Carl Patrick Burrowes, Ph. D. is Liberia’s leading historian. He’s served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Cuttington University, Liberia, and Carter G. Woodson Distinguished Professor at Marshall University. Burrowes is the author of Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea: A History of the Liberia People Before 1800 and Power and Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830 to 1970. He is also co-author, The Historical Dictionary of Liberia. His research has received awards from the International Communication Association and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Patrick earned a Ph. D. in Communications, Temple University, 1994. More information on the author is available at patricksplace.org.

Discussing Liberian History and Narratives With Historian Dr. Patrick Burrowes

Dr. C. Patrick Burrowes Lecture in Liberia 3-2-22

Liberian History MID 1800’s

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With the Walking To Success project, we want to donate to the children of underprivileged areas of Ghana, providing them with socks and shoes to go to and from school. The children of Africa struggle every day walking on treacherous terrain to receive an education. In addition to them doing so in any weather condition, they aren’t always traveling short distances. Imagine your walk to school being over 3 miles and having to be there by 7 or 8 am.

Website – https://walkingtosuccess.org/

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Liberia comprises of sixteen major indigenous ethnic groups, one of which is the Kru. Although much has been said about these people by external narrators, two of their many sons and daughters now tell the story from within, asserting that no one can better tell a people’s story than the people themselves.

The Kru: A Short Biography

“The sight of a large number of Kroomen canoeing along the coast, singing a chorus as they rowed, was a familiar one.” So runs a Joline Young commentary on one of the sixteen African ethnic groups of Liberia. It’s these people whose story is now being told by two of their offspring. Read and be touched by the story of these people once known in the maritime world for their hard work and their fortitude: They are the Kru of Liberia!

Plenyono Gbe Wolo

The First African To Graduate From Harvard

Educator, theologian, and lawyer Plenyono Gbe Wolo (circa 1890-1940) was the first Black African to graduate from Harvard University receiving an AB in 1917. The son of the chief of the Kru ethnic group, Wolo was born around 1890 in the village of Grand Cess, Liberia. At a young age he met Methodist Episcopal Church missionary Reverend James Boas Robertson who encouraged him to study at Monrovia Seminary. Wolo enrolled at the seminary and was placed under the care of Alexander P. Camphor and Mamie Camphor, two African American Methodist Episcopal missionaries. Alexander Camphor was the principal of Monrovia Seminary, founder of the College of West Africa, and eventual first bishop of Africa elected by the United Methodist Church (1916).

With support from the missionary community including Camphor, Reverend Percy S. Grant, and fellow Kru member Didhwe Twe, Wolo traveled to the United States in 1910 to attend Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Massachusetts, where he hoped to study scientific agriculture (see article “Mount Hermon’s African Students, 1898-1918” by Sean Foley). After graduating from Mount Hermon in 1913 Wolo continued his education at Harvard University where his interests shifted towards theology and education. Wolo excelled in English and was one of 54 men exempted from a second semester of the class in 1914. Wolo was a member of the Harvard University Christian Association, the Harvard International Polity Club, and treasurer of the Cosmopolitan Club, a social club for foreign students.

Following graduation from Harvard University in 1917, Wolo received an AM from the Teachers College at Columbia University (1919), and a BD from Union Theological Seminary (1922).

Homesick, Wolo returned to Grand Cess, Liberia, in 1922 to start a day school for children. He was interested in educating the indigenous people of Liberia using a curriculum that incorporated local practices and addressed community specific needs in health, agriculture, and industry. In 1926 he became an Assistant Regional Manager for the Firestone Rubber Company where he assisted in labor disputes on two plantations. In 1929 he received an LLB from the Liberian Bar. He also served as Secretary to the International Commission of Inquiry into the Existence of Slavery and Forced Labor in the Republic of Liberia (1930), a professor of Economics at the College of West Africa (1937), Assistant Secretary of the Educational Board of Liberia (1930), and Director of the Banking Corporation of Liberia (1930).

Benefactors throughout Wolo’s lifetime included Emeline Fletcher Dickerson (Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies), Professor Reverend George Alexander Johnston Ross (Union Theological Seminary), William R. Moody (Mount Hermon School), A. Lawrence Lowell (Harvard University), and Anson Phelps Stokes (Phelps Stokes Fund).

Wolo married Djuah Weeks in 1925 (divorced 1936), Malisa Dennis-Wolo in 1936 (died 1938), and Mary Elizabeth Hansford in 1940. Wolo died of pneumonia in Monrovia, Liberia, in June 1940.

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