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Zeta’s First African Chapter Returns After 40 Years
IN PREPARATION FOR REACTIVATION,
the Liberia Zetas facilitated numerous service projects to raise the profile of the Sorority, some involving partnering with a local nonprofit, L.I.T.E. (Lifting Individuals Through Education), founded by Soror Monigo Saygbay-Hallie, who is Liberian.
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Liberia Chapter Reactivates on Final Day of Centennial
By Earlene McMichael
National Publications and Communications Team Member
At its height, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority’s historic Monrovia, Liberia chapter skyrocketed to nearly 75 members, but civil war broke out and Africa’s first sorority chapter ever was forced to go dormant after four decades of providing extensive, free programs aiding single mothers, their children and schoolgirls that garnered major respect in the community.
Now comes good news: Delta Iota Zeta Chapter is active once again! It was reactivated on Jan. 15, 2021, bringing our Centennial year to a fulfilling close.
It was originally chartered in 1949. “I can not be more proud, stick my chest out any farther than I already can, knowing that, under my leadership, under the Members’ Administration, we reactivated a part of history, the history that is not forgotten,” says International Grand Basileus Valerie Hollingsworth Baker.
Soror Mabel Fagans-Hill, 89, one of the chapter’s charter members who now lives in Bessemer, Ala., is ecstatic.
THE REBIRTH
Talk of reviving the Liberia chapter began in June 2017 when Brooklyn, N.Y.-born and-raised Soror Freda Koomson, of Liberian descent on her mother’s side and of Ghanaian descent on her father’s side,
(Continued from page 67) first broached the idea in an email to then Atlantic Regional Director Janet Y. Bivins, Esq. Plans were finalized with her successor, Gina Merritt-Epps.
Soror Koomson says the Liberia chapter has always held a special place in her heart once she learned of it from her Zeta history prior to joining Mu Iota Chapter at the University of Pennsylvania. She made its reactivation a priority upon her relocation four years ago to Liberia, where she currently works as a global healthcare management specialist for Yale University at Redemption Hospital, a public facility in an impoverished neighborhood in outer Monrovia.
“So, beginning the conversation when I finally got here on the ground was never a question for me,” says Koomson, adding that she wanted to help rebuild Liberia and believes the revived chapter can make a difference much like the original one did in its heyday. “There’s so much work to be done. We’ve always been a pioneering organization and it’s time to reblaze this particular path.”
Her passion for the chapter’s resurgence is not unlike the passion that led to its birth.
HOW IT BEGAN
The chapter was the brainchild of Soror Rachel Townsend, a Monrovia, Liberia native who was initiated at Howard University. She desired to see her beloved Sorority in her homeland, and recruited Zetas in Africa to make her dream a reality. Others assisted her, including Soror Esther C. Peyton, a former regional director.
Studying at American colleges had become popular for Africans during the 1930s and 40s, according to the Sorority’s official history book, “Torchbearers of a Legacy.” Some, like Townsend, returned to Africa after getting their degrees.
Approval was granted at the December 1948 boule in Philadelphia for Delta Iota Zeta Chapter in Liberia, making it the first chapter of a sorority in Africa. The following year, the chartering ceremony was held with a very special guest as the officiant: Dr. Nancy B. Woolridge McGee, who had just become Grand Basileus.
The chapter grew considerably in size, and some sorors from those early years credit Liberian teacher Doris Banks-Henries’ strong recruiting skills as instrumental in that growth. Many of her students became members, at her invitation.
The significance of the chapter’s return during Zeta’s Centennial year is not lost on Soror Salaine Atkins-little, who works under current Atlantic Regional Director Gina Merritt-Epps.
Atkins-little oversaw the revitalization project in the newly created role of Atlantic Regional International Area Director.
GETTING READY
In preparation for reactivation, the Liberia Zetas facilitated numerous service projects to raise the profile of the Sorority, some involving partnering with a local nonprofit, L.I.T.E. (Lifting Individuals Through Education), founded by Soror Monigo Saygbay-Hallie, who is Liberian.
On July 26, 2020, for example, they presented a health workshop to 25 market women to increase awareness about COVID-19 and the importance of an-
TOP LEFT: Soror Freda Koomson, a Brooklyn, N.Y. native of Liberian descent, sent an email to the Sorority in 2017 that got the ball rolling to revive the Liberia chapter. Two informationals have been held to date.
TOP RIGHT: Soror Freda Koomson tried to keep the Black Lives Matter movement alive in Liberia, where she helped reactivate the Zeta chapter there.
BOTTOM: Soror Freda Koomson, the driving force behind the reactivation of the chapter in Liberia, runs into a Delta and an AKA in that country.
nual wellness exams. Each participant received hand sanitizer and 40 kilograms of rice.
But another undertaking, a huge one, was finding out more about Delta Iota Zeta’s history. Soror Freda Koomson, who pushed for the chapter’s rebirth, says its records got lost when many of the longago sorors fled the country once the civil war started in 1989; the conflict lasted for 14 years.
One big breakthrough came last summer with the discovery that at least two of the early members are alive. Soror Mabel Fagans-Hill is a charter member. Also living is Soror Tidi Speare-Stewart, 85, who was active during the chapter’s beginning years. She resides in Germantown, MD.
REUNITING THE ELDERS
In a deeply emotional Zoom call with Grand Val and a small group of Zetas on the late afternoon of Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020, Sorors Fagans-Hill and SpeareStewart recalled providing struggling single mothers with newborn supplies, food, medication, furniture and more, at no charge, plus undying moral support. They said they did all this and then some with chapter dues of only 50 cents per soror.
They both had fond memories of empowering young girls. They handed out notebooks and pencils to them in order to attend school and exposed them to trades and other ways to make a living so they could support themselves.
Said Soror Speare-Stewart: “They thought their lives were over because they dropped out of school. We encouraged them that it was not over. We made them pick up from where they were.”
Thanks to the reactivation of Delta Iota Zeta Chapter, the kind of burden that these Zeta women possessed for the people of Libera will resume.
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The current chapter members are Freda Koomson, president; Fredical Mars Mulbah, First Vice President; Victoria Cooper-Enchia, Second Vice President; Korbalagae Kuawogai, Treasurer; and Jobila Sy, Secretary and Parliamentarian.
PHOTO CAPTIONS
Top Left: Soror Freda Koomson talks to female students at Hilltop Schools in Monrovia, Liberia about the healthcare field. She also partnered with a Soror’s nonprofit to present a health workshop to 25 market women to increase awareness of COVID-19 and wellness exams.
Top Right: Zeta Phi Beta’s mental health initiative got a boost through this social media campaign in Liberia.
Middle Left: Members of Monrovia, Liberia’s Delta Iota Zeta posed for this photograph in 1950, one year after the chapter was chartered. It was published in the “Torchbearers of A Legacy,” the official history book of Zeta Phi Beta. Among those pictured are Dr. Rachel Townsend, whose idea it was to expand into Liberia, and Soror Mabel Fagans (now FagansHill), one of the charter members still alive at age 89.
Middle Right: This is an older photo of Soror Mabel Fagans-Hill, 89, a chapter member of the Liberia chapter.
Bottom: Commemorating the International Day of the African Child was another way to promote the image of Zeta Phi Beta in Liberia.
PHOTO CAPTIONS OPPOSITE PAGE
Top Left: Soror Tidi Speare-Stewart, 85, active in the early days of the Liberia chapter, is one of the only two known living members of Delta Iota Zeta. She resides in Germantown, MD.
Top Right: Soror Mabel Fagans-Hill, 89, is one of two known living Zetas to be part of the Liberia chapter. She’s a charter member.
Bottom: A recent discovery was that Soror Mabel Fagans-Hill, 89, who helped charter the Liberia chapter in 1949, was alive. She’s here with one of her grandchildren. She lives in Bessemer, Ala.
