REMEMBERING LIBERIA-BORN PROFESSOR AMOS CLAUDIUS SAWYER (1945-2022)!

[Assensoh, Akwasi B.]

Remembering Liberia-Born Professor Amos Claudius Sawyer (1945-2022)

By A.B. Assensoh, former Editor-in-Chief of Daily Listener, Saturday Chronicle & Sunday Digest of Monrovia, Liberia

Well-known Political Science Professor Amos Claudius Sawyer, formerly of University of Liberia, was pronounced dead at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Maryland on Tuesday (February 16, 2022). Immediate cause of death, according to family sources, was cardiac arrest a few days after undergoing a successful second brain surgery. He was 76 years old. 

Professor Sawyer, a former mayoral candidate for the Liberian capital city of Monrovia, was famous for having served as the President of Liberia’s Interim Government of National Unity from November 22, 1990 to March 7, 1994. His popularity, at the time, was so high that 35 Liberian political leaders -- representing seven political parties and eleven interest groups --voted to have him elected for the interim position. 

As a 1966 graduate of Liberia College (currently University of Liberia), he subsequently sought a successful admission for graduate studies at Northwestern University in Illinois, from where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science. He headed the Political Science Department at his undergraduate alma mater in Monrovia, where in 1980 he became the Dean of the College of Social Sciences; after that, he travelled internationally to hold varied academic positions, including serving for several years as an Associate Director & Research Scholar of Indiana University’s Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at the invitation of co-founding Professors Vincent and Elinor “Lin” Ostrom (1933-2012; who became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009). The Ostroms and Professor Sawyer jointly sponsored Liberia’s first female President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on the flagship Bloomington campus of Indiana University, which was awarded on Saturday, May 3, 2008. Apart from being a founding member of the famous Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA), Professor Sawyer, in 1983, was also a founding leader of the Liberian People’s Party (LPP). 

As part of his extensive national service, Professor Sawyer served as Chairman of the Governance Reform Commission in Liberia (currently known simply as Governance Commission). Highly respected as an academic in African Studies Association (ASA) and political science circles, Professor Sawyer published very widely, including authoring such authoritative books as Beyond Plunder (2005); Dynamics of Conflict Management in Liberia (1997); and The Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia: Tragedy and Challenge (1992).

May he Rest In Peace (R.I.P.)

[segun...@gmail.com]

Sorry to lose such a great African at this time. 

My condolences to the family, relations, friends and associations. 

May his soul rest peacefully with his Creator. 

Ogungbemi. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 17, 2022, at 4:26 AM, Assensoh, Akwasi B. <aass...@indiana.edu> wrote:



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<Remembering Professor Amos Claudius Sawyer.docx>

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Another eulogy of The late former interim president of Liberia, Dr Amos Sawyer :

“THE LATE FORMER LIBERIAN INTERIM PRESIDENT, DR. AMOS SAWYER, HAD SIERRA LEONE ROOTS…..” - by Kabs Kanu

THE LATE FORMER LIBERIAN INTERIM PRESIDENT, DR. AMOS SAWYER, HAD SIERRA LEONE ROOTS, LIKE THE OTHER LIBERIAN PRESIDENT, C.D.B. KING

By Kabs Kanu

Dr. Amos Sawyer, a Liberian academic and political icon , who served as Interim President from 1990-1994, passed away in the United States yesterday. He was 76. Dr. Sawyer also famously served as a professor of Political Science at the University of Liberia.

Dr. Amos Sawyer 's father, Pa Abel Sawyer, was a Creole/ Kru from Sierra Leone, who migrated to Liberia in the mid-1900s and settled in Sinoe County where he distinguished himself as a tax-collector.

The Sawyers were my neighbours at Stockton Creek, a sprawling community by the famed Caldwell Bridge in Monrovia , in the 1980s. Pa Abel used to cross the street and come over to visit us frequently at home where he used to share with us interesting tales of his life , and through him and his best friend, our landlord, the late Pa Lahai Johnson , I became friends with Dr. Sawyer, a very humble academic, who loved "Book" and politics.

Dr. Sawyer was a fervent opponent of bad governance and human rights abuses and he extolled the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law. He was one of the founding members of the Movement For Justice in Africa ( MOJA ) and the Liberia People's Party ( LPP).

Unlike their compatriots in Sierra Leone , who are stoic, indifferent , and fence-sitting citizens , Liberian intellectuals constitute a bitter and effective opposition to bad governance, misrule and dictatorship and contributed immensely to the downfall of the late President, William R. Tolbert. Though some of them , like Bacchus Matthews, Dr. Togba Nah-Tipoteh, Dr. Boima Fahnbulleh , Oscar Quiah, Dr. George Boley, Alhaji Kromah and others were invited by the 1980 coup leader , Master- Sergeant Samuel K. Doe , to serve his government, they fell out with Doe because of his totalitarian policies and opposed him until his downfall.

Dr. Amos Sawyer turned down many ministerial appointments from President Doe , but served as Chairman of the Constitutional Review Commission that amended the Liberian constitution before the controversial 1986 presidential elections that were rigged by President Doe and led to the November 15, 1986 invasion of Liberia from Sierra Leone by patriotic forces under the command of the late Brig. Gen. Thomas Quiwonkpa, who was later captured by Doe's forces and slaughtered.

Dr. Sawyer remained opposed to President Doe and went to jail many times, before Doe himself was captured during the Liberian war in 1990 by forces loyal to Gen. Prince Yomi Johnson , brutally tortured and slain.

Dr. Amos Sawyer also served as Chairman of the African Union's Africa Peer Review Mechanism ( APRM ) during the presidency of Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Dr. Sawyer was the second President of Liberia with a Sierra Leonean father.

The father of the late President C.D.B. King, who served from 1920 to 1930 was also a creole, who also migrated to Liberia from Sierra Leone.

A member of the APC once told me that the mother of former President Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone, Madam Miatta Stevens, was a Gola/ Vai from Liberia.

Both sister countries have a history of prominent citizens from across each others' borders serving as ministers and top officials in their respective countries, though as naturalized citizens. Sierra Leone and Liberia are one and these fascinating people epitomized that spirit.