Remembering Joanna Gbeh Passawe, An African Family Historian And Guru

Joanna Gbeh Passawe, affectionately called Aunty Jo, was a source of the Nyanfore - Nimeley family history. She was the matriarch and advisor. I met her over fifteen years ago in the US, though as a boy in Liberia, I had heard of her. She was a daughter of Princess Nyanfore Gboyonoh, a tough and strong Grandcess woman from Liberia.

Grandaunt Gboyonoh called herself “woman passed man”, because of her strength and energy. I did not see her but heard a lot about her. Aunty Jo, like her mother, believed in our African traditional culture.

She would say boldly and with pride that she was a “Siklio Ploh, Krao Ploh”, meaning I am a Grandcess woman, a Kru woman. As a young woman, she would tie her lappa, shake herself and walk majestically, just like her mother used to do. As she grew older, she became the family unifier, historian, head mother, a leader. She died Tuesday, October 8th in Monrovia, Liberia. She was 84 years old.

Aunty Jo was born April 15, 1929 in Grandcess, Grand Kru County in Liberia unto the union of Charles Wolo and Nyanfore Gboyonoh. The union produced sixteen children but only three lived to adulthood. Aunty Jo, her older sister Jestina Doe and young brother Ben Wolo were the surviving siblings. Jestina, named Sarwrobo in Kru, was born November 27, 1919. Ben, named Weah, was born March 1932. He was the gbawelleh, meaning the last child of his mother, Gboyonoh. She was a daughter of Dagbayonoh Nyanfore, ruler of Grandcess from 1901-1908. Dagbayonoh was also a warrior, fought against Western imperialism and against control by the central government. Gboyonoh was sister of Kiah Nyanfore, my grandfather. He named her daughter, Sarwrobo, praying that the child and those that would follow live to adulthood. The family is from the Niteor panton or Niteor-Nyapo panton, which is an offspring of the Nyapo panton, one of the original eight pantons in Grandcess. In the 1800s, Grandcess was an independent entity before it became part of the Liberian geographical ruling boundary of the central government. The area is an oceanfront land with white sand beaches, coconut trees and with golf course-like inland landscape, just like Palm Beach, Florida without the physically made structures. The late President Edwin Barclay praised the beauty of the land when he visited Grandcess and Barclayville during his administration. Kplepo, the original and traditional name of Barclayville, was changed in the 1930s to the latter name after Barclay without apparent consent and approval of the inhabitants.

Aunty Jo discussed her parents in a research interview as followed. “My mother was a tom-boy growing up in Grandcess. She would wrestle and defeat the boys. She hung out with them. My grandfather, King Dagbayonoh Nyanfore, was concerned about my mother's activities. Then she met my father, Wolo, who, on the other hand, was quiet and stayed to himself. He was an orphan. His parents died shortly after his birth. The village generally raised him and cared for him.

So my grandparents advised my mother not to be rough and difficult with Wolo, who was interested in her. People in the village thought that he did not have a chance with her. To the surprise of the village, my mother changed in her behavior with my father. They married shortly later”.

Aunty Jo and her two siblings lived in Grandcess until later they came to Monrovia. First, Jestina went to Grand Bassa for school. In Monrovia, she married Christie Doe, giving birth to Gloria and to five other children, including Scholastica Gbeh Doe and Stephen Doe. Ben married Lucille Johnson, giving birth to eight children, including Charles, Gboyonoh, Nyema and Ben Wolo, Jr. He also born Benedicia, his first child. In 1944, at the age of 15, Aunty Jo came to Monrovia to live with Jestina. But she returned to Grandcess because she missed her mother. However, she came back to Monrovia later and stayed for good.

Aunty Jo married Jacob Passawe in the 50s. Mr. Passawe came from Grand Cape Mount and was working with Firestone as a medical dresser or nurse. The family moved to Bomi Hills. They born Maiah Tonia, William, Willie, Wilfred, Andrew, Famatta, Jacob and Rose.

Although Aunty Jo loved her mother very much and supported her on many matters, she spoke out when she felt that her mother was wrong by trying to take control of the house sometimes when the mother visited. She said further. “My husband did not appreciate that and I supported him. But that was Mama; to her we the women were still her girls. This take charge or take control behavior was part of her as a Nyanfore, fearless, always in control”.

Equally so, speaking out and taking a position on issue is a family legacy. For instance, the late Thorgues Sie, a family member, stood up against injustice during the Tubman's regime in Liberia and therefore was jailed for many years in the 50s. Gboyonoh's nephew James Nyanfore stood up for what he believed to be right.

When Aunty Jo came to the US to spend time particularly with Wilfred, Famatta and Rose, I had the opportunity to interview her for my genealogical research on the family. I had missed interviewing her older sister Jestina, whom I felt would have provided more information since she was an older sister. But Jestina died before I could interview her. I felt bad about that.

Gloria, her daughter, was mad at me too. We all, with the late Gwen Lee, had made the family history project our mission. However, when I met Aunty Jo, I was amazed of her wealth of family information. She was like a working encyclopedia. She knew dates, names, places, events, people and their relation to the family. She had the family history on her finger tips.

I cross checked her information and they were accurate. Gloria and her sister Wanneh, or Jestina Doe Anderson, conducted the initial interview with Aunty Jo and Brother Ben Wolo, Sr. That interview showed the extension of the family connection beyond Grandcess, Liberia to other places. Unfortunately Ben died shortly after the interview. Gloria also passed on. With Ben's death, Aunty Jo became the only surviving sibling of the Nyanfore Gboyonoh –Charles Wolo's children. She also became the oldest member of the Nyanfore family.

Ben and Aunty Jo were closed. He was the little one, and the sisters would come to his defense. Aunty Jo and the late teacher Kpan, a relative on the mother's side, were instrumental in removing him from a non-family member's home, where he was mistreated as a boy.

He was quiet and did not complain about his mistreatment. Like Aunty Jo, he came to Monrovia and resided with his sister Jestina, who also had experienced similar treatment in Grand Bassa. Ben attended St. Patrick's School in Monrovia. As stated before, he later married Lucille, whom as a girl went to St. Theresa Convent, a girl counterpart school of St. Patrick.

By 2005 Aunty Jo left the US for Ghana to care for her grandchildren and son Jacob, who had gone to Ghana because of the Liberian civil war. Among the children was Famatta's son Bill, who had accompanied her to Ghana. “I brought him with me so he can experience Africa and learn Kru”, she told me when I visited the family in Ghana a year after. Bill was certainly speaking Kru. I was impressed. “I want him to know his language”, she added. But few years later, Famatta suddenly died.

Aunty Jo was devastated and heart- broken. Famatta, like her grandmother Gboyonoh, was like a rock, pillar and stood for the family. Aunty Jo mourned her for months, nearly a year, but she remained strong. She continued to take care of the children, including Famatta's daughter Marie and granddaughter Kula in Monrovia until her death.

Few days before her death, she and her daughter Rose sang Kru religious songs. She was in essence singing in her cultural language, thanking God and saying goodbye. She said goodbye to son Wilfred when she advised a day before passing to prepare the house for visitors. She knew she had performed her duty well, told her story well and the history of the family. She advised us to move on and carry on the family legacy.

As I looked back and at the many materials collected on the family, I thank Aunty Jo and other deceased family members who have given me information in the research on my people. Recording and documenting our history has been a pleasure.

I would encourage others with elderly family members to talk to them and document family history before they pass on. They do not have to be public officials, celebrities and famous. Every person has a story and every family has a history. Write it down, value your own! Talking and documenting with Aunty Jo our family history was an honor.

She was not rich materially but wealthy with her inner-self, dignity, integrity, the family she raised, and the story she told of herself and of her people. I will miss her caring, laughter, singing and talking in our traditional culture in person. But with video recording technology, we can always see and hear her telling family stories. Future generations also will hear her. She was a great source.

Thank you again Aunty Jo.
May your soul rest in heavenly peace!

Joanna Gbeh Passawe