Interview with Susan D. Peters
NK: What was your lowest moment in
Liberia?
SDP: There were four or five months when
my five children, my new granddaughter and
I lived in one room in a building that had once
housed a tavern, several blocks from the Red
Cross. The stale of stale alcohol permeated the
walls of the first floor and my neighbors were
two friendly hookers from Sierra Leone. There
were repeated attempted break-ins. It would
take up too much space to depict how awful
the living conditions were. I remember lying in
bed one-night thinking, “What have you done
to your children.” Things eventually got much
better, but this was our lowest point.
NK: After all your hard work and struggles in
Liberia, your family was forced to flee during
the Civil War, what positive impact did life in
Liberia have on your children?
SDP: Naleighna, I was talking with my
children recently and they felt that they had
a lot of freedom. They got to spend years in a
place where people that looked like them were
in power. Their self-esteem developed without
the crippling effect of racism.
NK: Where there negatives?
SDP: Of course. First of all, we arrived in
1979 and in April of 1980, two months after
giving birth to my third child, Liberia changed
drastically. The government was overthrown,
the President of Liberia was assassinated, and
the government ministers were rounded up,
taken to the beach, tied to stakes and executed
by firing squad. That gave us pause.
Secondly, Liberia had a poor education system
and over the years much of my income was
spent on private schooling.
NK: How did living outside of America help you
see the world differently?
SDP: Liberia taught me how to hustle. I kept a
job and I had several small businesses in Liberia. I
became incredibly creative. Folks do so much with
so little. In my book I’m really honest that I came
to Liberia as a very selfish person. Liberians are
incredibly generous people, and thankfully over
the years that generosity rubbed off on me. I am
very grateful for so many life lessons.
NK: What juicy tidbit can you share about your
love life?
SDP: My husband and I had broken up and he
had returned to America by the time the country
began to have rumblings of a war. Here I was with
the children alone in Liberia with a war impending.
I had an American girlfriend who thought I should
become the girlfriend of a powerful very politically
connected Liberian man with whom she had
done business. Ms. matchmaker convinced me
have lunch with the two of them. I was looking
sexy in my best lappa suit and kitten heels and
noticed that during lunch this powerful man kept
grinning at me across the table. But his eyes were
not passionate, they were cold. With every other
breath he talked about how he hated Americans.
Even after over a decade in Liberia with only
limited contact with Americans, his derision sent
chills through me. I sensed danger. I ate his food,
drank his wine, flirted but I made up my mind
never to see him again no matter how broke I
was. My intuition paid off. His estranged wife was
found naked and dead on the road not far from
where I lived. Rumor has it, he had her killed.
[continued on page 8]
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