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I
beg to differ with my "mentor", Nvasekie Konneh on this
one!
Jul 30, 2008
Kafumba S. Kromah
 In
his recent article titled: "Why we embrace Him" Bro Konneh
made several allegations about me. He accuses me of being bias for
not including the sesay family in my initial article titled "Mandingoes
are Not Jews either"; he said that I told him that the sesay
brothers were my uncles. He charges me of purposely ill-timing my
article as an attempt to disrupt felmausa convention. He concluded
as saying that I have always regarded him as my mentor and as such,
he wonders why I would be oppose to an organization that he has
helped to build.
Much to bro Konneh's credit, I did speak to him following the publication
of my first article on Imam Dukuly. He called and vigorously interrogated
me about the article; he demanded that I include the sesay family
as a prerequisite for my article being publish on his felmausa website;
he closed up our phone conversation as saying that I have opened
a new Pandora box within the Mandingo community.
Once again, Nvasekie is right. I have known Mohammed Dukuly's presence
here in Minnesota for half of the time he's been in this state,
but I will tell you why I chose the convention time. And as for
Nvasekie being my mentor, dam right, he has been. I have always
admired Nvasekie, Varfley and Abe Kromah. As a young man back then
and a grown-up living thru the havoc of the 17 years civil war,
I have always viewed those brothers and their likes with ken interest
and overwhelming admiration. As of this moment, however, I beg to
differ with some of the brothers listed above and here is why:
The Sesay family conversation:
My mother, Mariam Sesay installed several traditional values and
disciplines in me; among them, was how to treat people of all ages,
sexes, tribes, religious believes and nationalities. Out of her
natural human bias, perhaps, this Sesay woman, my mother taught
and required me to treat ALL Sesay people differently. She asked
me to honor, respect and refer to every male person with the last
name, Sesay, as my uncle, while I refer to every female person with
the aforementioned last name as my mother. That is a tradition that
I have come to honor to the fullest. For instance, over here in
Minnesota where I currently reside, I have extended that same courtesy
to every sesay person that I know including felmausa vice president,
Mamadee Sesay and Brother Yaya Komara's wife, Mabineh Sesay Komara.
To the best of my knowledge, I have honored, respected and always
referred to such people as my mother wish. I call Mabineh Sesay
mother, and she calls me son, while I call Mamadee Sesay uncle,
and he calls me nephew on good term.
It is in this light that I also consider and refer to the Sesay
brothers as my uncles. Personally, I have never met them, and I
strongly doubt whether they even know that I exist.
On the phone with bro Konneh, I acknowledged that the Sesays were
my uncles in that regard; in the same dialogue, I reminded Nvasekie
that those people (the Sesay brothers) were not my focus at this
time because they were not heading to the Mandingo convention. I
then admonished Nvasekie that including the Sesay brothers as he
wished would not have completed the list either, and it wouldn't
have therefore, made the article any less bias. I told him that
I would have written the same exact article, or worst about the
Sesay brothers if they were present and preparing for a Mandingo
convention like Imam Dukuly was. Moreover, the Sesay brothers are
the most known cronies of the NPFL within our community; nearly
every Mandingo family have seen or heard of them one way or another.
We know where they are and what they did. In comparison, rebel,
Imam Mohammed Dukuly is less known not because he committed less
crime but because he wasn't even in this community to begin with.
Nvasekie himself, one of Dukuly's defense counsels acknowledged
not knowing him before felmausa inaugural ceremony in Milwaukee.
It is therefore imperative that we reveal this young sophisticated
genocide accomplice for who he is.
On the final note, I informed bro Konneh that I wouldn't even stand
by my father if he did what Dukuly did much less some uncles that
I have never met. For bro Konneh to have mention a portion of that
phone conversation (Kafumba said that the sesay brothers are his
uncles) and not include the other parts of our discussion to me
that was a calculated dishonesty on the part of Nvasekie intended
to question my character .
For that, I beg to differ.
Dukuly's Presences in the community:
I have known about Mohammed Dukuly's presence here in Minnesota
roughly about a year ago when he started officiating weddings, baby
naming ceremonies and occasionally filling in as an Imam at our
local Mosque in North Minneapolis. Coincidentally, bro Konneh himself
had known about Dukuly's presence since felmausa's first inauguration
in Milwaukee which was about a year ago. Following that ceremony,
I personally invited and transported Nvasekie from a different part
of the city to my home in Minneapolis where we discussed the Dukuly
factor within felmausa as he noted in his article. Bro Konneh informed
me that he had never met Mohammed Dukuly before the inaugural ceremony
in Milwaukee and that he had no idea that that was the notorious
rebel Dukuly. At the end of our discussion, bro Konneh and I agreed
that I should write the initial article about Imam Dukuly and that
he (Nvasekie) was going to write the follow up article, even though
we did not mention a time frame about writing the articles. For
that same Nvasekie to accuse me of knowing about Dukuly's presence
in the Mandingo community all along and not brought out the issue
until felmausa convention time, for him to write an article defending
Dukuly instead of divulging him as we agreed, to me that's disingenuous
and for that I beg to differ.
Why I chose Felmausa convention time:
Perhaps, brother Konneh's biggest charge labeled against me in his
article was that I purposely chose his convention time as a way
of disrupting that conference. That's categorically false, and it
is a charge bigger than my self. How can I choose to disrupt the
will of the hundreds of our people who spent their hard earned dollars
to caucus and discus the wellbeing of the community and our nation
at large? How could I? How did Nvasekie, my acclaimed mentor come
to think so evil of me today? I thought he knew me better than that,
but I guess not. To the contrarily, I had truly hoped that the convention
would be better than ever and that Imam Mohammed Dukuly would show
up to offer his apology to the surviving relatives of his war casualties.
Like most Mandingoes, I may not be on board felmausa just yet, but
I am not oppose to the idea in any way, form, or shape. Though,
I'm highly critical of the leadership and the way the organization
came about, leaving out major Mandingo organizations like limany,
Texas and others. But I do not doubt for one minute that a considerable
number of our people have embraced the organization as it is. I
know that your convention assembles an impressive number our people
from various states across the U.S, and that's why I chose to raise
the Dukuly debate hours to your convention in order that the accused,
Mohammed Dukuly may have the opportunity to make his case to a larger
audience, rather than a few in Minnesota. Hence, the charge of intent
to disrupt your convention will be a totally waste of legal effort
because such charge against me will not be convictable in the court
of honest opinions. The charge itself to me was malicious and misleading.
For that, I beg to differ.
My Personal Disappointments In Nvasekie’s Article:
As bro Konneh stated in his article, he asked me to expand my article
so that it would include the sesay family and be less bias to Mr.
Dukuly as a pre-condition to publishing my story on his felmausa's
website. Just when he was busied preaching objectivity to me, I
was reminded of the many one sided stories previously published
on his new, less than 2 years website. Oh! Wait a minute, my article
was too bias to be published on the noble felmausa website; how
do you explain the bias in your own article? How did it become possible
for you to discus the "Konapper" episode today and not
even mention felmausa board chairman, Abe Kromah? How did it? Weren't
you in Monrovia when the then CID boss, Abraham Kalilu Kromah arrested
all the alleged "Konappers" including your late brother,
"Pepper and Salt" on arrival at the airport and took them
to jail without any due process? I still remember that; do you?
Oh! You forgot that, didn't you? But you remembered to squarely
put the blames on Hon: Varfley Dolley who was not even in the country
when the whole fiasco started. How objective was that article?
You accused me of knowing Dukuly's presence the whole time when
you also knew the same. Worst, you had such deep seated hatred all
along for a man (your in-law) who has done so much for his community.
What's more evil?
You accused me of ill-timing my article to simply disrupt your convention
while you hide behind the same article to vent your anger on distinguished
community members; how well-timed was your article? By the way,
Varfley Dolley can be charge with many things but betrayal is certainly
not one them. He has stood his ground and defended our people in
all of his endeavors; that's why he was referenced in the first
article, titled "Mandingoes not Jews either" as having
introduced a bill in the house that would have permanently seated
an Imam in the house along side the chaplains for the first time
in Liberian history, but thanks to senator Dukuly and his likes.
For that, I beg to differ.
The Hate towards other Websites:
In the same article, you made reference to certain websites as being
hostile. I honestly thought that that was very funny, considering
that most of the articles that I have read from you over the years
were actually published on one of those websites (Limany.org). Your
previous publications on Limany site included some very harsh, personal
attack articles; one of which was titled "Why is Ansumana Randolph
Jabateh so angry?", as vicious as that article was, the webmasters
of Limany gave you the benefit of the doubt; they carried your unfounded
story. That's what I call objective; when was the last time felmausa
publish an article that was critical of its activities? You wouldn't
even publish a simple article from me about Mohammed Dukuly; an
article that says nothing negative about you, or your organization;
it even acknowledges your convention. Why you think I sent the article
to you? I know your low standards, and I thought the article met
all your requirements because it's only message and intend was to
have one community member apology to others.
By the way, what's your definition for a hostile website? Could
it be websites that do not conform to your personal ethics? Were
you simply referring to websites that are objective enough to allow
others to make their voices heard and respond to your negative attacks
on their character? What's hostile, not being pro-Nvasekie Ideology?
So many of us are dearly grateful to the web management teams of
Limany and Texas for their objectivity in publishing balanced stories;
their ability to give everyone the chance to make their voice heard.
I personally like to thank them for giving voice to the voiceless.
You would probably agree with me that if it wasn't for Texas and
Limany websites, the Dukuly story would not have made it out to
the reading Mandingo public. To label the same websites that you
embraced yesterday as hostile today because they published stories
that you disapproved of is not my definition for objectivity. For
that, I beg to differ.
Conclusion:
As the proud author of an article that has given us so much to talk
about, I'm personally troubled by the personal attacks, character
assassination of good men, and the new trend of the debate. The
article, "Mandingoes are not Jews either" was written
out of good intentions. It was never intended for a new "Konapper"
debate, nor was it intended to disrupt felmausa convention as Nvasekie
alleged in his article.
The article was a simple attempt to give both Imam Dukuly and the
Mandingo community some closure on this crucial issue. Unfortunately,
two of our best brains, all times Mandingo advocates, Nvasekie and
Abe Kromah failed us. Their use of twisted logics and incomprehensible
analogy to defend Mohammed Dukuly made it seemed like there are
some disagreements among the Mandingo people about this. What's
even more saddened is that Nvasekie and Abe Kromah are not just
ordinary members of this community; they are supposed to be community
leaders. Like Hon: Dolley, these brothers have contributed to our
community immensely; they have defended and made this community
proud in their own individual ways. They had it right all along,
but I am afraid that they missed out on this one completely. That
is a serious concern to me, and it should be to the community as
well. We may have differences of opinion on how to pull our resources
together for the betterment of our community, but the universal
Mandingo community is resolute in its desire for simple and honest
apologies from the Sesay brothers, and Imam Mohammed Dukuly likes.
We are not asking for a war crime tribune, not a court trial, not
even a Truth and Reconciliation Commission like. All we want is
for these brothers to look us in the eye and say they are sorry.
Is that too much to ask for? I don't think so, neither should you.
So, why are you defending Imam Dukuly from? How does the Sesay brothers
issue prevent Dukuly from doing the right thing? Can we begin some
where, with someone, and then follow thru with the Sesay brothers
and others?
Your unusual positions on the Dukuly issue might have actually hurt
your personal reputations and that of the organization that you
now represent. As such, it is only prudent that you reconsider your
positions and quickly apology to the community. Our greatest strength
is not in always agreeing with one another, but in agreeing every
time we disagreed.
Kafumba S. Kromah
Contact: 612-203-3820,
Kafumba2000@yahoo.com
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