Civil War Survivor Donates Books On War To Library …Says Liberia Needs Healing For Progress

By Kingston S. Kolleh

 William Nyanue, a survivor of the Liberian Civil War of the Krahn ethnic group from Grand Gedeh County has donated three copies of a book that he authored to the National Public Library.

The book which was donated over the weekend to the National Public Library on Ashmun Street in Monrovia is entitled “Witness the Hand of God in the Liberian Civil War.’’

It detailed horrifying accounts of the Liberian Civil War relative to an eye witness accounts of the crushing effect of the war by a family that experienced it.

Mr. Nyanue, averred he wrote the book so that it can help readers appreciate the terrifying experiences of the Nyanues and other survivors of the war and that it contained an episode on reconciliation saying that the donation was due to the lack of books written by Liberian writers including his. 

As Mr. Nyanue returned home in 1985 after acquiring Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Arizona in the United States of America, he began contributing his quota to the nation building process but his dream was later thwarted due to the upsurge of armed rebellion against the Government of the slain Liberian President Samuel K. Doe, a Krahn man in 1990.

He wrote in the book that  his family’s ordeal began on September 3, seven days before President Doe was brutally captured  at the Freeport of Monrovia and tortured to death by his assailants narrating that the Nyanue’s Family was rounded up from the northern part of the besieged capital and taken behind the rebel line.

“That evening as they were being led from their hideout in a single file with hate, anger and evil hovering over them, Moses’ response to his panicking and desperate countrymen echoed in his ears, “Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today,” it reads.

Speaking at the donation ceremony, Mr. Nyanue said that his family’s survival was amazing as they could not comprehend because for seven months they lived and moved about in terror and panic among their captors as they could walk to their captives looking for a targeted person or two to kill.

“But they could not identify the Krahn Family because his tribe people were being targeted by the rebels and of course the Nyanues dared not reveal their own identity; by all account we would have been dead,” Nyanue recalled.

The Independent Consultant then quoted the Bible as saying, “Let the Redeemed say so” stressing that if God delivers any one or group of people from life threatening or any other situations, they are under biblical obligation to profess the goodness of God.

According to him, the country needs sustained healing as such; he said that national dialogue is critical to finding lasting solutions for peace in the country stating that the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court is necessary because it will provide the perfect opportunity so that victims can tell their stories and for perpetrators to sincerely apologize for crimes they committed.

He further intoned that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission was successful because perpetrators demonstrated courage and apologized to those who were victimized noting that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Liberia failed because it was politicized.

“Let the President muster the courage and face the reality not with anger and animosity but with the mindset that atrocities were committed on the land for the people to heal the nation,” he said.

For his part, Christian Jlatuh, Director, National Public Library lauded Mr. Nyanue for the donation adding that it is a resource material and urged Liberian Writers and others to emulate the good example Mr. Nyanue.

He disclosed that the library is faced with challenges as such, he encouraged the public to visit the library as they may have solutions to some of those challenges in their homes.