LEAVING BEHIND A LIVING LEGACY OF EXCEPTIONAL FEMALE GALLANTRY; FAREWELL TO HON. MUNAH PELHAM-YOUNGBLOOD
By: The Management of Women’s TV-Liberia
August,08,2020. As fallen District #9 Montserrado County’s lawmaker goes to her final destination of perpetual rest today, we at women’s TV-Liberia have decided to eulogize the chronology of her towering sacrifices made while struggling to break the traditional patriarchic social, economic, and political barriers in Africa’s oldest independent state (Liberia).
Born on September 22nd, 1983, Hon. Pelham-Youngblood grew through the normal nightmares many children are confronted with in those unimaginably predominant poverty-stricken communities even in this 21st century. Growing up without any prospect of future positivity in a lifetime, she would remain committed to altering the sad course of the mentality of her opposing sex and the traditional African parental stigmatization that saw female as bench-warmers, docile pawns, and expendable canon folders to their male counterparts.
Without being stagnant by the challenges of survivability in slum communities, she pursued what has gone down in history as a dream of a lifetime through her penchant for academic excellence and commitment to hard work. Upon graduating from St. Michael Catholic High School in 1999, Hon. Pelham-Youngblood unlike many of her aristocrats was never obsessed with a high school diploma, she enrolled at the state’s run the University of Liberia where she matriculated into the ranks and files of the campus-based Vanguard Students Unification Party (SUP).
As a student political activist, she would refuse to remain muted when her male counterparts of the various students’ organizations she served both on and off campuses spoke out. She grew to the rank of women presidium chair; the senior-most portfolio amongst females militants in the Vanguard Students Unification Party (SUP). Her relentless quest for social justice and academic freedom landed her to the Presidency of the graduating class of 2009.
Munah being baggage of exemplary talents even outside the classroom, she exemplified talismanic acrobatics of pageantry thus beating her opponents with impeccable intelligence and an unmatched display of modeling and fashion. She scooped the award of Miss UL in 2008-2009. Before that, Munah a political and ideological colossal, a seasoned revolutionary, and a proven beauty queen, represented Liberia previously in the Miss Malaika international in 2004 and Miss silver bird International in 2005. She was the first runner-up in the Miss Liberia contest in 2005.
During the 2011 presidential and general elections, she metamorphosed into a symbol of hope for young women in politics, as she emerged as the first youngest woman ever elected as a legislator in the history of the oldest Republic on the African continent. At age 27, Hon. Pelham-Youngblood was already a source of motivation to a whole generation of intelligentsias in the territorial geopolitical perimeter of the Republic of Liberia.
As a parliamentarian, she maintained peerless gallantry using her intellectual prowess to project her legislative agendas to the core. Her representative portfolio did not deny her the discipline of academic pursuits, as she would go on to earn a master’s degree in International Relations at the University of Liberia. For a woman with such proclivity of knowledge accusation, discipline and sagacious commitment to immensity is an understatement.
Rarely do we find humankind so perspicacious with Munah’s traits, what sort of tragedy is the arrival of her hour. Heartless is death to take one of and if not our best. Such reckless selection clouds our eyes with tears. We aren’t muted by the common fact that her lifetime accomplishments are monumental and matchless. In history, as in life, what is selfless and generous must be worthy of celebration even while in the grave, and the personalities of the attributes of this towering political figure of a lifetime are not exceptional of the above assertion.
As she takes her final journey today to revolutionary martyrdom, women aiming to shift the dynamic of the backwardness of our national social, economic, and political pariah system should learn that the task is not over until it is over. At a time in the history of this great Land of Liberty when rape, discrimination, and all kinds of sexual gender-based violence keep skyrocketing like never before to unimaginable stats, one can only imagine the need for many more Munahs in all sectors of our society. The Nation bleeds this nightmarish loss of a true fighter to us all… That is while we all go home today after putting her to perpetual sleep crying, but the following cries:
To a hero of history, we say rest on sister!
To the uncompromising front-liner, we are in tears!
To the one who broke the deadlock, we miss you!
Death is the greatest promise to mankind!
Where you go today, is where you were promised by your maker!
With blood and sweats, your people mourn for you!
Endless is the pain that drives you to the grave!
Hope is not lost, because of your towering achievements in this world of deceptions!
Munah, we cry asking when do we meet women of your kind again in this world?
By religious teachings, we believe meeting again is imminent!
Until then, rest in the bosom of the highest..!
We’ll forever miss you, sister!
Rest in perfect peace!
