01/07/2025
C. Cecil Dennis III, Son of Former Foriegn Minister C. Cecil Dennis Jr. who was killed by firing squad behind the BTC Barrack, writes...
"It is with profound gratitude that I, C. Cecil Dennis III, son of the late esteemed diplomat, C. Cecil Dennis Jr., extend my heartfelt appreciation to President, Joseph Nyumah Boakai, Vice President, Jeremiah Kpan Koung, the government and people of Liberia for granted our fathers a befitting and reconcilable burials.
For years, we have advocated relentlessly against the injustice and inhuman ex*****ons of our fathers. Today, we remain resolute that our fathersโ lives were brutally destroyed unjustly, and there remains no justification for their inhuman ex*****ons. And though this memorialized gesture does not in itself heal our deeply perpetrated wounds from the senseless murdering of our fathers, it suggests a significant step towards closure for families involved, thereby constituting a commendable pathway to collective reintegration, healing, and reunification. Consequently, we remain deeply committed to the reconciliation and restoration of our nation. Therefore, we acknowledge that this memorial brings a level of solace, a consolation of the desolations we carry of the vicious assassination of our fathers.
April 12 and 22, 1980, remain a horrifying traumatizing day. As the air was heavy with the scent of dark burning clouds, bursting with gray dust and fear as armed men without remorse choked our lives and murdered our fathers publicly. These dates are engraved within our souls, not merely as memories of agonizing pain, crying and suffering, but as memories that have been relieved with every tremor of the earth that drank their blood, every unexpected loud sound that was made by those chanting, โWe killed them.โ
I, a child of five, stood on the bottomless edge of a cliff, witnessing the unthinkable ex*****ons of my father on video. The sharp cracks of assault rifles in the hands of men my father once called brothers, standing in front of him and his compatriots, ready to fire and kill them. Though he appealed for his life, the lives of his fellow brothers, and the nation he loved, their fellow citizens murdered them in cold blood.
The brutal heavy guns sounded, and a collective scream erupted, soldiers screaming โDie CCDennis, die.โ These werenโt just ordinary screams; they were the unraveling of my universe, the shattering of my innocence, the traumatizing moment of my life, as I watched my father, my protector, my world, fall before a firing squad. He bowed his head, his life left his body, and the echo of his last breath is all my childhood memory possesses.
The immediate aftermath of such a barbaric act is not merely grief; it is a profound desolate ache that twists my understanding of safety and love into an unrecognizable horror. I was only five-year-old, when my nation made me fatherless and took away my security. The world was supposed to be a place of gentle hands, warm embraces, fatherly love, and unwavering security. But in that horrific moment, my world came crumbling down, it became a scene of violence, a perpetual separation from my father, a stark realization that even the most cherished bonds could be severed with terrifying finality.
The hurts were not just emotional, they were physical and psychological, and they left a knot in my five-old-old stomach that has never truly loosened. The sudden clench of my chest when a loud noise of guns echoed, the way my tiny hands would involuntarily clench, as if still reaching for a touch that was no longer there. My father was no more. Loneliness and isolation became my shadow comfort, a constant companion in my darkest hours. Other children had fathers picking them up, telling them bedtime stories, mending their scraped knees, and comforting them through pain and hurts. I had none.
I have only the searing image of absence, the ghost weight of a hand that would never hold mine in this life. For years, every laughter I heard seemed a betrayal, every happy family scene a cruel reminder of what had been ripped from me. The world, once vibrant, became muted, viewed through a haze of unshed tears, frustration and unspoken questions with no answers. I was grievously wronged. I was just five. Consider, if you will, the profound depths of pain inflicted upon a child by such a horrific act of public assassination.
How does a five-year-old reconcile the love they felt for their father with the brutality of watching him die at the hands of others, leading to a lingering fear that love itself is a fragile, dangerous thing? When the ultimate protector is so publicly and violently taken, how does a child ever truly learn to trust in the safety of the world, or even the kindness of others, without the constant specter of betrayal looming over him? Looking beyond my immediate grief, do you see the permanent mark the public ex*****on of my father on my childhood development, and the separation from my siblings? Looking beyond my abrupt sorrow, can you comprehend the shaping of my understanding of justice, forgiveness, and the creation of my place in a society that allowed such an atrocity befall me?
I acknowledge my path and cherish the sacrifices my father made for his nation and his people. I am of the conviction that our nation can be restored from divisive individualism and political differences through reformative reconciliation. Yesterday we lost our mission to the devastating ex*****on of President William Richard Tolbert Jr., and his cabinet members, as we equally lost loved ones during our senseless civil war, but we are not defeated. We have our today to begin rebuilding tomorrow. We may be faced with a challenge so grievous that it seems hard to recover from, but we are Liberians, and as Liberians, we never back down from the fight of restoration.
Therefore, on this day, I cannot overly emphasize the need for our nation to reconcile, come together and rebuild our nation. On this day of recovery, this day of recognition of the unquestionable public services of our esteemed fathers and your intellectually inclined diplomatic servants โ I call on the children of murdered fathers and the children of whom fathers perpetrated these pains to reconcile our differences for the betterment of our society.
Therefore, I say to you my fellow compatriots, if we stand together today and reconcile our differences, we will look back at yesterday tomorrow and smile about the accomplishments we made today. So, let this day mark an unforgettable pathway to recovery. For there is no one Liberian that is more Liberian than any Liberian. And the wellbeing of one Liberian must be the wellbeing of all Liberians.
God bless our nation.
Yours truly,
C. Cecil Dennis III"
