Fayiah A. Kabakole is one of the prominent Kissi men I have known over the years. His dynamic work as director of the Kissi programs and as announcer at ELWA Radio in Monrovia, Liberia in the good old days demonstrated his competence and shrewd eloquence. This helped to propagate the Kissi image in the world.<\/p>\n
Before the civil war in Liberia, Mr. Kabakole\u2019s voice at ELWA Radio invited old and young people of all walks of life in the Kissi chiefdoms in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and beyond. They anxiously sat near a radio, enjoying the evening zephyrs, as they listened to this marvelous Kissi radio announcer, Fayia Kabaa, as he was popularly known in those days.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, his listeners benefited immensely from his lectures on Christian principles, Kissi culture, and the ebullient stories he narrated. Even the Kissi farmers and other laborers after working all day long hurried home at dusk to their towns and villages to listen to Fayia Kabaa. With his bell-like resonant voice, he fed his listeners good Christian principles and the virtues of life. He narrated thought-provoking stories that lulled the tastes of his listeners. All of his stories ended in idiomatic Kissi expressions, which were also colored with strange jargon for his listeners to elucidate.<\/p>\n
Moreover, in\u00a0 his\u00a0 absence from Kissi land, all good memories of such traditional Kissi storytelling, jargon, and virtues of good Christian living still revisit the Kissi and other listeners of old, and those who have returned to their war-torn towns and villages in Liberia, and Sierra Leone after the blood-curdling carnage that ravaged the two countries in the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n
Today, Mr. Kabakole lives with his family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania\/USA where he immigrated at the peak of the hostilities in Liberia.<\/p>\n
It was indeed a privilege that I was able to give a helping hand to this great project, MY<\/i> SPIRITUAL<\/i> JOURNEY<\/i> IN<\/i> WAR<\/i>–TORN<\/i> LIBERIA<\/i>, through the auspices of the Makona Book Club, Inc. It is a gift to a man who first loved his kinsmen -the Kissi, and in return, we love him too.<\/p>\n
Bravo, Mr. Kabakole! May there be many more stories to come.<\/p>\n