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| LAM
President Kandakai
Sherman |
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Strategically located along the
Great Lakes waterway, Detroit
which is the largest city and
former capital of Michigan
embodies a small Liberian
community, which boasts of a
community center as its guiding
light.
Detroit has grown steadily over
the years, so as the Liberian
community. The 11,500sg ft.
Michigan Hall, the first of its
kind in any Liberian quarter in
the US is also considered as the
core of the community’s success
story, residents told FPA.
Liberian residents in city
attribute their unity in
diversity also to the Michigan
Hall. According to them, the
Hall stands as the beacon of
hope, because it provides
centrality of their union. “We
are a village. We hold together
as one people and this center
has been able to bring us
together,” said the youthful
President of the
Liberian Association of Michigan
(LAM),
Kandakai Sherman.
In an interview during a visit
to the city recently, Kandakai
told FPA that the Liberian
community in Detroit is serving
as the model of unity among
Liberians in the Diaspora.
“Here, we still
try to keep that village
mentality through this center.
If we don’t have that
centrality, our young people
will be easily strayed.”
According to documents,
Liberians in the community paid
$50,000 in cash to secure the
purchase of the center. Kandakai
said the funds were realized
from membership dues and added
that
close to over $160,000 have been
spent to improve the center.
“This has been done from
ingenuity. We did not receive
any grants. They money comes
from the membership dues and
programs we initiate as a
community.” (see
pictures of the center)
He said LAM was able to secure
some loans from the banking
institution to do some of the
major capital intensive works.
Overall, most of the work being
done on the center, including
electricity come from members of
the community who volunteer
their time to ensure the center
is improved to the state they
would be proud of.
Kandakai said the first phase of
the project was to secure the
perimeters of the building, to
ensure they provide the basic
renovation and the second phase
is to have programs that are
operational to attend to the
youth, most of who are
disconnected from the Liberian
society. “We are looking into
introducing them in a way that
while they are American
citizens, they should know also
about their root.”
The LAM has added a cable
television, internet Access, and
phone service (local access
only) to its growing list of
amenities that are offered at
the Liberian Hall. The TV
service will inform, educate,
and entertain; the Internet
service will facilitate the use
of the computer lab and after
school programs, as well
as provide job search and
application support; while the
phone service will make the
association more accessible to
its members and the larger
society.
In addition, the phone service
will provide teleconference
capability for satellite cities
(Lansing, Grand Rapids, etc)
Another section has tons of text
books waiting to be shippped to
Liberia. Kandakai said the books
were donated by philanthropists.
“We provide an office for our
African brothers. They too will
have access to the center and
together, we are going to build
an African union in this city.”
He said an after school program
is being launched at
the community center “where in
our kids will come and get
involved in positive activities.
We just want the best for them,
because we know how stressful
and competitive it is in this
country. The community is
focused on the young folks. We
have to take care of them.”
ULAA Board Chairman James Larsah
praised the LAM. "This community
stands as the lone symbol of
success and achievement. They
are graduating from depending
only on membership dues to
generating revenues from the
hall to support the community
programs and projects," said
Larsah amidst applaude from ULAA
Board members who attended a
major meeting at the center last
Saturday.
No Liberian youth in jail
Kandakai disclosed that the
community’s village strategy
saves young Liberians from going
to jail. “I don’t know of any of
our young adult in prison at
this time, unless I am not
aware. We are very grateful that
we all work as a village to
ensure that our kids are doing
the right thing. When we see
something going wrong, we move
quickly to handle it before it
goes out of hand.”
For the most part, he credited
the Michigan Hall as an
advantage. “This is where we all
meet and the manner in which we
interact will spill over to our
kids. One of the problems we
have in other Liberian
communities is that we don’t
have that centrality of assembly
and as a result everyone is left
individually. It is easy under
such condition for a collective
to address an issue than an
individual.”
Community unity in diversity,
the Michigan Strategy:
"The purpose of community unity
is to promote unity in diversity
by encouraging understanding
between people who are different
from one another. This is what
we do here and we have been very
successful doing it through this
center,” said Kandakai.
The young outspoken leader said
the intention of his community
unity drive is not only to
advocate, but to educate people.
He noted that lack of
information and communication
can lead people to speak and
behave in ways that are damaging
to others, that are contrary to
the spirit of their own values,
and that reflect badly on the
community and its people.
“Here in Detroit, we encourage
meaningful dialogue, lessen
division, clear away
misunderstanding, counter act
stereotyping, and open hearts.
We are Liberians and not what
tribe is this person and that
person,” Kandakai said, feeling
very relax about the
all-embracing progress his
community is enjoying so far.
“It is very easy sometimes for
us to judge people by what we
have heard about them, but we
have been successful in
discouraging such vices here.”
Saying “We are taking care of
our people”, Kandakai told FPA
that his administration’s
respect for basic human dignity
and peaceful resolution of
conflicts among Liberians is
core factor that continues to
serve them well. “Like I said,
we strive to make sure our
people here are working
together. I won’t say we are
100% perfect, but we are doing
better.”
Kandakai said his administration
has been successful in uniting
the community based on trust.
“We tent to first start from the
position of distrust. We have
turned the table on that. We put
in place a team of officers
who have exhibited that we are
indeed transparent; that we are
indeed accountable. That warms
up our community people to
continue to give their
continuous supports.”
He said his team introduces
programs that attract “our
membership. We have two major
annual programs. We have the
African Heritage program which
coincides with the black history
month and our own Independent
Day program. These are our most
successful programs and we use
them to sell our vision to
the community about the center
and other projects. They are our
bread winner.”
In the words of Steve Jobs,
Kandakai said “If you are
working on something that you
really care about, you don’t
have to be pushed. The vision
pulls you. This center will lead
us to the promised land, because
we are working day and night to
make sure we achieved our
goals.”
Message to other Liberian
community leaders:
“My suggestion will be for us to
start building trust among
ourselves. We should start by
selling ourselves in a
transparent way. As leaders, we
can’t make it without trust and
transparency. I know this has
dodged a lot of our leaders. We
are no exception, because it
took us a while to transition
from the phase of mistrust to a
phase of trust. Transparency and
accountability is the hallmark.
Anything that is entrusted to
you must be accounted for. In
our case, every event we have,
we have a financial report that
is presented to our membership.
They know that whatever they
spent is being accounted for.”
Big Conference underway in
Detroit
From the success of the ULAA
Board meeting held in Detroit
recently, there are calls
for LAM to revive a major
economic conference on Liberia,
which failed to kickoff in 2007
due to undisclosed reasons.
The purpose of the conference
will be to have Liberian and
Americans form an economic
partnership that will primarily
focus on the area of creating
awareness of the common bond
between Liberians and African
Americans; economic and social
development issues; priorities
for reconstruction and
development; and humanitarian
assistance.
This Forum is meant to provide
African Americans the platform
to explore business and
investment opportunities in the
new Liberia. Additionally, it
will afford African Americans
the opportunity to reestablish
social, cultural and economic
ties with the Liberian people by
being a pivotal part of the
reconstruction efforts in
Liberia. Many look to seeing
the conference become a reality
this Fall.
