Haindii — Chiefs of Fuamah District in Lower Bong County have overwhelmingly endorsed their son, Mr. Rufus Seward Tartee, as their preferred candidate for their district seat in the House of Representatives for the October 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections.
The endorsement from the “landowners” happened at one of their regular meetings in Haindii on Saturday, May 28, where their Paramount Chief, Elder Joseph Tartee, resides.
All the clan chiefs, elders, and town chiefs from the seven clans in Fuamah District were in attendance to endorse Mr. Rufus S. Tartee, who was visiting with his parents and other relatives in that part of Bong County.
RT, as Rufus is affectionately referred to, is resident in the US State of Indiana. Nevertheless and because of his love for his home country Liberia and his home district, he is most times in Liberia twice or thrice every month.
After the chiefs and elders had discussed the main purpose for which they had gathered- development initiatives in their district- they then invited RT, who was at the time in Haindii and had helped provide some of the amenities for their meeting.
It was during that time that RT’s father, Paramount Chief Tartee told his subordinate chiefs that his son is going to vie for the district’s representative seat so he was introducing him to them and asked them to endorse him as their preferred candidate before another person shows up.
“For the many years I have served as your Paramount Chief and we have worked together, I have never asked such favor from you. This is my first time; please accept my request and make Rufus your preferred candidate,” he said in the Kpelle language, in which the dialogue for the entire meeting was conducted. At the end of his speech, he summed it up by traditionally handing a small bowl containing some white kola nuts and brownish-white rice to the elders.
All the seven clan chiefs came up, received his offer, and took time making carefully-worded speeches. During their separate remarks, they all overwhelmingly endorsed RT and at the end of each remark, each took a kola nut, broke a piece from it and chewed as his sign of endorsement for RT. As that was happening a female chief came up, took a handful of the rice and began sprinkling the seeds on everyone in the jammed, packed hall, as she chanted more blessings for RT and for the land.
In his gratitude speech to the chiefs and elders, RT, despite him being away from the region for many decades, addressed the landowners in very fluent Kpelle to the amazement of some. “I want to thank you for your endorsement today. By the grace of God, I will be running to represent our district in the coming election. I am sure I won’t be the only candidate from this district vying but one thing you all can now bear witness to is that I am the first, who has come to all of you to ask you for your endorsement,” he said among other things.
RT had contested in the last [2017] legislative election and lost. “I did run in the last election and lost. I realized that I made some serious mistakes. We came and just jumped into the race without consulting with you people, our landowners. But this time, we want to correct that mistake. This is why I came asking that you consider making me your choice, which you all have done. I thank you again.” At the end of his speech, he then urged them to ask him questions about things they might have heard about him. He received rounds of applause from his audience.
The discussions began more interesting with the elders giving various opinions, including suggestions of waiting to see others, who, too, might come. Notwithstanding, they all thanked him for respecting them and coming to them to ask for their blessings because they are the ones who elect representatives for the district.
RT now has an uphill battle to also convince the chiefs and elders of Sanoyea District, where he is not originally from. But one positive thing that he has done is that he has managed to win his “house” over first.
Sanoyea is an adjacent but separate district also in Bong County. For the electoral purposes, the National Elections Commission combined both districts as one electoral district, making both have a single representative seat in the House of Representatives.