A Tale of Two Greenvilles

   Looking for Blyden has presented some surprises and challenges. The two usually have been related. I’ve been nursing one instance for almost a month. What I encountered my first weekend in Liberia—this time—rattled me out of what could have been merely an academic adventure, although I would like to think that my pursuits as a teaching theologian rarely are merely academic.

   Hold on to “rattled.”

   I arrived in Monrovia, Liberia on the afternoon of 17 January 2013. On the afternoon of 18 January I departed on an arduous overland journey to Sinoe County, Liberia. I was in the company of some dignitaries of the Liberian Baptist Missionary and Education Convention: the Reverend Dr. Olu Q. Menjay, President of the Convention; the Reverend A. William Green, Vice President of the Convention; the Reverend Victor Koon (pronounced "Cone"), Pastor of the President of the Convention; and Mr. Gideon Washington, Director of Youth Education for the Convention. Make a note: these dignitaries are also my friends.

   We left Monrovia about 6p and drove on paved roads to Buchanan in Grand Bassa County (Google will allow you to see the geography). The four-hour trip was a time to get (re)acquainted. In Buchanan we spent the night in a modest guest house with air conditioning and running water, hot and cold. I was wondering about the cautions Olu had given me about the trip.

Olu Q. Menjay
Intrepid Driver of the Sinoe Road

   At dawn the next day we headed southeast toward Sinoe County. On the way would pass through River Cess County. Almost immediately the paved road became a memory of luxury lost. Soon we were in the midst of evidence of the rainy season, recently ended. At places the ruts in the road were three and four feet deep—created by transport trucks that had braved the roads in downpours to deliver food and supplies to what Liberians call “the hinterland.” Sometimes we paused, got out of the 4-wheel drive SUV, and discussed strategies to make it the next fifty feet. Usually we fell silent and held our breath and trusted the driver to make the right decisions. I had quit wondering about the cautions Olu gave me about the trip.

Travelers of the Sinoe Road
l-r: Rick Wilson, the Reverend Al Green, Olu Q. Menjay,
Gideon Washington, and Victor Koon

   Seven hours later—after stops, now and then in villages along the way—we arrived in Greenville, Sinoe Country. We were only 150 miles from Monrovia. I felt beat up. The rough road tossed us about in the car. I’ve never seen the like. I was surprised and relieved to see the paved road in Greenville.

   Then I saw the name of the main street: Mississippi Street. “What?!” (The quotation marks invite you to imagine a characteristic Liberian use of the word. The voice starts low and ends high, with great force. It is an expression of surprise and, too, a trigger for laughter and conversation.)

   I immediately began asking questions. Yes, I heard, Sinoe County was settled by freed slaves from Mississippi. Indeed, I heard, Sinoe County once was called the “Commonwealth of Mississippi” or “Mississippi in Africa.”  And I was told that Sinoe and the adjacent regions—now occupied by Grand Kru and Maryland counties—were late additions to the Republic of Liberia well after independence in 1847. (Those claims were later disproved, mostly, by a little research.)

Mississippi Street
Greenville, Sinoe County, Liberia

   Greenville in Sinoe County looks like the Mississippi Delta: flat and fertile. It is different, though, because this delta is coastal rather than inland. Unlike the Mississippi, the Sinoe River has a modest—even minimal—delta. The river runs quickly to the Atlantic, probably as a result of the distinct wet and dry seasons of West Africa.

   Upon my return to Ricks I pored over my books, borrowed books, and some websites to find out about the two Greenvilles. Working backwards, a result of rapid access to data via Internet, I learned that in 2009 Greenville, MS and Greenville, Sinoe County, Liberia, forged a sister city pact. I’m going to pursue that arrangement to see what it entails.

   Then I discovered that, in 1838, Mississippi planters/slave owners decided to establish a colony in West Africa, following the lead of the American Colonization Society. In 1817 the ACS was formed; soon after there was an enduring controversy about the motives of the founders. Some claimed the Society was a ploy for abolition; others claimed that the Society was attempting to inflate the price of slaves by returning older slaves to Africa. As it turns out, the ACS was neither a cat’s paw of the abolitionists nor the slave traders. It was an effort to ameliorate what had become a blight on America, North and South.

The Baptists of Sinoe
surprised me with a shirt
for the convention so I could
fit in with the crowd (?)

   The Commonwealth of Mississippi—if that term ever was used—was philanthropic and strategic for those in the Mississippi Delta. Those terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive. On the one hand there was some compassion for the slaves who had served the purposes of King Cotton. On the other hand there was a reading of “the writing on the wall” that slavery’s days were numbered and, when it ended, there would be a crisis of racial imbalance in the Delta. (Later history supports that fear of crisis as Greenville sought legal means to restrict the number of freed blacks, both in the city and Washington County.)

Sunday morning in Greenville

   And, too, I learned that Sinoe County was, in fact, included in the first configuration of the Republic of Liberia in 1847. Grand Kru and Maryland counties joined the Republic later.

   The rough—shall I say “bad”—road from Montserrado County (Monrovia) to Sinoe County (Greenville) rattled me. After the weekend I literally was bruised. But, I confess, my mind was shaken free of assumptions and misinformation.