Their Journey

 The desire for further education and for economic opportunities helped influence the migration of rural dwellers to Monrovia, the capital city. Many of the descendants of Nyanfore and Nimley left Grandcess for Monrovia. Their journey may have started in the early 1900s. Some traveled by land and temporarily stayed in Grand Bassa before settling in Monrovia. Grand Bassa had a mission school run by missionaries who brought Grandcess children to the school as students.

Others left Grandcess for the city by non-missionaries or left on their own. For example, Jestina Wolo, granddaughter of King Nyanfore, came to Grand Bassa before later settling in Monrovia. She married Christie Doe in Monrovia. She was the daughter of Princess Nyanfore Boryonoh,  who was the daughter of Dagbayonoh Nyanfore and Queen Nyanjlee Weadi, a Wejlabo lady who born also Nanneh, Gbe Toe, and Mahkan, according to elder Joseph Nimely Toe and traditional history of Grandcess. The princess had many children, but only Jestina, Joanna, and Ben survived to adulthood. Jestina had six children, including Gloria and Christopher.

Gloria born Nana Yaw Owusu Agyeman and Kpolah Nanneh Tinubu. She was educated in the UK and in the US. Gloria was a member of AWINA and a founding member of Conforbelia, known as Concerned Women for a Better Liberia. Her involvement with these organizations and with the Nyanfore-Nimley Genealogical Research certainly exemplified her love for family, country, and people. She was the first born of her parents and knew well the family history, including the dates and times of birth of her siblings. She rightfully called herself "Lady Gloria Juah Doe of Grandcess", a title quite fitting a woman of majesty. She had wished to have visited present-day Grandcess, but that was not to be. She died on September 22, 2007. Her brother Christopher, who deceased years before, had two girl children.

Jestina’s younger sister, Joanna Wolo, came to Monrovia to live with her before moving to Firestone, where Joanna met and married Jacob Passawe. She had eleven children, consisting of Tonia Passawe, Wilfred Passawe, Famatta Passawe, and Bindu Reid. Famatta born Marie and Bill. Wilfred has three children. Famatta was the right hand "buddy" of her grandmother, Nyanfore Boryonoh. She was Boryonoh's companion in the community whenever the grandma visited the family. She provided information on her during the research. Like her grandmother, Famatta did not mince her words.  She died a few days after Gloria.

The grandmother's son, Benjamin Wolo, the sisters' brother, traveled to Grand Bassa as a boy and lived with a man called David Dillon. But Ben, according to report, ran away to Jestina in Monrovia complaining of mistreatment. Ben Wolo married Lucille Johnson. He born nine children, including Lynchene Saah, Charles Wolo, and Ben Wolo, Jr. Ben, Sr. died in the US after Jestina. His two sisters recorded their respective life story before their deaths. Please see audio/video specified.

                                                                                           JOANNA PASSAWE

James Nyanfore, Sr.,  son of Prince Dagbayonoh Kiah Nyanfore, Boryonoh's brother, traveled to Monrovia through Butaw, Sinoe County with other Grandcess young men for high school education. In Monrovia, he married Frances Teah Bleh, whom he met in Butaw. He later married Juah Kpan.

Like most Grandcess newcomers to the city, James Nyanfore lived in Old Krutown upon his arrival to Monrovia. The town was located in present West Point and was home of the Kru people, particularly the new arrivals. Few of the Nyanfore and Nimley family lived in-town Monrovia. The Nimleys, for example, lived on Newport Street, Lynch Street, and up Ashmun Street near the old government hospital. The central government demolished old Krutown in 1945 for the construction of an industrial park, entailing an electricity-supply complex, which never happened. The Kru were forced to settle in what is now called New Krutown in Bushrod Island that year. From New Krutown, James Nyanfore moved to Claratown, a vacant land owned by the Methodist church and there he and his wife Bleh built a house and where son James junior and daughter Elizabeth were born. The town was near to the newly built Freeport, which provided employment opportunity to dock and ship workers, mostly the Kru.

In Claratown as in other Kru towns mentioned, soccer was the main sport and the major recreation for the people. In Old Krutown, Bame was the most famous and victorious team, putting the Kru on the map in soccer in Liberia. Bame, in Kru, means "let us die", to state the players' courage to give their lives to win. Bame was the mighty Kru soccer club ever,  with its famous goalie Abanigo Daniel. Legend has it that he would sit in a chair and save the ball, and also that he would leave his goal and walk to the opponent's goal and back in the strong belief and trust in his team defense.

In Old Krutown and after, many of the Grandcess people attended the Pattern Memorial Methodist church, which was and is close to the town. The town had its own governor and other officials. It was a functional community. In Claratown, the Grandcess young people established an organization called Geenyanorbo, meaning "know yourself", a philosophy maintaining that you must know who you are for self-awareness and liberation. Failure to do so would lead one to defeat and to be controlled and suppressed. Nyanfore was a leader of Geenyanorbo, which met regularly in his house. Other members of Geenyanorbo included Debleh Moore and Accra Monsio. He was a jovial and friendly guy, sometimes making jokes, making people laugh, and beating the drums at the association's social functions.  But he disliked people taking advantage of him.

James Nyanfore, Sr. was down to earth. He never talked of his royalty and neither boasted of it. Instead, he demonstrated it with dignity, honesty, and integrity.  Mr. J.B. Titus, head of the Liberian Bureau of Public Health, where he worked while attending high school, commented on him stating: “During the time of his employment, I have found him honest, obedient and diligent”. Moreover, Bishop Willis King of the Methodist Church defended him when the Cuttington College School of Theology threatened to expel him for his advocacy on campus, his stance for justice, and importantly his sense and expression of what is now called "liberation theology". The bishop wrote the college, its foreign administrators, warning and advising of the rising African liberation advocacy and of the Africans determination to think and speak for themselves. He further said that what impressed him the most of Mr. Nyanfore was his (Nyanfore’s) independence of mind and his “manifest sincerity and, as far as I can discover, his solidity of character in the ordinary human virtues. I think his own individual conduct and his high–than-average family life will go a long way to offset certain theological misconceptions”. Truth to the warning, about 15 years later in the 60s, most of the African countries under colonial or foreign rule fought and gained their liberation and independence.

Nyanfore died at the age of 45. He born nine children; Boryonoh, Dagbayonoh, Elizabeth, James, Kronsiayon, Nimley, Marylou, Martha, and Comfort.

Boryonoh, aka Barnette James, was named after her grandaunt Boryonoh stated above. The namesake as a child migrated to Sierra Leone with her mother and later born Claudia and Nancy and other children who are also parents living in America.

Dagbayonoh, named after his grandfather, is James Nyanfore's first son. He was born in New Krutown. He left Liberia to the US as a teenager in 1966. He attended Fryeburg Academy, a prep boarding school in Maine and graduated from Georgetown University. Dagbayonoh married Beverly Renee Ingraham and born Tanneh Kiah Nyanfore, who married Arthur Peoples. Tanneh born Kiah Nyanfore Peoples and Dagbayonoh Kiah Nyanfore IV, aka Uri. Dagbayonoh fostered and raised three other children as his own. They are Celue Doe, Tdisho Doe, and Kathy Doe.

James Nyanfore, Jr., came to America in 1985. He married Jeanetta Edwards. Among his children are Kronsiayon, Massa, Teah, and Kiah. Kronsiayon and Teah have children.

His siblings, Kronsiayon and Nimley, died as boys. The other siblings; Elizabeth, Marylou, and Comfort born Newton Quioh, Sema Tulay, and Bobby Willis respectively. Martha born Geraldine Tulay and Richard Howard. Geraldine, called Munyan or Gbeh traditionally, married Wilmot Embree. She born Abraham Sheriff and ToVota  Embree.

                                                                       .                                                                                               

Moses K. Weefur, Sr., left Grandcess and lived with the Deans in Grand Bassa County and later with Clarence Simpson of Grand Cape Mount before moving to Monrovia. He married Cecelia Stryker and served as principal of Cape Palmas high school in Maryland County prior to settling in Kakata, where he was principal of the Booker T. Washington Institute (BWI). He had five children, entailing Kranyanh Weefur, Clarence Weefur, Caesar Weefur, and Moses Weefur, Jr., generally known as Johnnie Weefur. Senior Weefur named his son Clarence after Clarence Simpson, apparently in appreciation and honor of the former Vice President.

Naomi Koffa Kro Nimley Harmon left Grandcess for Maryland County at 14 years old. She lived with her father’s cousin, Kiah Nyanfore Jawlo or Mary Nyanfore Wilson, who was then married to Isaac Yancey. Naomi married Henry Harmon and born four children, including her first child Christiana Harmon. From Maryland, she came to Monrovia and resided on Ashmun Street.

Like Naomi, her younger sister Ruth left Grandcess to Maryland County to live with Wanneh Kiah Nyanfore, sister of Mary Kiah Nyanfore Wilson. From Maryland, Ruth migrated to Monrovia and lived with her sister before settling in her own house near Naomi. She born Augusta, who is now residing in the US. The two sisters had a brother named Samuel Nimley, who came to Monrovia from Grandcess. He married Marie Sherman, and they born Victor Nimley, who later migrated to America. Samuel died in 2000; he was the only son of his parents. He was four months old when his father Nimley died. The father was a son of Dagbayonoh Nimely, brother of Dagbayonoh Nyanfore.

Other members of the family traveled and settled in other parts of the world, such as Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, England, and the United States. David Nyanfore, another son of the prince, settled in Nigeria and was said to have had many children there. James Nimley moved to Sierra Leone and returned to Grandcess, where he became a superintendent. He had three children.

Doe Nimley, another son of Nimley, the king's brother, came to the United States in 1916. He may have been the first of the Nyanfore and Nimley family to have come and settled in the US. He married Christina Eldrigh in New York. He had six children. His granddaughter, Gwen, as indicated in the dedication, contributed immensely to the research of the family history. She held a bachelor's degree and had three children: Demor, Naima, and Thomas. Demor died as a teenager. Naima and Thomas have children.

Today, there are hundreds of descendants of Nyanfore and Nimley in Liberia, United States and also in other countries.

Doe Nimley's niece, Comfort Toe, came to America some years ago. She was born in Grandcess and is the daughter of Teewlo Nimley, a sibling of James Nimley or Nimley Nah. She born five children; Chris Toe, Alfred Toe, Standley Toe, Rose Toe, and Patricia Toe.

It was told that another family member called Nyanfore Wanneh migrated to the US many years ago. Her American born daughter in the early 70s contacted the Liberian Embassy in Washington, DC in search of her African, Grandcess-Liberian roots. Efforts to reach the daughter and for information have been unsuccessful at the time of the genealogical research on the Dagbayonoh family. Oral and traditional history, however, reveals that King Dagbayonoh Nyanfore had a daughter named Nyanfore Wanneh who had a daughter named Comfort Teah. Comfort died before 1980. Moreover, Dagbayonoh's son Kiah Nyanfore had a daughter named Nyanfore Wanneh, mother of Hymieh. But she died in the 70s and never traveled abroad. We are still searching for information on Nyanfore Wanneh or Wanneh Nyanfore who migrated to America. We would appreciate any lead.

The rural-urban migration of the Nyanfore and Nimley family was not different from that of many Liberians of African culture. By the 1940s, Grandcess experienced a mild out-migration, thanks in part to the abolishment of the 40- mile law, which stopped Liberians in the hinterlands from coming to Monrovia. With the abolishment of this law by President Tubman in the 1940s, many young people from rural communities like Grandcess left in large number for the capital city for education and for greener pastures. The declining economic condition discussed earlier was another factor resulting in the migration.

While most Grandcess youths who left for the city by way of Grand Bassa County and Rivercess County finally settled in Monrovia, few stayed in urban Bassa and Rivercess and made the areas their permanent settlements. Examples of those who stayed were the Seekies and the Broplehs. The latter is a direct descendant of Dagbayonoh Nimley. For instance, Dan Taryar Bropleh was the son of Blay Gbai Nimley, child of Dagbayonoh Nimley. Dan born Ambassador Philomena Bropleh Mensah, a resident of the United States. She has children and probably grandchildren.

Some Grandcess youths settled in other countries, including Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, USA, and the UK. Some also worked in the Royal Navy.

GET IN TOUCH WITH US

dnyanfore@aol.com