Momulu Massaquoi

Momulu Massaquoi (1869–1938) was a Liberian politician and diplomat, and a prince of the Vai tribe of Sierra Leone and Liberia. He served as Liberia's consul general to Germany 1922–1930, and appears to be the first indigenous African diplomat to modern Europe.[1]

Early life

Massaquoi was born on 6 December 1869 to King Lahai of the Gallinas Kingdom and his wife, Queen Fatama Bendu Sandemani.[2] He attended a mission school in Cape Mount, before traveling to the United States to attend Central Tennessee College.[3]

Massaquoi was the son of King Lahai of Gallinas and of Queen Sandemani of N’Jabacca. He was born in 1872, and was required by his mother to begin to study at an early age. His parents were both Muslim, and that their son might learn to read the Koran, they placed him as a student of a Muslim clergy when eight years old. Two years later, he came under Christian influence at a mission school of the Protestant Episcopal Church, where he was sent to learn the English language. After several years’ residence at the mission, he was baptized and confirmed. In 1888, at the age of 16, he came to the US and entered Central Tennessee College, at Nashville. Before the completion of his college course, the death of his mother made him the rightful ruler of N’Jabacca, and he felt it to be his duty to return to his people, but again visited the US to represent Africa at the Parliament of Religious and the African Ethnological Congress in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition. He opened, in May, 1900, an industrial school at Ghendimah, the capital of Gallinas. Here, the pupils were instructed in English, Vei, and Arabic, and in the industrial arts. He was endeavoring, in his own words, “to develop an African civilization independent of any, yet, like others, on a solid Christian principle.”[4]

Vai script

Massaquoi and other Vai scholars developed a simplified script for the Vai language at the close of the 19th century, which was taught at St. John's Mission in Robertsport.[5]

Death

He died on June 15, 1938.[6]

Notable descendants

References

  1. ↑ G.R. Berridge; Lorna Lloyd (25 January 2012). The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 239–. ISBN 978-1-137-01761-1.
  2. ↑ Dunn, Elwood D.; Beyan, Amos J.; Burrowes, Carl Patrick (20 December 2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia. Scarecrow Press. pp. 223–. ISBN 978-1-4616-5931-0.
  3. ↑ Thomas Borstelmann (1993). Apartheid's Reluctant Uncle: The United States and Southern Africa in the Early Cold War. Oxford University Press. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-0-19-507942-5.
  4. ↑ Missionary Review Publishing Company 1905, p. 449.
  5. ↑ University of Liberia. African Studies Program (1962). The standard Vai script.
  6. ↑ Smyke, Raymond J. The first African diplomat, c2004: t.p. (Momolu Massaquoi) p. 43, etc. (b. 1870?, Kpasalo, Liberia; d. June 15, 1938)

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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