Liberia: Big funeral in Sanoyea for Christian Mother who opened her home to strangers, fed people, during two civil wars

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated!

By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|Editor-Publisher from Sanoyea, Bong County
A SPECIAL PICTORIAL BY AUTHOR

At Mother Vohn Malomene Tehmeh Yekeson’s burial Saturday, Jan. 10, in Walama Village, along the dirt road leading to central Liberia’s Gbarnga, in Bong, or Sukrumu, Lofa County, it was all jubilation in the LORD, and there was hardly any crying!

Even in one particular instance where a male relative, or son of the deceased spoke and came close to sobbing, he was expressing regret concerning how love, as the deceased had envisaged for her family, seems to be fading away.    

The absence of tears at the funeral wasn’t indeed an ominous sign of some sort but rather, a satisfactory life she had lived here on earth-especially in Christ Jesus before God called her to Glory December 25, 2025. 

A special Gazette read by one of Mother Malomene’s great-granddaughters, Kwataley Tejan, described her as a caring mother, and grandmother, one who served as a “bridge” or “unifier” in her extended African Family. 

Born March 15, 1913, according to the lifesketch, she lived to be 112 years old, which made her a Supercentenarian. She was born to a family of Kingship known as “Wulah-Tehmeh and Gormai Lokolo” of Boyorma Town, Sanoyea District, formerly, Central Province.

For eleven decades Malomene saw Liberia transitioned from one government (political power) to another and could write an entire book, telling it all per her own personal experiences if she had so wished prior to her demise. 

It’s not clear though when she came to Christ but Mot. Malomene was said to be a faithful Christian, according to her lifesketch-a woman “known for her kind posture, who never picks or chooses among her children and family.” 

Her smiles, they said, never faded away, even during difficult times, something many people, particularly her children and grandchildren, said they would remember her for years to come.

She came from a Kpelle background, steep in traditional beliefs, but she later gave her life to Jesus Christ and became a regular worshiper at the local Sanoyea Lutheran Church, taking most of her relatives along, and receiving baptism there. 

It is said that for many years, she walked from her ancestral village of Walama to Sanoyea Town, a fairly good distance away, to worship, carrying along her grandchild, now Mrs. Ellena K. George, a current Minnesota resident who flew in for the burial. 

At her funeral, relatives said Grandma Malomene kept praising God and acknowledging His divine presence while she was “on her dying bed!” 

During the country’s bloody civil wars in the 90s and in the early 2000s, Malomene’s home became a refuge for many fleeing those brutal wars. Testimonies abound of how she fed people and kept her “doors” open to strangers needing shelter or meals. 

By all accounts she lived a blessed life, leaving behind 45 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, plus eight great-great grandchildren. There are 11 adopted children, otherwise referred to by Nonagenarian Rev. Dr. Abba Grogro GbidiDein Karnga as “Children of Glory!” 

The funeral service was characterized by the rendering of fine hymns from English and Kpelle Choirs of Sanoyea Lutheran Church. Kpelles of Liberia maintain English and Kpelle Language choirs in their churches just as the Bassas, and often blessed bereaved families with attractive purses to help ease funeral burdens. 

Both ethnic groups conduct their Christian worship service in identical fashion: their men and women are seen clad in colorful, and sometimes, extravagant African attires with matching headwraps for the women. 

They go in the Presence of God with “Fear and Trembling,” giving all their best in tithe, offering, dancing heartedly, and praising God through songs.

No modern bands or guitars; only African-made musical instruments like Sasa and drums, which most immigrant churches abroad, including the U.S., now avoid because Bible Colleges, or Western Theology teaches that these tools are manufactured by “Poro society men,” a cultural practice viewed in parts by some as being affront to Christianity.

On the contrary, such assertions are far from the truth because, the referenced musical tools used at worship services here like Sasas and drums (Djembes) are normally produced and sold for living by locals themselves and thus hold no affiliation with “Poro” or Indigenous “ritual spirituality.”

The Holy Bible does not provide Christians with a list of specific instruments to be used in worshipping God. However, it gives a clue, instructing Christians to use whatever tools available, to praise Him from their hearts. Psalm 150:3-4, Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!”(ESV).    

As part of Saturday’s funeral procession in Sanoyea, two drummers, or “Djembe” players, a man and a young woman led the traditional Kpelle Choir into hymns and Christian Kpelle songs, backed by three Sasa-playing women, while mourners danced and circled the casket.

Rev. Gayflor Yah, a senior pastor at Sanoyea Lutheran Church delivered the funeral discourse, preaching strictly from the Book of Ecclesiastes, and how one King of Israel named “King Solomon,” after being blessed by God and acquiring much “riches” of every kind, ended up describing “all” as “meaningless!” 

Rev. Yah cited King Solomon’s “700 wives” and also “300 girlfriends,” as he called them, saying there was nothing this king wanted and he didn’t own or get. Though a familiar story, faces turned stern almost in total disbelief, and that’s because, though true, “1000 women” for a single man, seemed “over the top,” for the Kpelles, whose ancestors also practiced polygamous culture.

Rev. Yah, an erudite preacher, would later breakdown his main idea or theme to one key word: LOVE, and even translate his entire message in the local Kpelle Language for his wider audience, urging everyone to desist from following the “winds” as the king called it, and instead follow God’s Will.

He warned local men and women against practicing any form of acts of witchcraft such as using “Alligator guts” and poisoning another “someone” and watching the person die, and thereafter, “you sit there and feel happy,” and go around merry making.  Christians, or “people” who carry out such demonic things he said, are destined for “hell fire” in the end.   

Touching tributes came also from the deceased’s own family, the community, churches as well as organizations, among them, the Biblical Discipleship Ministries of Liberia, led by Rev. Jeremy Yoder, and the Lutheran Church of Liberia (LCL). 

Head of Liberia’s President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s charity, Hon. Jackson K. George Jr., was among prominent citizens who traveled to Sanoyea along with a couple of his staff to participate in Grandma Malomene’s funeral rites. George Jr. is an in-law of the “Wulah-Tehmeh-Gormai” dynasty and married to Ellena Kaine George.

A SPECIAL PICTORIAL FROM THE MALOMENE’S HOMEGOING BELOW: