President Sirleaf to Visit Columbia

Wednesday, 22 June 2011 14:24

Written by The State

In 1978, a skinny, Liberian teenager with an afro arrived in Columbia to study at Allen University.

So began a 33-year relationship between the Rev. David R. Daniels, Jr., a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Columbia. As a result of that relationship, Columbia will host Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and about 4,000 other people next week for a gathering of church leaders.

Daniels chose Columbia as the place where he will celebrate his investiture Monday as president of the Council of Bishops of the Global African Methodist Episcopal Church, the faith’s governing body. Sirleaf, who has received political support from Daniels, will be the keynote speaker. The council also will hold a four-day meeting after the investiture ceremony.

Daniels and his wife, Irene Daniels, gathered Tuesday with a group of city and county officials, church leaders and others to talk about the event, which will be held at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

“Both of us are indebted to the people of South Carolina,” Daniels said. “This is a home away from home. We had to fight off the politics, but I was not going to take the meeting anywhere else.”

The bishops council meeting will be Sunday through Wednesday, but festivities surrounding it and the visit by President Sirleaf will begin Saturday. While in Columbia, Sirleaf will meet with business executives, religious leaders and the presidents of the state’s universities and colleges. She also will attend a women-only dinner at Benedict College to raise money for schools in Liberia.

Sirleaf was the first elected female head-of-state on the continent of Africa. She became Liberia’s president in 2006 after warlord Charles Taylor was exiled. She has been credited with pulling the small West African country out of debt and attracting international investment. Sirleaf, who is running for re-election, also has focused on rebuilding the country’s infrastructure and has put a priority on education.

South Carolina has a long history with Liberia, which is larger in land but smaller in population. The country was founded in the mid-1800s when freed American slaves were resettled on the West African coast. Many of those returning to Africa were from South Carolina, and the country has a coastal town named Greenville, Daniels said.

Liberia and South Carolina also share cultural traditions, such as the sweetgrass baskets woven by Lowcountry residents. A highly praised documentary about a former Liberian warlord, “The Redemption of General Butt Naked,” was made by a South Carolina native.

While Sirleaf is visiting Columbia to attend Daniels’ investiture, the bishop hopes she can meet people who are interested in forming business and educational partnerships in their home country.

“South Carolina names are on cities and townships throughout Liberia because of the connection,” Daniels said. “We want to bring back that connection.”

As for Daniels, the investiture will put him in charge of the AME church’s governing body, which oversees the operations of congregations in 39 countries. The African Methodist Episcopal church was founded in Philadelphia, but the church spread rapidly in the South after the Civil War. Its first overseas congregations were in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Daniels is one of 21 bishops and is responsible for the AME churches in West Africa. His role as council president is a one-year position. Bishop Preston Warren Williams II, the leader of the AME church in South Carolina and host bishop for the weekend events, was president of the Council of Bishops in 2006-2007.

While Daniels spends most of his time in Liberia, he calls Columbia his “second home.” He and his wife maintain a residence in Columbia, and their three daughters attend Hammond School.

After earning degrees at Allen University and Columbia’s Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Daniels served as pastor of several South Carolina AME churches. He returned to Liberia in 1989 to become pastor of a church in Monrovia, the capital city. But civil wars forced him to flee on multiple occasions, and he always came back to Columbia.

During Tuesday’s press conference, he talked about the people he considers “adopted family” and raved about the home cooking he received as a college student, particularly red rice.

“This place took me in and helped me and nurtured me and polished me,” Daniels said.

Columbia officials were tickled over Daniels’s decision to bring his investiture and all of the related fanfare to the city.

Ike McLeese, president of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, said Sirleaf’s visit, the bishops conference and the investiture ceremony were filling hotels and gaining publicity for the city.

“Bishop, thank you very much for the little boost in the down economy,” McLeese said.

And City Councilwoman Belinda Gergel hailed Sirleaf’s visit as a chance for the city to celebrate cultural and women’s issues.

“This is going to be one of those weekends we look back on and say, ‘Wow, that happened here,’” she said.

Liberian president’s schedule in Columbia

Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will visit Columbia as part of the Rev. David R. Daniels’ investiture

as president of the Council of Bishops of the Global African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Saturday

An invitation-only, women-only Marketplace and School Benefit Dinner at Benedict College

Sunday

8 a.m. services at Bible Way Church of Atlas Road

10:45 a.m. services at Bethel AME Church on Woodrow Street

Evening reception at the Nelson Mullins law firm for business executives

Monday

Noon luncheon at the home of USC President Harris Pastides with college and university presidents

6 p.m. investiture celebration at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Tickets for this event are $75 and can be purchased at the Township Auditorium box office.