Salutations
Your Excellency, President Joseph Nyuma Boikai, Mr. Vice President, Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives, Madam Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, Honorable members of the National Legislature; Your Honor, the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court Bench and Lower Courts and Judicial Branch, members of the cabinet, the Armed Forces of Liberia and paramilitary parastatals of the Liberian government, members of the diplomatic corps, my beloved compatriots, citizens of the world, ladies and gentlemen:
Greetings to all to whom these tidings may come greeting.
Mr. President, I say “Malika” (Thank you) in the Kissi language as a sign of respect and love for our sacred cultural heritage and traditions. Your recent conferment upon me of Liberia’s Distinction of the Star of Africa with the grade of Commander was huge, wise, and just. You dared to tread where other Presidents of Liberia (Samuel Kanyon Doe, Charles Taylor, Ellen Johnson Sireleaf, and George Weah) failed to tread. Therefore, I want to personally congratulate you for your statesmanship and for bestowing on a prominent and law abiding citizen the respect, dignity, and prestige deserving of a patriot.
You are the third Liberian President to recognize me but this time with a national distinction. The first two Presidents were His Excellency William R. Tolbert, Jr. and H.E. Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer, for whom Dehkontee Artists Theatre held command Executive Mansion performances. We look forward to having you as our distinguished Patron at DATI’s 50th Anniversary in Liberia and during the groundbreaking ceremonies of the DATI School of the Performing and Visual Arts and Center for Peace and Cultural Studies next year 2027.
“Put Me in the Bush”
The Liberian idiom “Put me in the bush” is used to let someone know you are prepared and motivated to carry out any task they assign to you if they provide the wherewithal. Our recent scenario can also be likened to the townsfolks congratulating the cook who prepared delicious meals during the feast. However, if the townsfolks want the cook to continue to cook delicious meals during upcoming festive events then the townsfolks must be prepared to put the cook in the bush.
In other words and realistically speaking, we (including your humble servant, members of Dehkontee Artists Theatre, Inc., along with family, friends, fans, and supporters) have raised approximately over ten million dollars over the past 52 years to underwrite the costs of producing cultural events in and out of Liberia, on the continents of Africa, North America, and Europe. Maintaining this legacy for over half a century was expensive and financially burdensome. We can no longer afford to carry this burden independently or privately. We need the support of the Liberian government and its international partners (United Nations, European Union, etc.) to resuscitate our dying and extinguishing cultural heritage. Also, note that no country can exist or succeed without a national cultural identity and nationally conscious citizens. We lack both attributes and this national catastrophe that hangs over our heads must be addressed in the soonest time possible to prevent the extinction of our cultural heritage and traditions.
Urgent Call to Action
Therefore, there is a need for you to act urgently in order to prevent Liberia’s cultural heritage from extinction. Currently, Dehkontee Artists Theatre, Inc. (DATI) has a proposal on your desk stipulating ways in which our team of experts can assist and collaborate with relevant Liberian government agencies in the areas of culture, education, peacebuilding, and positive youth development and active engagement in nation building as Liberian consultants and implementing Liberian NGO.
Please request that the Dehkontee Artists Theatre, Inc. (DATI) proposal in the possession of Honorable Nathaniel Kwabo, Director-General of the Cabinet, be submitted for your review and please get back to us at your earliest convenience because time is no longer in our favor. The reason for the urgency is because I am getting older, the few older folks left in our villages and towns to help us conduct cultural research and information gathering and to document and preserve our diverse and rich cultural heritage are dying away daily. Liberian youths are left in limbo due to lack of self-knowledge and drug addiction and Liberians in general lack national consciousness and identity. Therefore, the sooner our proposal can be endorsed the better it will be in the best interest of the state and your administration.
Back in the day Dehkontee Artists Theatre helped the Tolbert administration to promote Pan African thoughts and philosophy through drama, dance, and traditional music. We interpreted government’s domestic and foreign policies into radio drama series and live performances and traveled to various parts of Liberia to perform, educate and entertain Liberian citizens to make government policies culturally relevant and aligned with our Liberian way of life and thinking.
For an example, we produced “The Chains of Apartheid” in response to President Tolbert’s anti-Apartheid campaign and his international policy regarding the total liberation of the African continent. President Tolbert launched the “National Fund Drive for the Total Liberation of Southern Africa” to support the liberation struggles of our brothers and sisters in Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, and South Africa (Azania). “The Chains of Apartheid” debuted at the E. J. Roye Building Auditorium in December 1977.
During that epoch of Liberian history, most Liberians were ignorant about the plight of Africans under colonial rule and they did not clearly understand why President Tolbert was raising funds to support the liberation of our African brothers and sisters that were still under colonial rule. This was when and how we used the power of the arts to interpret the political ills of the Botha regime on the international stage. Consequently, DATI’s vivid portrayal on the global stage of atrocious acts of Apartheid regimes convinced Liberians and the international community that President Tolbert’s foreign policy supporting the total liberation of Africa was a just and worthwhile cause.
During the Sawyer interim period, I served briefly as Acting Deputy Minister for Culture and Tourism in 1992 and when I returned to private practice, I served as consultant and Dehkontee Artists Theatre served as an implementing agency with UNICEF-Liberia before my departure from Liberia. We promoted peace and national unity and reconciliation through live and radio drama series and organized a children’s peace theatre that toured various regions of Liberia under the control of warring factions.
Making Government Policy Culturally Relevant
Back in the day Dehkontee Artists Theatre helped the Tolbert administration to promote Pan African thoughts and philosophy through drama, dance, and traditional music. We interpreted government’s domestic and foreign policies into radio drama series and live performances and traveled to various parts of Liberia to perform, educate and entertain Liberian citizens to make government policies culturally relevant and aligned with our Liberian way of life and thinking.
For an example, we produced “The Chains of Apartheid” in response to President Tolbert’s anti-Apartheid campaign and his international policy regarding the total liberation of the African continent. President Tolbert launched the “National Fund Drive for the Total Liberation of Southern Africa” to support the liberation struggles of our brothers and sisters in Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, and South Africa (Azania). “The Chains of Apartheid” debuted at the E. J. Roye Building Auditorium in December 1977.
During that epoch of Liberian history, most Liberians were ignorant about the plight of Africans under colonial rule and they did not clearly understand why President Tolbert was raising funds to support the liberation of our African brothers and sisters that were still under colonial rule. This was when and how we used the power of the arts to interpret the political ills of the Botha regime on the international stage. Consequently, DATI’s vivid portrayal on the global stage of atrocious acts of Apartheid regimes convinced Liberians and the international community that President Tolbert’s foreign policy supporting the total liberation of Africa was a just and worthwhile cause.
During the Sawyer interim period, I served briefly as Acting Deputy Minister for Culture and Tourism in 1992 and when I returned to private practice, I served as consultant and Dehkontee Artists Theatre served as an implementing agency with UNICEF-Liberia before my departure from Liberia. We promoted peace and national unity and reconciliation through live and radio drama series and organized a children’s peace theatre that toured various regions of Liberia under the control of warring factions.
Promoting Liberian Culture on the International Stage
As an institution devoted to preserving and promoting Liberian culture, we do not only carry out our mission domestically. We also do so internationally. The first recognition I received for my seminal literary and theatrical production (“The Chains of Apartheid”) was not national; it was international and the international recognition was from the Republic of Sierra Leone. I wrote, directed, acted in as main character and produced “The Chains of Apartheid” in 1977. In July 1978 Dehkontee Artists Theatre went on an international tour to Freetown Sierra Leone as guests of Fourah Bay College and its Chancellor, Dr. Wilfred Jones, our Chief Sponsor. The tour took place after a successful debut performance at the E.J. Roye Building in December of 1977 and after a weeklong and first Dehkontee Artists Theatre Drama Festival featuring several Gbaba plays at the Tubman Hall Auditorium on the University of Liberia Capitol Hill Campus in Monrovia.
Our original itinerary included performances at Fourah Bay College and Freetown City Hall but after news of our first performance at Fourah Bay College went viral, we received an invitation from Sierra Leone’s Acting President, First Vice President S. I. Koroma who was steering the affairs of state while President Siaka Stevens was attending an OAU meeting in Khourtum, Sudan. The then Acting President of Sierra Leone requested a State House performance of “The Chains of Apartheid” on Liberia’s Independence Day, July 26, 1978. The performance was not only for intended for the Acting President of Sierra Leone but for all members of the cabinet of the Sierra Leonean government and all diplomats accredited near Freetown! What an honor, with all of the local and international press corps present. I received my first BBC interview not in Monrovia but in Freetown, Sierra Leone 48 years ago!
First National Recognition and Executive Mansion Theatre Performances
Dehkontee Artists Theatre’s and my first national recognition were engineered by Liberia’s Ambassador to Sierra Leone, His Excellency Joseph Morris. Ambassador Morris was among an array of diplomats who watched Dehkontee Artists Theatre’s first presidential and State House performance on Liberia’s Independence Day on July 26, 1978, at the State House in Sierra Leone. Ambassador Morris was so awestruck that he immediately sent a telegram to President Tolbert, informing him a theatre group called Dehkontee Artists Theatre that consists of Liberian youths from the University of Liberia and led by a young Liberian playwright made a great cultural impact in Sierra Leone before an international audience. And before we could say, “Jack Rabbit”, we weres informed by the University of Liberia postal service personnel that Dehkontee Artists Theatre had a Green Letter from the President’s Executive Mansion office.
It was “Speedy” (President Tolbert) inviting Dehkontee Artists Theatre, his “Precious Jewels”, to perform for him and First Lady Victoria David Tolbert, Speaker of the House of Representative, Honorable Richard Abrom Henries, Chief Justice James A. A. Pierre, and a few cabinet ministers and diplomats present that night. The performance took place at the Executive Mansion Theatre on October 28, 1978, a few months after our international tour and recognition from the government of Sierra Leone. During his closing remarks President Tolbert said: “Mr. Gbaba, I salute you for your ingenuity. You are one of my precious jewels” and the rest was history!
Our First Executive Mansion performance and national recognition was followed by another request from President Tolbert to entertain his guests during the state visit of the Ghanaian Head of State, General Fred Akkuffo. He was piloted to Liberia by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. So, Jerry Rawlings and the visiting Ghanaian Head of State watched “The Chains of Apartheid” together before Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings overthrew General Akkuffo shortly after their return to Ghana.
The two presidential performances were followed by another request from Liberia’s Foreign Minister, H. E. Charles Cecil Dennis, Jr. He requested the performance be held at the Monrovia City Hall for all members of the diplomatic corps accredited near Monrovia, with the intent to produce “The Chains of Apartheid” at the OAU Summit which was scheduled in July 1979 but the performance did not occur due to tight security and protocol.
Back in the day there was mutual understanding, respect and collaboration between the Liberian Presidency and the youths of Liberia. The government realized the effectiveness of using the arts to communicate major government policies and this partly made it possible for some of the successes the Tolbert administration achieved.
Happy 26, Mr. President, Madam First Lady and all Liberians across the globe.
Once again, on behalf of members of the Honorable Body of Dehkontee Artists Theatre, Inc. across the globe, we say “Malika”, Mr. President for the honor you bestowed upon your son. Please keep in touch. Your wish is our command.
Rabbi Prince Joseph Tomoonh-Garlodeyh Gbaba, Sr., Ed. D.
Liberian Playwright, Theatre Director & Executive Director
Dehkontee Artists theatre, Inc.
July 26, 2026
