GGAA 2025 Inauguration Keynote Address
September 13, 2025
Pennsauken, New Jersey
Stronger Together: A Call to Krahn Unity
Ah gloo-gor ooo!!
It is both an honor and a deep joy to be with you tonight. I bring greetings and deep respect to the elders, to the leaders of the Grand Gedeh Association – Madam President, Mr. Vice President, officers, board members, distinguished guests, fellow Grand Gedeans, ladies and gentlemen!
Tonight, I don’t come just to speak. I come to stand with you, as one who understands the beauty and complexity of diaspora life, and the sacred responsibility we carry to honor our ancestors while forging a better path for our children. I come to celebrate the Grand Gedeh Association in the Americas, an organization that is fifty years strong! I come to celebrate you, Madam President, on this momentous occasion. I come to celebrate us!
We are the descendants of warriors and peacemakers, of farmers and revolutionaries, and entrepreneurs; of women and men whose footsteps carried the soil of Grand Gedeh in their hearts, even as they journeyed far from home. We are the children of Zwedru, Tchien, Gbarzon, Glio, Twarbo, Gborbo, Kanneh, Konobo, Putu and on and on. Though we now live in America, Gedeh lives in us.
As I speak to you of our heritage, I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you my own lineage. So let me introduce myself to you. My name is Sailume Thelma Deaboan Jaydah Mamie Walo-Roberts. I am the daughter of Edith Walo Smith. My grandmother is Kowu Francis Toweh. For those of you folks who don’t know who she was, ask your elders. She served as the Vice Krahn Governor for decades. I’d like to think that many of my feminist values were gotten from her. She fought hard for women’s voices to be heard. She, along with women like Ma Watchen Gballah, Ma Pehyah Zelee, Ma Mary Gbeh, Ma Eva Sayon (affectionately known as Mamie Baker)…formidable women in their own rights. My grandfather was David T. Walo. A prominent businessman who owned several diamond mines and a fleet of transportation services running from Monrovia to Zwedru (known as Walo & Sons). And finally, I am the direct descendant of Baduaye Jaydah, that great leader of his clan, whom I’m named after, and whom many of you are also named after. In fact, it is believed that I am his re-incarnate. I share all this with you to show you that I am connected to you, to Grand Gedeh, and to GGAA.
We come from a proud people. The Krahn people of Grand Gedeh have long been known for their courage, industriousness, discipline, and deep loyalty. Our history is not always easy, but it is powerful. It is rooted in strength. And that strength did not disappear when we crossed the waters to come to America. It traveled with us – in our names, our languages, our food, our stories, and our faith.
Yet even with all this richness, I know, and you know, that our community here in the U.S. is not always united. Let us speak truth tonight. Not to shame, but to stir. We’ve formed factions. Some hold grudges, wounds unspoken. Some quietly step back, while others wait for someone else to act, to lead, to give, to care. We’ve stood on the sidelines, arms crossed, asking: “What are they doing over there?” When we should be asking: “What are we doing together?” Too many of us have walked away, formed small circles, focusing on what divides rather than what binds. But let me tell you this with love in my voice and fire in my spirit: A fractured family cannot flourish! Liberian proverb says: “When the fish cries, do not think the crocodile is laughing.” Even those who appear unaffected by division are suffering too, whether in silence.
As you heard earlier in my bio, I’m a mental health practitioner, a licensed professional counselor. I work with individuals navigating the complexities and daily stressors of life. As part of my work, I am asked to make psychological assessments of my clients. I’d like to do that here tonight, with GGAA as my client. I beg your indulgence.
Client Background:
Client is The Grand Gedeh Association in the Americas, Inc. (GGAA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization founded in 1975 in New York. Now five decades old, GGAA serves as both a cultural anchor and a development engine for Grand Gedeans in the United States and Canada, while maintaining a transnational commitment to Liberia, particularly Grand Gedeh County.
Presenting Concerns GGAA presents with concerns around navigating challenges related to maintaining cohesion across its chapters, managing leadership transitions, and strengthening coordination, all while balancing the immediate needs of diaspora communities with long-term commitments to Grand Gedeh’s development. Over the years, tensions have occasionally surfaced around issues of unity, generational shifts in leadership, and the complexities of aligning multiple chapters with overlapping missions.
Strengths (Protective Factors)
- Longevity & Legacy: Operating since 1975 with sustained community presence. Demonstrates resilience, adaptability, and staying power.
- Clear Mission: Commitment to unity, peace, education, and humanitarian service, dispute resolution, and leadership cultivation.
- Community Anchor: Provides belonging and cultural identity for Grand Gedeans in the U.S. and Canada.
- Transnational Reach: Engages both diaspora needs and reconstruction efforts in Liberia. Reflects a strong ethic of responsibility and global citizenship.
- Cultural Preservation & Education: Strong emphasis on cultural pride, youth advancement, and leadership skills.
Areas for Growth
- Unity & Cohesion: Managing internal conflicts and strengthening coordination across chapters.
- Generational Continuity: Increasing youth participation and preparing future leaders remain a pressing need.
- Conflict Resolution in Practice: Developing systems for healing ruptures and fostering reconciliation.
- Strategic Partnerships: Expanding collaboration with other Liberian and African diaspora organizations.
- Sustainability Planning: Balancing immediate humanitarian responses with sustainable, long-term development initiatives.
Treatment Goals
- Strengthen Unity: GGAA will Implement intentional structures to reduce division and improve collaboration.
- Invest in Leadership: GGAA will build pathways for intergenerational leadership and mentorship by creating opportunities for young members to take visible leadership roles.
- Enhance Communication: GGAA will create forums that encourage transparency, dialogue, and trust-building.
- Deepen Partnerships: GGAA will develop strategic collaborations for greater visibility and impact.
- Sustainability & Development: GGAA will Align activities with long-term visions for Grand Gedeh’s reconstruction and diaspora well-being.
Prognosis
GGAA’s prognosis is positive. The organization’s long history, deeply rooted cultural identity, clear guiding values, explicit interest in peace and unity provide a strong foundation for growth. With intentional investments in leadership development, intergenerational dialogue, and coordinated chapter activities, GGAA is well-positioned to deepen its impact both in the diaspora and back home in Liberia.
If I were to think of GGAA as a client sitting across from me, I would say this: you come to the room with incredible strengths. You have deep cultural roots, a long history of resilience, and a strong sense of purpose in keeping Grand Gedeans connected and proud of who they are. You’ve carried your community through decades, creating a home away from home while still keeping your eyes on Liberia.
But like any client, you also have areas for growth. At times, unity has been hard to maintain, conflicts have gone unresolved, and the voices of the next generation have not always been fully invited to the table. That doesn’t mean failure – it means the work is still ongoing.
What I see most clearly is potential. GGAA has all the tools and values it needs to not just survive, but to thrive. You have already shown strength, resilience, and love for your people. With intentional steps – strengthening communication, investing in youth leadership, and leaning into collaboration – you are well-positioned to write the next, stronger chapter of your story. The work now is to lean into healing the fractures, to repair where trust has been broken, and to nurture the voices of the next generation.
And just like any client I believe in, I see your prognosis as hopeful – because you already have within you everything you need for healing, growth, and transformation.
But I step out of the therapist’s chair now, and I look at you not as a client, but as family. We are not here to dwell on old wounds. We are here to rise together! Just as the name of our theme reminds us, ‘Together We Rise, one Union, one Grand Gedeh’ our task is to take all the beauty, wisdom, and endurance within us, and move forward as one.
The world does not need a divided GGAA. Grand Gedeh does not need a fragmented GGAA. Our children do not need a disconnected GGAA. What they need is our unity, our courage, and our collective vision. If we choose it, if we commit to it, we can rise higher than we ever have before – together.
And as we say in Liberia: “One finger cannot lift a stone.” Alone, we can do little. But together we rise.”
So I want to offer us a vision forward
Imagine what we could build with one voice:
- A scholarship fund that sends dozens of our children to college
- A cultural preservation initiative that teaches Krahn languages and storytelling to remember who we are
- A support network for our elders, our young mothers, our new arrivals
- A political voice that cannot be ignored because it speaks with one agenda
- A community that our children are proud to inherit – not one they watch fall apart
This is not a fantasy. This is our assignment. GGAA do you understand the assignment?! (in Krahn: “Our people, do you hear what I’m saying tonight?”)
May this inauguration mark a new chapter of healing and growth for GGAA. May we rise together, not in words alone, but in action, commitment, and love for one another.
Let unity be our legacy. Let love be our language. Let community be our compass. Together, we rise!
May God bless you; May God bless the Grand Gedeh Association in the Americas!
Ah gloo-gor oooo!! Ahzeeoooo!! Younsuah mahnay ah bo ooo!!
