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Bodioh
Wisseh Siapoe, A Fighter to the End
Saturday,
June 07, 2008
By
Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
First, it was D.
Sumuwoi Pewu, a friend whom we lost in the United
States in 2005 due to illness. Now it is Bodioh Wisseh
Siapoe on life support in 2008, in a Colorado hospital
fighting for the life he always looked forward to
living during good and bad times.
They are two courageous fellows with
contrasting styles, keen intellect, uncompromising
commitment and unwavering dedication to “speak truth
to power” as Siapoe would say, and gave it all
fighting for social justice and democracy in Liberia.
Pewu is gone and Siapoe is still with us, at least for
now.
From all available reports reaching those of us who
called him a true friend, Siapoe is in grave condition
a result of a massive stroke he suffered on June 2, in
the city he moved to not too long ago to recreate a
life, which at times was a challenge to live due to
personal crisis he either failed to correct or was
about to correct before this unfortunate incident
occurred.
Bodioh Wisseh Siapoe
Bodioh
Wisseh Siapoe, the “boy wonder” and political
activist was a child prodigy and fierce advocate of
multi-party democracy, who often used his in-your-face
militant approach to make his point, and was also fond
of using the power of his intellect to debate, dissect
and analyze prevailing political issues and conditions
in today’s Liberia.
Self taught
and always confident, Siapoe elevated himself from the
throes of illiteracy to be truly counted in the annals
of contemporary Liberian politics by friends and foes
as an intellectual powerhouse and an unapologetic
wordsmith, whom some of us often watched in awe when he
framed an argument in his usual Siapoesque style,
which reminded some of us at the time that he was a force
to reckon with.
Bodioh
Wisseh Siapoe wasn’t only a genius and a political
activist who was unafraid to advocate popular and
unpopular causes; he was also a trailblazer in the
technology arena in Liberian communities and wherever
he lived in the U.S. long before some of us got into
the political web site business.
His COPLA
political advocacy group, (Coalition of Progressive
Liberians in the United States’), web site was the
first among Liberian political web sites of its kind
in the United States founded in the late 80s, as a
forum for political dialogue. He arguably is the first
Liberian to dabble into the Internet-based Radio news
program business he later referred to as Radio Free
Liberia, ubiquitous in Liberian communities in the U.S.
today, a precursor to what is now known as Radio
Africa International; and once hosted a Saturday
afternoon television program in Atlanta on a local
Cable station where issues relating to the Liberian
community and Liberia were discussed by professionals
and ordinary people.
Always
yearning to engage in small business when he wasn’t
running COPLA, his television show, or when he wasn't
occupied with political activism during his days in
Atlanta, Bodioh ran his Creative Media Systems Desktop
Publishing and Training Services business, which he
later took with him (with a new name, of course) when
he left the south for Baltimore, Maryland.
Bodioh
Siapoe recruited me during the heyday of COPLA in the
early 1990s, to be his chief writer and propagandist.
From the day in the late 1980s when Bodioh Wisseh
Siapoe and I met in Atlanta, Georgia, we became
friends who agreed on many things, and also clashed
about a whole lot of issues like friends often do. We
were never mechanical robots or lap dogs who responded
to prompts and commands, thereby agreeing to
everything so as not to offend the other person or the
status quo.
With an
unshakable love for Liberia and our dedication to the
democracy struggle, we faithfully and respectfully
collaborated on many political projects in Baltimore,
Maryland after he left Atlanta, often holding protest
rallies, press conferences, embarking on
letter-writing campaigns and organizing. When he lived
in Atlanta, he and I also did the same often meeting
every Saturday morning with other Liberians in the
community to organize, plan, protest, strategize, hold
press conferences at the Georgia State Capitol
Building and the Carter Center where we met with policymakers.
Even though
I was then a member of the Liberian People’s Party (LPP),
and he of the United People’s Party (UPP), our
working political relationship clicked because we put
aside our partisan politics and differences in order
to work for the common interests of the Liberian
people.
After I left
the Liberian People’s Party (LPP) for reasons I will
not divulge now perhaps for a future article, and
Bodioh still a member of the United People’s
Party-USA branch, we continued to get together to
discuss politics and worked on issues of interest to
us. When I founded this web site, The Liberian
Dialogue in 2002, Bodioh Siapoe was one of the first
Liberians I called to guide me on this new and strange
journey I embarked on. He was kind enough to offer his
wisdom, guidance and technical expertise that led to
the early development of The Liberian Dialogue, for
which I will always be grateful.
There are
many individuals who will take on a cause only when it
is popular, politically expedient and financially
profitable to do so. Bodioh Wisseh Siapoe, who is
lying almost lifeless in that Colorado hospital, and
could possibly leave us at anytime (God forbid), did
what he did for his Liberian people because of his
unabashed affection for them, and did not get rich
from such advocacy efforts. Even though he was capable
and competent to work in any ministry or agency in the
Liberian government, however, preferred living in the United
States.
Like many of
us, Bodioh had his own share of flaws that dogged him
throughout his adult life, but was able to look above
and beyond those flaws and did what he thought was the
right thing to do – that is to be his brother’s
and sister’s keepers, always fighting despotic and
undemocratic Liberian governments with every fiber in
his body for true change to take place in his native
land.
Bodioh
Wisseh Siapoe was a true friend, a fighter and a
patriotic Liberian who lived and dreamed constantly
about the plight of the Liberian people. He fought a
well-deserved political battle during his active days
on this Earth, for which Liberians of all political
stripes who knows him and his work should be grateful.
Don’t give
up on us, my friend, because even in bad health, you
continued to be a fighter. However, Liberians and your
many friends and children wants you back and are
wishing you a speedy recovery!
I believe I am prepared for the outcome from
that hospital in Colorado, and am sure Bodioh Wisseh
Siapoe, the true fighter he is will continue the fight
to be with us where he rightly belong, or will
continue the struggle to his final resting place.
In the main time, I can only say get well, my brother.
We
love you.
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