanctuary.

[00:19:28]She's the first womb and her embrace while not the last is one which even the husband when he gets married or the lover realizes he's completely at home and at rest with his woman. But the fear that they have is the woman is wiser, the woman cares more, the woman has more power. The first organization if you study uh anthropology the first uh the legislature was by women who gets the meat who's the guy who was a stronger hunter who's the guy who has the strength to protect us that wi made that decision because the men were out there hunting and gathering >> and so we've learned so much from them but because men develop muscles and uh biceps as a result of doing the heavy lifting. They use that to seek to uh to conquer the wives and the mothers and the and the h and the daughters.

[00:20:36]Women are the first and last in every thinking. Listen, when you give a man money, when a month ends, the first thing he thinks about going to the bar to take a shot. The woman thinks about going home to take care of her children.

[00:20:51]Oh, he needs a pair of shoe. Oh uh shoes or we need more food or we need to buy palm oil. Just do your own analysis. You know students do that all the time. They analyze or go out and conduct service.

[00:21:08]A woman thinks first of a home. A home is sacred. The man thinks first of serving his passion.

[00:21:19]And because they developed larger muscles and were taught by the mothers out of fear that they seek to dominate.

[00:21:28]>> Okay, >> that is the reason. That's the reason.

[00:21:32]>> Okay, now I get where you come from in your essay when you say you wrote civilization begins not in parliament but in pregnancy.

[00:21:43]Uh I was going to ask you what do you mean by that philosophically?

[00:21:47]Um all right. So, but can societies truly honor women culturally while limiting them structurally?

[00:21:59]>> Well, yeah.

[00:22:02]>> I I believe that if we think seriously, my father for instance was a general. He went to Congo as a peacekeeper. He came back was adm to Tolbert. But my mother was the one who decided how the household was run.

[00:22:19]>> Yeah.

[00:22:19]>> It was not you. You come with all your guns. You come with all your soldier guiding you. You would she would tell her, "Oh, take out your shoes right at the door. Please don't drag your mother in here." And he did. Take that gun out from your side and take the shots out.

[00:22:37]No war is going on here. So uh men who think and who reflect on their mothers who show them love while the father showed only strength. Strength without love can't carry you very far.

[00:23:00]And our mother never was ruled by the father. They my father they had a discussion. They determined what was best for the family. M >> and and she always worked she contributed >> drying the fish doing a farm during dry season with edeto and cassava and other things I don't know where this thing comes from where men want to dominate their wives for what you are a partner it helped mate even in the deepest secrets of our own tradition You have the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court is where the last decisions are made in the mandate culture coming down to the qual culture.

[00:23:50]>> Yeah.

[00:23:51]>> You have four men, you have three women.

[00:23:53]The fourth man serves only as the chairperson. The discussion goes equally and he only breaks the ties depending on the interest. So when you have people doing the essays or the PhD thesis in Southern California coming saying we are suppressing our women. We do not suppress our women.

[00:24:16]Our women control the house and they tell us what to do.

[00:24:22]And some things which you ought not to hear. There are women who are strong enough to enter the fence where the men are.

[00:24:33]>> Okay. The sons are there. The husbands are there >> and they have say so in it and especially if this woman's father was a great man even in his death they say he's not here but this quarter of the need goes to the quarter of Mr. bellow and they will throw it they will throw it to a foolish guy and they say get the need to the woman why you taking the woman's need for making fun out of the guy who's been lazy or who doesn't respect and extolling the woman after a hunt or whatnot. So we have a great uh relationship. You have to understand the anthropology.

[00:25:14]Many people will tell you that they want the the women to have special education in Liberia.

[00:25:22]But a woman herself will tell you she wants some boys too to be educated because if the boys are not educated, those they will illreat the woman.

[00:25:30]>> Mhm.

[00:25:30]>> They will treat the wives.

[00:25:32]>> Yeah.

[00:25:32]>> So in our tradition, we aim for the family to be elevated, not the woman over the man. Because when I have this dichomy, look at Liberia before there was Sandra de Okconer who was the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. We had our own woman who has sat on the Supreme Court here >> under Tutman administration. Yes.

[00:26:00]>> Before they had a woman to represent the US at the UN, we had a woman u married Mr. end of later on.

[00:26:10]>> Yeah.

[00:26:11]>> To represent Liberia as a permanent representative to the UN and she became the president of the general assembly.

[00:26:22]>> So we have always affirmed our women.

[00:26:25]This is the first country where the woman in Africa where the woman a woman became president. There are other copycat now but we put our women first in every way.

[00:26:40]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:42]>> This broadcast was doing Olivia Shannon in the 60s >> banning co in the 60s. They were the first people on on air where all the other African countries had only men.

[00:26:56]>> Oh my world. Thank you for sharing that.

[00:27:02]>> That is profound.

[00:27:03]>> So this woman's day is special to me.

[00:27:06]God could not be everywhere every time.

[00:27:09]So he created women to fulfill that role. And so you have a priestly function. You have a secret function to fulfill.

[00:27:19]And there's no cuisine in the world that can beat a Liberian woman cooking. If you eat her food, you will remember that for the rest of your life. I'm not saying we cook the healthiest food. We leave that for the Japanese and the Chinese and other East Asian. But the most exquisite wine in the world is all playing on the internet comes from Liberia because the uh so-cal Liberian who returned met the various tribes 16 to 20 tribes on the ground and they brought that cuisine gathered from the 350 tribes and put it in one group called the African Americans, they brought the cooking here, the cuisine, the culinary skills and combined it with the organic cooking of the crew, the pamb, the lman, the topogi, the vice, the bas jama. And when we cook and put it together, if you taste it, you will say heaven must wait.

[00:28:34]>> This is Mother's Day. Nobody beats us in cooking. Nowhere in the world. It's playing on the internet now. Just just just just just try to uh look for it.

[00:28:48]>> Okay.

[00:28:50]Wow. Wow. Wow.

[00:28:53]That's why you're laughing. You know I'm telling you the truth. You know what you can do when your friends come over and taste your food. What is this?

[00:29:00]>> I know.

[00:29:00]>> How did you do it? Give me the recipe.

[00:29:04]They are not pretending.

[00:29:07]They are not pretending. There's something you put inside it.

[00:29:13]I'm not saying it's yano. I'm not saying that medicine, but I'm saying the way you combine the ingredients fresh from the pepper bush. I kid you put inside when you taste it.

[00:29:28]It's so delicious.

[00:29:30]So Liberia now is a small country and we are punching way below our weight. We need to put ourselves create a restaurant.

[00:29:41]Like you go to Nigeria or or China, you see Nigerian restaurant, you see uh Ethiopian restaurant. Why aren't we able to put ourselves together? Go Washington DC. Go California. Anywhere you go, probably where you are in uh where where you are in Arizona.

[00:30:01]>> Yes, >> they have some African restaurants there probably, but not a Liberian one. And I bet you we can find money to have these big parties and travel around America.

[00:30:14]Let's do something productive.

[00:30:16]Pull your resources and create a Liberian restaurant. And when they taste your fried fish and dry rice with okra and that buru that you put on the side which is sesame seed we call uh they got different name in Nigeria but they beat it together and you taste it you say Lord have mercy or chirikami like to say in Nigeria.

[00:30:46]>> Yeah.

[00:30:47]Yeah. Wow. Wow. you know, you said some you said so many things. Um, we could stay here forever if I, you know, pick up on on each of them. But I totally agree with you with the question about recipe. I'm like, I don't know. My mother, my my elders didn't use u cookbook. I just washed them. So, you have to watch me. I don't know how to break down you. Yeah. uh uh days of salt or two pinch of salt. No, I put it there as I cook until my ancestor I jokingly told some of my co-workers. I'll keep putting seasoning until my ancestors yelled beyond the grave something of that along that line.

[00:31:39]But yeah, um, so can African traditions, because that's one of the things you wrote about and you mentioned that in passing. Can African traditions help restore balance between male authority and female? Because I agree with you that this is not a competition. We we did not operate like that. um from what I've read so far Asian Africa and especially most PS cultures and I've also interview African scholars on a new day.

[00:32:14]How can we restore that balance of male authority and female dignity? Or how can they coexist symbiotically the way our people did in the past?

[00:32:29]>> Because it seems like modern society have lost uh reverence especially uh for womanhood and especially for motherhood.

[00:32:41]There is something called boerism and it seems to have claimed the anonymity in our society.

[00:32:52]What you see prophet key doing and getting more support getting more people to tune in into him or koba. They wouldn't do it that in the traditional society. they will be taken down by the men and advised accordingly.

[00:33:14]Now, the Liberian philosophy guide revolves around one central conviction, and it is that Liberians or Liberia must learn to think deeply about itself morally, spiritually, culturally as as well as historically.

[00:33:41]if it is ever to truly heal, mature and endure.

[00:33:49]So to return to what we were, to have this symbiotic union or to have this equal footing standing at the table, you have to reintroduce some of this traditional education.

[00:34:08]>> Okay.

[00:34:10]But instead of bringing us together, you have a polarization.

[00:34:14]A Doris Bank Henry spoke only of the greatness of the American Liberian component.

[00:34:23]>> That was wrong. That was sad. That was unfortunate.

[00:34:29]And you can understand her limitation because she came from the United States was married by Richard Abram Henrix who you know graduated from the university. He graduated from CWA as valictorian graduated from the university as as sumank la and became associate professor of mathematics.

[00:34:56]So she wanted to be part of that American Liberian elite establishment >> and so she wrote what titulated the minds.

[00:35:08]Now after the coup you had uh Dr. Guanu Joseph Se Guanu and he swung the pendulum straight on the other side.

[00:35:20]Everything done by the African-Americans were bad.

[00:35:24]There was nothing good except a dead Africanamean or American Liberian. You can't do that. If I have been here for 200 years from 1821 according to Dr. Charles Henry Hubber, which makes me an indigenous according to Dr. uh Carl Dri Boros, if I'm an indigenous then I got something to say too.

[00:35:52]Mhm.

[00:35:52]>> But how do we bring the two together?

[00:35:57]By reading what done writes now, what uh Bor's writes and what people like you are doing. You can't have this polarization forever.

[00:36:08]>> The polarization is a performance. It's not reconciliation.

[00:36:14]Re reconciliation has to be truth speaking.

[00:36:17]>> It's honesty. It's looking in the mirror. is sitting at the table at evening time with their children and speaking the truth and being able to keep your eyes up. But we're not able to do that.

[00:36:29]>> We hate each other so much that we prefer selling land to a foreigner than selling a land to fellow fellow Liberians. All of Broad Street go to Sinko Tan Boulevard. All those buildings are owned by Lebanese and Fines and now Indians, not by Liberians.

[00:36:53]>> Not because we don't have the deed, but because we prefer to rent it to them for 100 years and rent it to a Liberian who is equally able to do it.

[00:37:04]Liberians have been cooking quer oats, cornmeal and those other foods since 1821 when these people came back with the grapes and other things. But we go to the tea shop where the fan is to support him rather than support a Liberian business.

[00:37:24]>> So how do we how do we reconcile? we will go and and and buy from a fooler who sells more expensive because I don't want a buffer man to be frisky. I don't want a school man to think he he's better or or something with that mindset.

[00:37:42]The foreigners own more in Liberia than Liberians.

[00:37:47]There's no middle class. When I was in the House of Representatives, the small business people in Germany through the intervention of President Johnson brought $8 million to provide to small Liberian shops and businesses nothing. They had to take this money and carry it to Ghana because all the shops are owned by Fennis and it's still so we have no middle class.

[00:38:18]Those people who are in the legislature think of themselves first.

[00:38:24]When I was there, I promoted the idea that we are here to serve and not to be served and say if you keep on we'll pass a general resolution on you and put you out so you can go to your NGO work in the university.

[00:38:41]So how do you change the mindset?

[00:38:46]In the past they took the best graduated sum kum la he became president.

[00:38:52]uh this gentleman became speaker. But we choose the worst to put him in the house or to put him in power.

[00:39:05]Those whose hands are bleeding with the blood of people they have killed. These are the people who are making mark. How can you have somebody who is taking an oath of office and sworn to protect and defend the constitution of Liberia say on spoon radio or TV two or three days ago that the land that the Guinians came to occupy is theirs.

[00:39:32]How can it be theirs when Liberals was founded before Guinea? when the 188485 Berlin conference saw France come in and take villain from us and all the forest region that they have and in 1959 when Guinea failed to become part of the franophhone the French government according to the foreign minister of of Guinea as written by Dr. I mean by councelor uh councelor the guy with a broom.

[00:40:07]He said that the Guinea foreign minister said the French people offered Liberia arms to cut off Guinea armed forces to take part of the land and give it back to us. And Tutman said no. Our brothers are on both sides of the border and let let it remain this way. who will re regard the colonial boundaries as natural. How can Yaka Kulva followed by Edund stole go out and proclaim that this land that the Guinians are occupying are theirs anyway and he's representing Liberia at the Ecuad Parliament.

[00:40:52]These are the issues that that have have brought rupture to our mind to our psyche. It's the the hatred we have if somebody is in power. We have so much venom, so much venom that we prepare to sell Liberia off and destroy it.

[00:41:13]So to bring our families together, we have to heal.

[00:41:18]We had a civil war. The civil war was based on ethnicity and then those of us who come from the sino belt because of e murray we had people from the sapper belt go and kill most of the crew people for nothing and George bully during the civil war I was not here they told me so the place where my father used to send rice to Sanado to morville all the people came to nutran most of them died why were we fighting each and killing each other based on ethnicity. When all of the tribes in Liberia all are from the Nigeria Congo group, that branch and really there are only four families in Liberia.

[00:42:06]We have the qua, we have the men, we have the west atlantic which is the golad, the mill and we have the uh the the south Atlantic which is the kiss which is also part of that group.

[00:42:26]So if we only knew that we of the same family will not be fighting.

[00:42:33]But ignorance is bliss. Where disquality to be wise where ignorance is bliss where ignorant ignorance is celebrated.

[00:42:42]It is a foolish thing to be wise according to William Shakespeare.

[00:42:48]>> How you as a question how I'm still with it. How can we develop the synergy between the male and the female unnecessary dichotomy created by living in the city and I told you it's because of the anonymity. Nobody knows anybody the place where you will not defecate. They defecate to throw the def feces over the wall in plastic bags in your yard. They say because you have fence. What kind of mentality is that when you can dig a hole and put it in it?

[00:43:26]So we we have to change it the way we think. We have to reflect seriously. We have to love one another. We have to understand that we are all one. We have to love our God. The spiritual bondage we put ourselves in that God's name in Mandingo God's name in that God's name in Pelleo God's name in in in Basa or in Hey, okay. Uh, Abby, God's name in ordinarily called Gil.

[00:44:16]Woah. God's name in mi that we call ma or manu.

[00:44:24]Why did we kick God outside? God has served us for thousands of years.

[00:44:29]When a crew migrated from from Sudan and Cameroon, they were worshiping. All of a sudden, they stop it to put away because they want to be civilized.

[00:44:45]How can you be civilized by repudiating your identity and you cannot be another person no matter how you try? you will just be a cheap imitation because who you are is your core.

[00:45:00]So we have to start appreciating one another. I'm happy you got your name Bellow Ma there's a group in Nigeria called Bellow and you know that >> they got the last name Bellow.

[00:45:13]>> Oh yes in Nigeria the same group of the Qua group some are in Nigeria.

[00:45:19]>> Okay.

[00:45:22]All right. So we have to discover ourselves and our connections and then we will respect our mothers. Not because we in Monrovia we don't have respect for women.

[00:45:36]You know what happening three days ago at the market redle market. Have you heard it?

[00:45:43]>> I was doing that. Yeah.

[00:45:46]>> A woman went there because she was wearing something short or skimpy.

[00:45:51]That's not your business.

[00:45:53]They took the woman's clothes off her.

[00:45:58]Would you take your mother's clothes off her, your sister, your grandmother, your wife, your daughter? Why do I do another? The best you can do is to advise her.

[00:46:14]So this is some of the things that have occurred as a consequence of living in a place where there is nobody nobody you in a city but you are so lonely many people around you but you lonely anonymity of the city.

[00:46:34]>> Okay. Yeah. I was going to actually come to that situation. I'm glad that you went there because my question is um and so the conversation is still going on and there are other people um pushing the aspect of legality which is also good because the law supposed to be there to protect all of us against mob justice against uh sexual harassment and attack. Um so but my question is can law protect dignity if culture no longer values reverence? Because um from everything you just share and you you mentioned a few people who have all these followers despite the fact that they openly disrespect women. Um so I don't know whether I should attribute that to modern society normalizing disrespect towards women.

[00:47:34]So with all of that, how can if I mean can law protect dignity? Because it looks like now the culture is to normalize this respect towards women.

[00:47:47]What what what do you mean by law can restrain behavior but cannot manufacture reference? Because you have written about this today. I mean before. How can we address uh a culture that disrespect women so much that women are not safe in Liberia?

[00:48:07]The women there had a women movement called we are unprotected because women don't feel safe.

[00:48:14]What can we do as a culture?

[00:48:19]Number one, the women have to demand respect.

[00:48:26]If you go to some of these places, these night clubs, I pass there at night sometime driving and you see what they wearing.

[00:48:37]They have destroyed it.

[00:48:43]They wear the thinnest, the shortest and they are very brazen.

[00:48:51]And when we were growing up, you couldn't just go to somebody's daughter and say, "I want you." You either wrote a letter, you give this letter to your sister.

[00:49:05]Your sister will snuck sneak it into her. You will read it.

[00:49:11]You will either tear it.

[00:49:14]If you a boy who are loose, she might show to her mother. A mother will approach your mother her husband and tell her husband and you be in trouble.

[00:49:27]But if you tell these young girls, come here, they're supposed to walk away, they will go to these guys. They're smoking.

[00:49:39]>> Okay.

[00:49:40]>> You think they living in the ghetto?

[00:49:43]These people grow up, they have contributed to it. So the parents must take control of the children.

[00:49:56]>> Okay.

[00:49:58]So I >> think there's a way to answer but it's it's going to be hard if we don't have the church, the school, the mosque, the club houses all putting forces together, >> okay, >> to try to save the family.

[00:50:18]The family was severely ruptured as a consequence of the civil war.

[00:50:25]Okay.

[00:50:26]>> We have not done anything substantial to strengthen the family.

[00:50:34]>> All right. All right. God.

[00:50:35]>> And without the strength of the family, you cannot protect your children.

[00:50:45]First, you could go to work and leave your child with the housemmaid and come back. When you come back, your husband has put on some of these delicious videos and they're all watching it.

[00:51:06]>> So I stopped now the DSTV had because as soon as my grandchildren or anybody come to the house, they wanted TV. Nobody wants to talk. How's your lesson? What did he do? Oh, I'm doing well. A couple book nothing. Let me see it.

[00:51:25]I look like the boring person. But that's the only way.

[00:51:31]>> You can't say that people are still killing so you will stop preaching against murder.

[00:51:38]>> You can't say people are still stealing.

[00:51:40]So there's no point to say thou shall not steal anymore.

[00:51:45]You have to set a standard, an ideal.

[00:51:50]We must still say yes.

[00:51:53]We we we commend these people who are partners or husband, wives on >> the very first foundation of a society is the family.

[00:52:13]is not the individual. That is why the African say I am because you are and because you are I am John FBI quoting from the >> and that's why and is that why you argue in one of your writings that womanh who is sac independent of individual behavior because I get that um you know please repeat that very clear it didn't come across clearly Oh, I'm saying no. I'm saying I understand from your response I say, "Oh, is that why you argue that womanhood is cyc independent of individual behavior?"

[00:53:01]>> Yes. Womanhood in in and of itself is secret. That's a secret purview. Even if she's a street woman, you don't know what caused her to go on the street. You don't know what caused her to become an alcoholic, maybe an abusive husband, a violated father. You don't know. But womanhood, you can't say that in a tradition, there's no free woman. You can't say, "Oh, I asked the woman, the woman agrees." No. She either has a father to protect her. If the father is dead or absent, there's a uncle, the father's brother. If he's not there, she has a brother, a big brother or a cousin who is a big brother and she will be protected. You can say, "Oh, that woman I saw on the street or I asked her, she agreed." She agreed for what?

[00:53:51]So womanhood, yes, is secret.

[00:53:55]And even if she happens to be a woman on the street or a woman who is in a ghetto, she must be regarded as a sacred vessel ordained by God, sanctioned by the elders and proclaimed by those of us who are the custodians of the ancient writings and ancient traditions of the elders.

[00:54:21]>> Okay. So let's come to um uh this other aspect talk we still just and you you're raising really great issues. I'm going to appeal to you to have to come back.

[00:54:34]Yeah. Um and just afford us the opportunity to listen to more wisdom from you. You raised so many important issues um politically. Uh I can't go into all of them but I'm taking notes and they deserve um deep analysis. They deserve research.

[00:54:56]They deserve processing sitting with them and unpacking them properly. So, I'm going to ask you that we have that conversation uh that you honor our in invite in the future to have that conversation in our next uh we have another guest already for next week or maybe the week after if that's okay with you so that we can go into that. But in a spirit of Mother's Day because I wanted to touch on a few things that I still need you that you have written about that I have read and share that I need you to just touch on for the audience. Um for instance, what lessons do matrinian uh so I'm going back to mother's day conversation. What lessons do matrinian systems still offer modern societies? Or do you think that there are lessons that matrinian systems still offer modern societies?

[00:56:04]when the Ghanaians or the Ashantes were defeated by the British at the turn of the 19th century and all the men agreed to give the golden stool the most secret stool which was invoked by uh Mr. naughty the high priest and it fell from the sky.

[00:56:34]There was a woman who stood up Yah Asanto and she said if you will not fight we will fight the British.

[00:56:44]Women have courage.

[00:56:47]Women have endurance.

[00:56:50]During the Civil War, when men kept on fighting one another, there was some women who bear their bodies as sacred objects before the throne of Liberia and said there would be no more war before the fish market.

[00:57:08]And men obeyed.

[00:57:10]Well, you said they still have they are the last hope of Liberia or the world.

[00:57:20]>> Imagine what the world would be like if there were no women.

[00:57:26]>> Okay, >> will be slaughtering one another.

[00:57:29]They are the direct envoys from God.

[00:57:36]>> Okay. And if it were not for my mother, I'd be a year of wood and dyer of water because my father pursued those girls that were foot loose and fencree to use my mother's expression and had nothing to offer him.

[00:57:54]My mother struggled for us and brought us where we are. So yes, women I always give example of myself.

[00:58:05]I'm not speaking from an extraction.

[00:58:08]I'm speaking from a existential point of view.

[00:58:16]Women are the last refuge of this world.

[00:58:23]If you go to the Asanti hine, the queen mother is the one who's who picks the successor. Although the successor is male but it's not picked by the the council of the of the elders is picked by the queen mother he's picked by the queen mother and their santi have never filled it so they still have roles to play in the very Islamic infested synagogue the labor who are the wall of they follow the matrinear I they say we know our sister son is our blood.

[00:59:07]We don't know that our wife's son is our blood. She could have gone somewhere else in stuper in being controlled in being charmed. But my sister whoever it is that's my blood. So inheritance is done through the matrinal line. The question I think is a m one. Yes, women are important and those people recognize that and we must recognize that in Liberia starting with the women as I told you who put their lives on the line who stripped themselves.

[00:59:46]>> Okay.

[00:59:47]>> Yes.

[00:59:49]>> Thank you. So uh your mother sounds like your mother made a great impression and impact on forming you. Your father meanwhile was uh um in a in a habit of or practice why some of us fathers practice uh misleading women um distracting girls and leading them the wrong path. So he should be put on his spot here and highlighted his behavior.

[01:00:24]Um having said that I wanted to to ask you now so what can um do you see that women are being globally disrespected?

[01:00:36]For me I see it with the movement of of uh you know calling for gender equality.

[01:00:45]Recently uh CNN um put out a documentary where men men how many millions of men dragging their wives because they see society that saying uh if a woman is not married having sex they judge that as immoral. Now, right within marital homes, husbands drag their wives, drug their wives while they are asleep. They filmed them and put it on a on on the internet.

[01:01:22]Recently, uh CNN broke that by a reporter, you know, pretending to be one of them. What do you think Africa can teach the world globally when it comes to respect for women?

[01:01:42]Do you think Africa has a lesson to teach? I mean, considering our history of, you know, respect for motherhood and women, even though, yeah, there are some challenges today with modernity creeping in. I think I I like to attribute it to some of these male dominated male center religion like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, all of them with the male god and you know subjugating women and you know with the hierarchical religion of men being superior and also to we can attribute it to a lot to to capitalism especially especially with America influence around the world and we know how America is misogynistic and sexist. Um so I see that it has influenced African societies over the last few decades especially as I read more and more African scholarship but we still have that culture uh or history of respect for women and motherhood. What can Africa then teach globally when it comes to the respect for women?

[01:03:06]>> Well, let's look at a example from the biblical standpoint.

[01:03:13]Jacob slept with four women, Rachel, Leah, and the two maid servants.

[01:03:27]And yet he was not accused of anything.

[01:03:29]But if any of those women had gone and slept with a man, they would have been stoned to death. You know why?

[01:03:38]>> Because if you look at the verse, you will see it names.

[01:03:42]Thou shall not comfort thy neighbor's house, nor his ox, nor his donkey, I don't want to use a threeletter word, nor his wife.

[01:03:53]They'll name the woman with the possessions.

[01:03:57]>> Yeah.

[01:04:01]>> Women have climbed a long way.

[01:04:05]If you look at the laws in most states in the United States, some preference have been given.

[01:04:15]But still if you look at uh ID investigative discovery you will see they're still killing women.

[01:04:25]>> Mhm.

[01:04:27]>> America is very >> Yes.

[01:04:33]That's why they haven't elected. They chose I don't want to get into your politics, but they chose a man over a qualified woman because he was a man and other dynamics.

[01:04:50]So, Africa has a lot to teach the world.

[01:04:55]Look at the most developed countries and the happiest countries in the world are the Scandinavian countries.

[01:05:01]>> Finland, Iceland.

[01:05:03]Man, those people are doing amazing.

[01:05:08]>> Uh um Putin, >> Denmark, >> look, >> Iceland, >> they they have almost 50.

[01:05:20]In some instances, you have 50/50.

[01:05:23]And those countries are thriving. If you look at a sovereign wealth, >> trillions of dollars because you have women who bring a unique perspective.

[01:05:36]>> Yeah.

[01:05:37]>> So we can teach them a lot and we can teach ourselves a lot because this is not a question of teaching women but what can women teach us?

[01:05:54]And what can women teach the world?

[01:05:59]>> We don't need to say, "Oh, they can't fight. They can't carry heavy load." Are we supposed to be fighting in a world with all the diseases here with the food shortage of food?

[01:06:10]>> We supposed to be plumbing the depth of the ocean. We're supposed to be asking question. Is life worth living?

[01:06:19]What is the meaning? What is the essence of life?

[01:06:22]What is brotherhood? You know that the the Hebrews brought the concept of brotherhood among men, among human beings. The Greeks brought the idea of citizen.

[01:06:35]You are citizen of our land cific. It was taught by the Greeks. The Romans brought law. All of the British common law are descended from the Romans law.

[01:06:46]even the common law in America in the magisterial courts and subsequently Liberia and the west of the countries in Africa that was that were influenced by uh colonial powers.

[01:07:01]But what has Africa brought? Africa has brought something unique and it's from a woman's perspective who brought love.

[01:07:11]If you follow the African cosmology, it speaks of forgiveness. It does not speak of a hell.

[01:07:20]When you die, where do you go? If you're good, you go to the land of the ancestors.

[01:07:28]And if you are bad, you stay for rituals to be formed performed in your behalf or you pass and go into isolation. And no African loves being in isolation. In fact, he doesn't eat his food well unless he eats in community.

[01:07:48]>> Really, >> when you have somebody eating with you, you feel better. The food uh tastes uh sweeter. They use a Liberian expression, more delicious.

[01:07:59]And your body responds better.

[01:08:03]So in our concept it says we must be together >> and woman knows or woman know better rather how to keep the family together.

[01:08:17]A man does not know how >> a woman can raise a man and a man can turn out to be a real man as brave and as strong as a marine. A man raises a girl, he doesn't know what to say, what to do, what to tell her.

[01:08:36]>> Because your first teacher is a m is your mother.

[01:08:40]Your first person who will show you how to respond to the world is your mother.

[01:08:49]>> How you treat your mother is how you will treat your wife.

[01:08:54]>> Thank you.

[01:08:55]>> The protection you gave your wife is what you will give your daughter.

[01:09:00]And that's the honor that she will give you.

[01:09:05]>> Thank you. Thank you.

[01:09:09]Okay. Um Dr. Morin, do you have any else to share? Uh I want you to commit yourself openly. Yes. So the so the audience can hold you to it because a few times I mentioned we would like to have you back. We would like like to have but we really would like to have you back if it's okay by you.

[01:09:32]>> I would be very happy to come back because the first quiz you give me has not been a small quiz >> and I don't know whether I made a failing mark or passing mark so I had to come back to do makeup.

[01:09:46]>> Oh that's good to know. I'm so glad that you're open to you know coming back. Um so >> I'm glad I'm glad. Thank you. Is there anything you want to leave with us as we, you know, wrap this up? Um, before you go, uh, you said that a men I like in your, uh, I think it was Mother's Day message, um, post, you said, and I share this. You say, "A men command, a woman can born, a woman command, a man cannot." Okay. You say, >> what guy told me then? He says pro.

[01:10:25]>> Yeah. People >> said woman can born man, woman can born woman, but man can born woman, man.

[01:10:34]>> So I had to take it exactly from them and try to keep the tune >> and say it. You want to you want to argue that point? You you think they're wrong?

[01:10:43]>> No, no, no. I just like that. I wanted to mention that because you just said something about that when you said uh u you know your last response just reminded me of that statement. Um but I wanted you to just yeah if there is anything that I didn't touch or or that you want to leave with us as we wrap up.

[01:11:06]I just want to reiterate that the Liberian philosophy guide revolves around one central conviction, one central pivot.

[01:11:17]>> Okay?

[01:11:17]>> And it is this that Liberia must learn to think deeply about itself.

[01:11:25]You must learn to do that morally, historically, >> spiritually, and culturally.

[01:11:33]If it is ever to truly uh uh heal because we are wounded people, if we are to mature and we if we are to endure without doing that will be going around. We'll be loving others. Look, a guy called me with tears in his eyes.

[01:11:53]She said, "I offer to pay this man $30,000 for his house and the place that he said he's selling."

[01:12:03]He decided to sell it to a full man for $20,000.

[01:12:08]Go talk to the man. I said, "I can't talk to this man. The man has already showing shown his irrationality.

[01:12:14]Why do we hate one another so much?

[01:12:20]H >> why?

[01:12:24]>> That's some that that's that's a question worth exploring in our next um session with you. Why? What is it? We need to sit with that and think about it. And Dr. Murray, not to repeat the the the show, but but yeah, sometimes I think other Liberians that will join us in subsequent um talk with Dr. you can come in and and and say this is not true and give us reason why it isn't. But I I I think about that and sometimes like how why are we nice to other people? Which is okay. You hear around the world, you year over year, you hear in other parts of the world or you in conversation with people on other continent and they say, "Oh, you're Liberian. Oh, those people are so hospitable." And then they will tell you a story about a Liberian family they encounter or a Liberian. And I see that as well that we are so I saw that growing up how my parents took care of some Ghanaian family that were being targeted and kept them in our house in the ceiling tide in the ceiling and hiding them and you know as a little girl would send me to take them food and take their their waste out and bring stuff. I mean it's a long to do about you know people that are not Liberians that I saw my parents take care of. uh and I as a child I was expected to serve and be a part of that which is a great thing. I grew up doing that as well until I left Liberia.

[01:14:00]Nigerians, friends and Ghanaians that I cater to. So um sometimes I wonder why do we like other people? Uh we can be nicer and again I may be wrong. This assessment may be wrong. U but that's I think that similar thing Dr. Mar is saying. uh you can like people without liking them more than yourself. So I don't understand why are we kind to other people more than we are to each other.

[01:14:33]when you read some of the things we are so mean to each other I mean celebrating each other I highly see it as compared to not that we don't but not at the scale that we do with other people celebrating other people you know we see I see that so again I don't know maybe that's that's that's something that we need to explore in our other conversation the our next conversation or one of our our conversations with you because uh uh If you're willing, I really would like to do multiple based on all your writings.

[01:15:08]So that's something that we can talk about.

[01:15:12]>> Yeah. It's because we are injured. We are an injured people. We're injured by the people who were brought over and thrown here. They gave us the Jeffersonian model of Republican democracy. And these people had been taken from the farm. They were farm hands.

[01:15:31]They were not even professionals.

[01:15:34]They brought him here. And the agent of the American Colonization Society was a dictator. He controlled the executive legislative and judicial from the uh colonial council. And then they turned it over to them in 1847. I expect Okay.

[01:16:11]All right. So, we were closing up. Um, he's frozen right now. Hopefully, we don't lost him, but we were about to end. So if you've been with us in the beginning or if you just join us or if you're going to watch the full thing later uh somewhere in between because we touch so many things we you probably you know miss the me point this conversation was about is a mother's day conversation.

[01:16:42]So it was just to remind us that motherhood is not merely a private experience. It is a civilizational institution um based on Dr. Murray's writings before governments before constitutions before politics and power. Every human being entered the world through a woman to honor mothers therefore is nonsentimentality.

[01:17:10]It is a moral intelligence. A society that protects motherhood protects its own future. A nation that dishonors its mothers weakens the foundation upon which it stands. May we recover from me celebration but full reverence.

[01:17:30]Thank you for joining us today. It's a new day. It was good having you all on.

[01:17:36]See you next Sunday. Take care. Goodbye.

[01:17:45]Here I love my people.

[01:18:03]Let me