IPNews-Monrovia,Liberia-17 January 2018: Clarence Weah-Young Brother of President-elect George M. Weah says that seeing his older brother, George Weah, get elected president of Liberia is like a dream come true, he’s hearkening back to an old family story.
Clarence Weah who is a former Springfield College student and player, recalled when his mother, Anna Weah, who died in 2012, told him and some of his siblings about her earlier dream of George becoming president someday.
“When she told us, we all laughed,” remembered Clarence, now 36. “We were little kids at the time. We were naive and didn’t know the importance of dreams.”
Seeing the Dec. 26 election results, admitted Clarence, made him cry and believe in dreams even more.
“I cried not because my brother was elected president,” said Clarence, who now lives in Fargo, North Dakota. “It was because my mother had this dream, she told us the dream and we laughed, and now she’s not here to see it.
“It’s amazing, just amazing to see him achieve that,” said another of the president-elect’s brothers, William Tarpeh Weah Jr., who has lived in Springfield since 1995. “People said he’ll never be president. I’m proud of him. I’ve always been proud of him.”
Both Clarence and William are planning to attend the Jan. 22 inauguration in Monrovia. It will be Clarence’s first return to Liberia since he came to Springfield in 2001.
George Weah, 51, is one of the most celebrated names in international soccer, having been named the African Player of the Century by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, and starring as a world-class striker in the 1990s for premier European clubs like A.C. Milan and Paris Saint-Germain.
Weah, who ran for president in 2005 and has served as a senator since 2014, succeeds Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who completes two six-year terms, in the first peaceful transfer of power in Liberia since World War II. By all accounts, Weah’s task won’t be easy.
Liberia suffered two civil wars between 1989 and 2003 that claimed the lives of an estimated 250,000 people, including Sister Barbara Ann Muttra, a Springfield native and a member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ religious congregation. Most of the country’s infrastructure was decimated during that period and many families fled.
Liberia had the highest number of deaths from the 2014 Ebola outbreak — 4,809, according to the World Health Organization — though that figure may have been under reported.
According to the World Food Programme, Liberia is classified as “a least developed, low-income, food-deficit country” and it ranks 177 out of 188 countries on the 2015 Human Development Index.
Weah, who grew up in the slums of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, is generally acknowledged as the country’s most popular figure, and “Mister George,” as he is known, is particularly idolized among young people, with half the country’s electorate under the age of 33.
Weah made a public visit to Springfield in 2009 when he was a guest of the Springfield International Soccer Club’s annual tournament. He also visited family here privately in 2010.
Charles Purser, who helped Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois Springfield) win a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national championship in 1986, thinks Weah may be the answer for his native Liberia.
“We need for change to occur. I pray for it,” said Purser, 57, who is also Weah’s cousin.
“I don’t know of any professional athlete who has become president of the country. I think he’s a special person.”
Eddie Kingston, who starred at Springfield College in Illinois and UIS, played alongside Weah for the Liberian national team. The two also trained together in New York City, which has a large Liberian diaspora.
“He’d be driving around New York,” recalled Kingston, “and he’d be making comments about the roads and bridges, wondering why Liberia didn’t have these things.
“I think he’s going to do what it takes to help Liberia succeed. I hope he surrounds himself with people who share his same agenda and his same goals.”
Kingston, 37, who lives in Brooklyn and runs the Play For Peace Foundation, recalled sharing a plane ride with Weah from the Ivory Coast to Liberia. Because of the ongoing civil war, the two found themselves on a rickety 12-seat propeller plane.
“The flight took almost four hours (though it was only a short distance),” recalled Kingston. “The plane was shaking and we had to move seats several times to balance out the weight.
“I’m thinking, this is a guy who has achieved everything in the soccer world. He’s on a plane that could’ve gone down, but he wanted to be on it, to honor his country (by playing the game).”
Aydin Gonulsen — who recruited Purser and a long line of other Liberians, including Ezekiel “Zico” Doe, Francis Jallah, Patrick Chae and Isaiah Lincoln, among others, to Sangamon State — called Weah “an ambassador for the game.”
“He will relate to everyone in the country and he will relate to his people, but politics is a different animal,” said Gonulsen, who won three National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) titles at Sangamon State.
“Most people have given up on our country,” added Purser. “Some (Liberians) have said they would never set foot in the country again.
“With George in power, the young people will give him a try. I’d do anything to help (him) succeed.”
William Weah, 52, who played soccer at Lincoln Land Community College and has a business administration degree from UIS, said the relatively peaceful and undisputed election that brought his brother to power may be a harbinger for Liberia.
“Like everyone, I have high hopes for Liberia,” said William, who works for the Illinois Secretary of State. “Yes, there’s a chance I might go back (to live in Liberia), but I don’t know yet.
“Every person from Liberia who comes to America, it’s their dream to go back one day.”
On inauguration day, Clarence Weah said he will thinking about his mother and her fortuitous dream.
“There are going to be,” he said, “a lot of tears of joy that day.”
