DATI Tripartite Anniversary Dec. 16th Is a Prayerful Celebration & Fundraiser: Come with a Clean Heart to Rebuild!
Firstly, I want to inform you that the DATI Tripartite Anniversary on December 16th is a prayerful celebration and fundraiser. Therefore, anyone coming to this event must come with a clean heart and mind and with the intent to rebuild Liberia. The event is also prayerful because we have a whole lot to be thankful for. We are thankful for the peace we enjoy in the United States, in the diaspora and in our homeland; we are thankful for a peaceful election in Liberia, and as a playwright and custodian of Liberian culture, we are celebrating nearly half a century of service to Liberia and the global community in the field of the performing arts.
Secondly, my theatre organization, Dehkontee Artists Theatre, Inc. (DATI) is celebrating 46 years of service and existence as the longest surviving collegiate cultural organization in Liberia and the in United States of America, and of course, my wife and I are celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary and the preservation of Liberian cultural and family values!
Thirdly, our invitation and message to all those attending the DATI Tripartite Anniversary on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at 100 Sharon Avenue, Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, is about rebuilding what we have destroyed, in my case as a playwright and cultural expert, it would be the National Cultural Center at Kendeja. It was a symbol of national unity and national cultural identity for the Republic of Liberia. Thus, bulldozing and demolishing in 2008 the Liberian National Cultural Center at Kendeja (a national cultural shrine) and selling the consecrated grounds designated to preserve the history and culture of Liberia, to a foreign businessman to construct a hotel resort or what I would term a "brothel", was an abomination and crime against humanity.
The Demolition of Kendeja National Cultural Center Was a War Crime against Humanity and Liberians
The demolition of Kendeja, a national cultural property and shrine, was a war crime against humanity and Liberians under international law. Brian I. Daniels, Director of Research and Research Programs at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, University of Pennsylvania Museum, writes in his article, entitled, "Is the Destruction of Cultural Property a War Crime," published in the November 28, 2016, edition of Apollo, an international art magazine, wrote:
"It is a settled principle in international law that the deliberate targeting or plundering of religious, historic, and cultural sites is prohibited during war. The American Civil War established the precedent. In 1863, at the height of the conflict, Abraham Lincoln commissioned German American legal theorist Francis Lieber to draft general legal guidelines for the Union Army’s operations. The ‘Lieber Code’ and its proscription of the seizure and destruction of what we now call ‘cultural property’ was incorporated into the Brussels Declaration of 1874 and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.
On 27 September 2016, the International Criminal Court, or ICC, convicted Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi of intentionally directing attacks against religious and historic buildings in Timbuktu, Mali during the 2012 occupation by Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. As a leader of the Hisbah, or the Manners Brigade, Al Mahdi ordered attacks on mosques and shrines with pickaxes, chisels, and heavy machinery. His actions were a war crime under the Rome Statute – the international law establishing the ICC – and his conviction was never in real doubt."
Against this backdrop, it is clear that every nation and people must have and celebrate their cultural and historical identity. Hence, the destruction of a national cultural shrine and selling a national sacred ground to a foreign businessman to construct a hotel resort or a brothel (for lack of a better word), was an intentional crime designed to strip Liberians off their cultural identity so that Liberians may not only be a lost race of Africans, but so that our identity as Africans, including what makes Liberia and Liberians unique among the Black Race, may cease to exist and also so that future generations of Liberians may lack self-knowledge and self-identity as human beings and as Africans.
Further, it was a ploy by perpetrators of heinous crimes and violence in Liberia to perpetuate a culture of violence and self-hatred among survivors of the Liberian genocide. Therefore, there is a dire need to rebuild our cultural institutions to safeguard our cultural and historical heritage as Africa's oldest democratic Republic.
Immediate Aftermaths of Lack of National Cultural Identity in Liberia
Immediate aftermaths of lack of national cultural identity in Liberia are manifested in many different shapes and forms in Liberia at the present moment. It does not require rocket science to observe the level of self-hatred among post-genocide Liberian survivors, or the denigration of anything Liberian while at the same time Liberians easily embrace foreigners and foreign customs than their own. For an example, Liberians mistakenly wear African garbs or perform African ceremonies that are not authentically Liberian customs, ceremonies, or clothing materials, in an attempt to portray their African identity. This was the same tactic the slave masters used to subdue, conquer, and subjugate black slaves to over five hundred years of slavery and disconnection from their ancestral heritage. Today, most Black Americans and Blacks in the diaspora do not speak African languages and/or lack self-knowledge and suffer from identity crisis. WE DO NOT WANT THAT FOR OUR CHILDREN AND OFFSPRING!
Protocol of the DATI Tripartite Anniversary
The program on Saturday, December 16th begins with a thanksgiving prayer session. All invited guests, especially those whose names are listed below are requested to be seated no later than 6 PM to participate in the sacred African Jewish ceremony that will be performed. It includes the sharing of white kola nuts, pepper and salt as manna or what is called "Gbowah" in the Krahn language, the robing of white powder on our foreheads as a sign of peace, reconciliation, and national unity, and the lighting of the candles representing the fifteen political divisions of the Republic of Liberia.
The prayer session will be followed by the Tripartite Anniversary Dinner, the fundraiser, and dance until the wee hours of the morning. Our celebrity DJ Avery will be there to rock the night until the wee hours of the morning.
The following grand patrons, patrons, and supporters who have reserved their seats are asked to please arrive on time. Seats will not be reserved 30 minutes after start time.
Theresa Greah
Elfric K. Porte, Jr.
Mrs. Irene Roberts-Gulley
Dr. Henrique Zobon Scott
Leonard Cappozi
Joe Monyue
Jumah Dorley
Famatta Doe & Lawson Beh
Jocelia Rancy
领英推荐
Timothy Gardiner
Lynda Buesmaill
Lionel Brown
Hector & Evangeline Hilton
Annie Woodcrest
Wanneh Jikpamu
Natalie Wilson
Gmasnoh Crayton
Tarlor Compagnie-Coker
Ikegai Lenyee
Nancy Green-Saamoi
Roland Roberts
Serena Speare Roberts
Vonjo Tommy
Umvalli Lowenthal
Dr. Nyaquoi & Kou Kargbo.
Isaac & Amanda Yah
Alfreda Cheaye Cooper.
General Stephen J. Koffa children.
Sarah Bell
Esther Sawyer.
Danielle Jackson.
Betty Moore
Alston J. Wolo
Marvin Flahn
How to Donate: The DATI Fundraiser Is an Ongoing Process
For those who are unable to attend the formal launch of the DATI Cultural Center Project on December 16th, we want to inform you that the fundraising process is ongoing until we successfully complete the construction of the school of the performing arts. For those in any part of the world, you can donate in the following ways:
Thank you for your support. See you on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at 100 Sharon Avenue, Sharon Hill, PA 19079 at 6 PM-1 AM.
Published by DATI Management
December 10, 2023