Meet Mary Korpo Kerkula. A Pan-Africanist and a woman who believes in women’s empowerment and telling the story of Africa as a designer. She is the current President of the Interim Student Associations. Mary has earned many awards and certificates in and out of her profession.
Decontee: What is your name?
Mary: My name is Mary Korpo Kerkula
Decontee: which county are you from?
Mary: I am from Lofa County, particularly Kolahun district but I was born in Zorzor district because my mother is a Lorma woman.
Decontee: How are your parents?
Mary: My parents are still alive and doing great, we live around the Johnsonville area.
Decontee: Can you picture your childhood days, how was it?
Mary: I grew up with my mother because my father had the opportunity to travel when I was two weeks old. I grew up in an environment where every other day, I had to witness my mother hide her pain behind her smile and struggle so passionately believing that there will be a change of life in the future. She had to give her youthful desires and pleasure in exchange for my education, something that I appreciate so dearly. I grew up in a household of not less than six people which allowed me to get along with people of different attitudes and backgrounds, including the community where I used to live. Males dominated the circle of community kids I grew up with and that helped with emotional balance dealing with both men and women. I adopted a lot of character tread from those boys, one of which has to do with courage as well as boldness and resilience to go after things that are of interest to me.
Decontee: What are some challenges you encountered in the political world and other work that you do?
Mary: There have been a lot of challenges, especially in the political space where opportunity has been given to men a lot, and in more cases, people see things from the perspective of men and exclude the fact that women bring more to the table. When I started politics it was a bit challenging, people think that those who look good in appearance are not critical upstairs. I had to change that narrative by being consistently involved to the point that there were days we never had means to transport ourselves and so we had to sleep in a particular place as a comrade. Based on the courage that was shown over time some people decided to change the narrative about us. The issues of bad-mouthing were still there but we had to be real to ourselves and withstood the challenges to go through the struggle so that our success story could be a motivation to others. Most often, I feel very proud of some women who are striving in their respective areas and exceeding in leadership positions to be able to contribute their ideas.
Decontee: What do you make of women being in politics?
Mary: Firstly, I will say, you have to be private about your life. As a woman growing up, society has pictures of a lot of biases about you, at times people look at you and tell you that you are to be married at a particular age or you should be this or that. But in the midst of all that you should be prepared for distractions and focus on what you want to achieve. If you look around our globe there are a limited number of women in leadership positions and one can boast of the difference they have made over time. Men have realized that the world will experience different changes globally when women are in leadership that is why whenever women take steps to be in leadership they go for our sexuality and social life, but as a woman, If you want to make a difference for your people and your country, you have to take into consideration many things and stand strong.
Another thing that will help our political journey, is the issue of emotional intelligence, knowing when to respond. That happened in the case of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who was a Liberian leader and currently, we are seeing the gender attacks on Kamala Harris in the US election process. The attacks on women from men in politics are not just in Liberia but it is a global situation, we can follow some of these great women leaders and strengthen ourselves to keep pushing.
Decontee: what are you involved with, apart from politics?
Mary: I am a student at the University of Liberia studying Biology and Chemistry. I am the current president of the interim student’s leadership and a Pan-Africanist.
I have a passion for women’s leadership, advocating that women be given equal opportunity as compared to men and have access to quality education, I also speak against elderly childhood marriage. Aside from politics, this is what I do.
Decontee: What are you doing currently for a living?
Mary: Currently there are a couple of skills that I do out of my political party SUP’s activities and based on those skills sometimes I get a contract to work along with an NGO, I am into these craft activities. But when it comes to my branding aspects, politics has been the more visible one for me. I am now trying to transfer that into an African designer brand that tells the African story of the different tribes. I want people to see me not as Winnie Mandela but as Kou Korpo one of the few women who can make a difference in the space.
Decontee: As a designer, can you talk a bit about the African dress code?
Mary: These African clothes have their own unique story because all of the different scripts and colors on the African continent tell us a meaning. For Liberia, we wear African clothes behind just to identify as African, but to be able to tell the story.
Our different hairstyles were used during the era of slavery to portray different meanings. During the Slavery era, cornrow indicated that there were soldiers ahead and you had to be careful, while the snake plait was a reminder that whatever path you were taking was a mountainous path. Those different hairstyles were used to sow seeds of different crops for agricultural survival. Taking things from that perspective I think it will apply to Liberia even though we have not had the opportunity to bring it forward yet, I believe that if we study it deeper, we will know the reality of our history. That is the journey I am on to brand myself as an African designer, since I have yet to have first-hand information on these things that is why I am very passionate about my African activities because I want to wear African clothes, not just for the fashion but because of history.
Decontee: What are some achievements you have earned in life?
Mary: I have had up to three to four awards and I am being recognized by local and international newspapers as a young women leader considering the work that I do. In December there will be another award but I don’t want to focus more on that because I believe that the work that we do should not just be limited to the title that we receive. Academically I have about five certificates in leadership training, and campaign management including my achievements and many more.
Decontee: What are some encouraging words you can send to the youth of this country?
Mary: Once a woman is empowered, she makes decisions from a place of choice. What I have observed over time due to the lack of formal empowerment and financial empowerment a lot of our sisters keep their lives in places they have no interest being. To every woman who has the opportunity to education, take that very seriously because it is something that cannot be taken away from us. We need to prioritize education if we want to make a change in our country.
Decontee: Thank you so much for your time.
Mary: Thank you as well.
