Nathaniel Varney Massaquoi

Nathaniel Varney Massaquoi (1905–1962) was a Liberian educator and politician, from the Vai community.

Early life

Massaquoi was born on 13 June 1905 in Cape Mount, Liberia. His father was Momolu Massaquoi (1869–1938) (also known as Momolu IV), a Liberian king of the Gallinas kingdom prior to its dissolution by the British. Nathaniel studied at the College of West Africa before his father was assigned as consul general to Germany for 1922–1930. Massaquoi followed his family to Hamburg, where he lived and studied.[1]

Career

Massaquoi studied law, and also worked as an English and mathematics teacher in Sierra Leone.[1]

In 1940 he and a number of other Liberian leaders were arrested for allegedly plotting the assassination of President Edwin J. Barclay and overthrow of the government.[2][3] Massaquoi was released in 1944, along with other political prisoners following the inauguration of president President William Tubman, who decried Barclay's "illegal arrest of peaceful citizens without warrant"".[1][4]

Massaquoi served various judgeships from 1945-1960, and served as secretary of public instruction from 1957–1962.[1] Massaquoi died in 1962 in a hospital in Hamburg, Germany.[5]

References
  1. Elwood D. Dunn; Amos J. Beyan; Carl Patrick Burrowes (20 December 2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia. Scarecrow Press. pp. 223–224. ISBN 978-1-4616-5931-0.
  2. Carl Patrick Burrowes (2004). Power and Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970: The Impact of Globalization and Civil Society on Media-government Relations. Africa World Press. pp. 210–213. ISBN 978-1-59221-294-1.
  3. Jeremy I. Levitt (2005). The Evolution of Deadly Conflict in Liberia: From 'paternaltarianism' to State Collapse. Carolina Academic Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-89089-212-1.
  4. D.Elwood Dunn (4 May 2011). The Annual Messages of the Presidents of Liberia 1848–2010: State of the Nation Addresses to the National Legislature. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1222–. ISBN 978-3-598-44169-1.
  5. Johnson Publishing Company (8 November 1962). Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. pp. 19–. ISSN 0021-5996.
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