An inspirational life

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

William K. Reeves did not vote in Tuesday’s presidential election, but not because he didn’t want to. Instead, he wasn’t allowed to.
The 73-year-old Northeast Philadelphia resident is not a U.S. citizen. He was born in the West African nation of Liberia and lived there for almost seven decades, serving his people as a schoolteacher and administrator.
Though he has been unable to work or live in his native land since 2000 because of a long, bloody civil war there, he has not forgotten about Liberia.
In a recently published but long-contemplated autobiography, The Native Boy, Reeves provides an enlightening and inspiring account of his upbringing in a tiny rural village, his formal schooling and long teaching career in an underfunded educational system and the political strife that has left Africa’s first republic in shambles.
It’s a work that has been a lifetime in the making.
"I wanted to do this when I was in high school. That’s when I thought of it," Reeves said during an interview in his Rhawnhurst apartment. "I had plenty to write, but I was afraid to write."
Growing up as a member of the Gedebo tribe in the eastern province of the nation, which is about the size of Tennessee, speaking one’s mind was generally left to the elders and writing was something that few youngsters ever dreamed to attempt.
Instead, it was largely an agricultural existence. Reeves’ village consisted of 12 huts of straw and earth, with about a half-dozen people living in each. The fields, mostly filled with rice or cassava — an edible root — were a 20-minute walk from home.
While the men went out daily to tend to the fields or hunt, the women remained at home, handling the domestic chores.
As native tribesmen, Reeves and his people were among the vast majority of the Liberian population. Yet they had little representation in the formal government of the country, which was colonized in the early 1800s by freed American slaves and became independent in 1847.
Similarly, Reeves describes a great social divide between the tribal people of the "bush" and the westernized Americo-Liberians, who mostly lived in the coastal areas, principally the capital city, Monrovia.
As a result, many of his contemporaries were content to remain in the village living in a traditional way, rather than working elsewhere as a laborer or servant, moving into another man’s home and continuing their formal education at the high school level and beyond.
"When you come from a village and mix with people with the western style, it’s very strange," Reeves said. "It’s strange and very demeaning. Mostly, you’re poorly fed and you’re considered second-best in the house."
Unlike the others, however, the yearning for knowledge took precedence in Reeves’ life, and he was rewarded for it.
"My thinking was I wanted to be a lawyer or a medical doctor," Reeves said. "But my dream did not come true because I had no money and I couldn’t go to high school."
Instead, he took a job at a Firestone rubber plantation, working in the company hospital, and then earned a scholarship to a Catholic missionary high school only by agreeing to teach for the missionaries following his graduation.
During his first four years of teaching, Reeves also attended college, earning a bachelor’s degree in education.
Though literacy and education improved dramatically among the tribal people in the 1960s and ’70s — during which Reeves taught high school and college classes in several eastern towns — a 1980 military coup led by Samuel K. Doe turned the nation and the education system on its head.
Though Doe became the first indigenous head of state in the history of Liberia, and brought an end to often-oppressive rule by the descendants of the colonists, Reeves did not support the hostile takeover.
"In many cases, the freed slaves did not treat us well," Reeves said. "For many, many years after independence, they didn’t include us in the (government). They had a different way of ruling (us). They had their own code of laws. And with the indigenous people, they had the ‘Interior Regulations.’"
Yet the teacher felt the tribesmen had made steady progress by winning more representation in the national legislature.
"I didn’t like (the coup). I didn’t think somebody should lose their life. It made things worse for us," Reeves said.
Doe’s supporters cited corruption in the regime of sitting President William R. Tolbert Jr. for their action.
"That’s the reason they staged the coup, (but) they were worse," Reeves said.
After assassinating Tolbert in his presidential palace, Doe implemented a military dictatorship and began executing members of the former regime. In 1984, he had a new constitution approved by referendum and in 1985 won a presidential election amid accusations of fraud.
In 1989, Charles Taylor — a former Doe ally whom the president had imprisoned for alleged embezzlement — mounted a guerrilla war to oust the leader. Though a separate guerrilla faction captured the capital city in 1990 and executed Doe, leading to six years of ethnic-based civil war, Taylor emerged as president in 1997 following a landslide election victory.
Conflict continued, however, as Taylor drew criticism from the United Nations and many Western governments, including the U.S., for his alleged involvement in revolutionary activities in neighboring countries and use of child soldiers.
In the years since Reeves’ 2000 flight from Liberia as a refugee, at least two revolutionary movements made significant territorial progress against Taylor, who in 2003 abdicated his office under international pressure and went into exile in Nigeria.
Now, Liberia has an interim government in place and is attempting to disarm various revolutionary groups and warlords throughout the countryside in advance of national elections next year.
Reeves is confident that tribesmen eventually will get equitable representation in government.
"We indigenous people are the vast majority, but I didn’t feel we should (take power) that way," he said. "It happens slowly, but we will get it."
Meanwhile, he’s looking forward to the day when education once again becomes a priority in Liberia and when it will compare to the system in the U.S.
"The government schools are poorly managed," Reeves said. "When the coup came in 1980, everything began to disintegrate again and had gotten worse."
Eventually, Reeves hopes to return to Liberia and help it rebuild. He certainly has plenty of ideas to bring to the table, as readers of his book have learned.
"A lady, she’s the office manager for my eye doctor, she bought a copy," Reeves said. "After reading it, she said, ‘I was born in a wealthy country and you were born in a poor country, but you have something to say to the world and I don’t.’"
To obtain copies of The Native Boy, call New World African Press at 1-818-642-8061 or write to 1958 Matador Way, Northridge, CA 91330. The cost is $19.95. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com