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Al-Hajj Mory D.
Kaba, Chairman Muslim Congress of Liberia: An Appreciation
By Al-Hassan Conteh, Ph.D.
May 24, 2003
When, in the early 1960s members of the Muslim community of Monrovia
decided to amalgamate their various Islamic organizations into the Muslim
Congress of Liberia, the late Al-Hajj Mory D. Kaba (née Diakity) was one
of its key founders among other prominent Liberian Muslims. Through their
efforts, the Muslim Congress of Liberia was enacted by an Act of the
Liberian Legislature in 1966. He died in Monrovia on March 7, 2003,
following a protracted illness. Although he was a prominent Liberian
businessman and philanthropist, not many Liberians, outside of the
Liberian Islamic community knew of his history and work in Liberia.
On Sunday, May 25, his son, Liberia's former Ambassador to Egypt, Dr.
Brahima D. Kaba, will join his family, relatives, friends and well-wishers
at a prayer and memorial service in his honor at the Muslim Community
Center Mosque in Silver Spring, MD.
The late Al-Hajj Mory D. Kaba was born in 1914, at the onset of World War
I, in Wassulun, French Guinea. His parents were Broma Diakity and Djeneba
Diakity. As a youth, he worked in Guinean gold mines acquiring the
necessary funds to take care of his parents and get married.
At age 21, he migrated to Liberia, where, he was told, African people
enjoyed freedom and liberty. He had undergone a stint in the tumultuous
resistance to French colonialism and exploitation of his native Guinea.
Paradoxically, Liberia was emerging from five years of devastating
international pressure regarding allegations of slavery and forced labor.
The country was also experiencing hard times with the world economic
depression in full force. That did not deter the youthful Mory. In 1938,
he traveled to Liberia via French Côte d'Ivoire, which was then the most
convenient route to Liberia. On the eve of World War II, he settled in
Zwedru, a town in Liberia's Eastern Province, which later became the
capital of Grand Gedeh County.
Old Man Karonka Keita (also known as Ketter) hosted the young Kaba. As a
member of Zwedru's City Council, Keita represented the immigrants from the
newly established French colonies of Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, many of
whom had escaped the French forced recruitment of indigenous people for
work on colonial plantations, rail road tracks, and highway constructions
for the colonial army. Other prominent members of the immigrant population
of Zwedru at that time included the late Al-hajj N'Faly Cisse (or Sessay),
the maternal grand uncle of Mr. Aly Syllah of Philadelphia and the late
Al-hajj Mohamed Kebe (or Kerbay). Mr. Kebe gained notoriety for providing
his compound in Zwedru for an Islamic School. The school's prominent
students included Dr. Brahima D. Kaba, son of Al-Hajj Mory D. Kaba. Under
the tutelage of Old Man Ketter, Mr Kaba became a Liberian citizen. He
quickly established himself as a prominent business trader in the main
cities of Liberia and Sierra Leone. He eventually decided to settle in
Monrovia in 1955.
He became the Chairman of the Muslim Congress of Liberia in 1979. Under
his leadership, the Congress expanded and diversified its educational
activities. The then, W. V. S. Tubman Muslim Elementary School was
expanded with the addition of the Muslim Congress Junior and High School,
and the construction of the New Port Street Mosque, as an additional
innovation.
The evolution of the school was now at its golden moment, starting from
its humble beginning in the early sixties with the Karan Ta (or learning
place), an indigenous, afternoon school then located at "K. K.
Yard," in the PHP Section of Monrovia's South Beach. K. K.
represented the initials of Karamo Kaba, the wealthy Liberian
entrepreneur, who provided the basement of his huge compound for the Karan
Ta.
Karan Ta, under the leadership of the erudite Karamoh Saynkun, was not
merely an Islamic institution; it was also a concept of complimentary
education that addressed children's developmental needs and nurture. All
of its students, including this writer, attended morning schools at some
of Monrovia's prominent elementary schools: St. Patrick's Elementary
School (SPSS), Daniel E. Howard, Monrovia Demonstration School, and C.D.
B. King. The curriculum included Arabic literacy and numeracy, knowledge
and translation of the Holy Qur'an and the sayings and works of the
Prophet Muhammad (May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be Upon Him), the
Five Pillars of Islam, poetry, songs and physical education. Students were
encouraged to undertake extracurricular activities, to which many in my
generation responded by joining the Boy Scouts of Liberia, a central
leadership training institution in 1960s Liberia. Others joined the
Liberian National Youth Organization (LNYO).
Al-Hajj Mory D. Kaba became the Islamic Development Bank's (IDB's) special
representative, and chair of its Scholarship Committee in Liberia in 1984.
His co-chairs included the late Al-Hajj Rashid Sherif, then Chairman of
the Congress School System Committee, and the late Al-Hajj Souleymane
Syllah as treasurer. The Islamic Development Bank also included in its
program activity in Liberia funding for the establishment of an Islamic
University under the administration of the Muslim Congress of Liberia. The
project was suspended in the aftermath of the 1989 Liberian civil war.
In the mid 1980s, the late Kaba helped establish the National Muslim
Council of Liberia, a federation of four main Islamic organizations in the
country (Muslim Congress, Muslim Salafia, Muslim Community and Muslim
Union from Nimba). Al-Hajj Kaba also very actively organized the annual
Muslim Pilgrimage for Liberian Muslims. He organized nine pilgrimages to
Mecca between 1970 and 1988.
He also helped to promote education in the Nko language. Many community
groups were actively studying this language in Monrovia in the late 1990s.
Just before the April 6, 1996 War in Monrovia, I had been approached by
members of one of the study groups, to introduce it to the authorities at
the University of Liberia. Suleyman Kante created the Nko alphabet in
1949. Nko is a Maninka literary language complete with unique syntactical,
morphological, and lexical elements and structures. Many new books have
been written and published in Nko, including the translation of the Holy
Qur'an, which the Nko Study Group showed me in Monrovia in 1996.
Al-Hajj Mory D. Kaba believed in both secular and Islamic education of
his children, especially his daughters. Consequently, three of his
daughters have obtained advanced degrees, in the fields of electrical
engineering (Mrs. Mariame D. K. Marshall), Economics and Sociology (Asta
D. Kaba), and Economics (Aminata D. Kaba). Two of his grand daughters also
recently obtained advanced degrees: one of them graduated Cum Laude, from
the University of Liberia, with a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics, while the
other graduated from the University of Bridgeport with a double major in
business and computer science. Al-Hadja Aminata D. K. Toure, his oldest
daughter, is currently a prominent business leader in the Liberian
businesswomen organizations.
Ambassador Brahima D. Kaba of Silver Spring, MD, Judge Yussuf D. Kaba of
Monrovia, Ms Asta D. Kaba of New York, and 11 other children, 3 Wives, 33
Grand Children and 14 Great-Grand Children, are his survivors. May God
Almighty bless him and grant him bliss.
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