Fatima Massaquoi

Fatima Massaquoi-Fahnbulleh (25 December 1911 – 26 November 1978) was a Liberian writer and academic.

Massaquoi was born in Gendema in the Pujehun District of southern Sierra Leone in 1911 (others give the date as 1904), the daughter of Momolu Massaquoi, who in 1922 became Liberia's consul general in Hamburg, Germany, and Massa Balo Sonjo.

At birth, she was given the name Fatima Beendu Sandimanni, but dropped the Beendu before it became part of her records.

Her paternal grandfather was King Lahai Massaquoi of the Gallinas, and her paternal grandmother was Queen Sandimannie (or Sandimani) of Sierra Leone's aristocratic Vai family.

In 1922 she accompanied her father, a diplomat, to Hamburg, Germany, where she completed her school education and started a course in biology at the University of Hamburg.

She went with him to Hamburg in 1922, where she lived at the consulate at 22 Johnsallee.

Receiving her primary school education at St. Anschar Höhere Mädchenschule, Massaquoi quickly mastered German.

On the recommendation of the consulate's housekeeper, Gertrude von Bobers, to whom she became very attached, in 1932 she spent some time in Geneva, Switzerland, where she learnt French at the École Supérieure et Secondaire.

The same year, she returned to Hamburg, attending the Helene Lange Schule, where she received her school leaving certificate in 1935.

She then started to study medicine at the University of Hamburg but broke this off when she left Germany.

Hans J. Massaquoi, her nephew, who was in Hamburg during the same period, recounts that "Tante Fatima" dressed exotically in African clothing, proudly maintained her African habits and spoke the Vai language.

One of her fondest friends in Hamburg was Richard Heydorn, a pianist, with whom she gave many recitals.

An opponent of Nazism, when war broke out he was sent to Russia, and was later reported missing in action.

Being part of the first black diplomatic family in Germany had always been challenging, but with the rise of the Nazi regime, Massaquoi's father began fearing for her safety.

With the assistance of friends, he helped her relocate to the United States to avoid the Aryan policies and restrictions placed on women.

Massaquoi arrived that same year in the United States and experienced the racial segregation and Jim Crow laws of the Southern States.

She first attended Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, graduating in sociology.

In 1937 she moved to the United States for further education, studying sociology and anthropology at Lane College, Fisk University and Boston University.

While in the US, she collaborated on a dictionary of the Vai language and wrote her autobiography, though a legal battle ensued over the rights to her story.

She agreed to accept a fellowship as a linguistic advisor, after her father died in 1938.

She taught French and German at Fisk and also paid her way by giving instruction in African and European folk dancing, as well as teaching the violin, thanks to her own competence on the instrument.

In 1940, Massaquoi finished writing an autobiographical account of her early life as a tribal child, her life experiences with Europeans and education in Germany and Switzerland, and impressions of America.

Two years later she moved to Fisk University in Nashville earning two master's degrees, first in sociology and then in anthropology in 1944.

She assisted her professor, Mark Hanna Watkins, in his understanding of the Vai language, cooperating with him in compiling a Vai dictionary.

Watkins told her the English was too poor for publication, but later he claimed in a 1944 letter that she had written the account upon his insistence.

After completing her education in the United States, she returned to Liberia in 1946, making significant contributions to the cultural and social life of the country.

Born into a family of African royalty, Massaquoi grew up in the care of an aunt in Njagbacca, in the Garwula District of Grand Cape Mount County of southern Liberia.

After seven years, she returned to the northwestern part of the country in Montserrado County, where she began her schooling.

She won an injunction barring others from publishing it, and returned to Liberia in 1946, immediately beginning collaboration to establish a university there, which would become the University of Liberia.

Committed to national cultural preservation and expansion, Massaquoi served as the director, later dean, of the Liberal Arts College and was the founding director of the Institute of African Studies.

She co-founded the Society of Liberian Authors, helped abolish the practice of usurping African names for Westernized versions, and worked towards standardization of the Vai script.

In the late 1960s, Vivian Seton, Massaquoi's daughter, had the autobiographical manuscript microfilmed for preservation.

After Massaquoi's death, her writings and notes were rediscovered, edited and published in 2013 as The Autobiography of an African Princess.

She was also the great-great-granddaughter of King Siaka of Gendema who ruled over the Gallinas in the 18th century.

Massaquoi spent her first seven years with her father's sister, Mama Jassa, in Njagbacca in the Garwula District of Grand Cape Mount County.

While she was there, one of her father's six wives, Ma Sedia, seriously injured Fatima's hands for a misdemeanor.

This caused her considerable pain throughout her childhood, hampering her ability to play the violin.

She later became a highly competent player, though she remained self-conscious about the scarring even as an adult.

After elementary school, she was sent to boarding school at Julia C. Emery Hall, attached to the Bromley Mission near Clay-Ashland in Montserrado County.

Momolu Massaquoi sought to give his favourite child, and only daughter, the very best education.