Samuel Siafa Taylor

I am commonly known by my stage performance name, "S-Man." I am a Liberian, born unto the union of two native Liberian persons: Mr. Momo S. Taylor (late) and Mrs. Tennah Taylor, on June 1, 1978 at Capitol Bye-Pass in Monrovia. My paternal origin is Grand Cape Mount County, while my maternal origin is Bomi County.

I had an irrevocable passion for music when entering my eleventh year of childhood. This extreme musical love kept bubbling in me throughout my constant search for food or hiding places during my country's civil war, and the passion followed me on my journey to my first foreign country of refuge: the Ivory Coast.

While in the Ivory Coast, when I was now at the age of 12, I became a full member of Malawala International, a Liberian cultural group established in Yopugun Traru, an Ivorian town where Liberian refugees were being hosted.

The group's leaders were popular pre-war Liberian musical and cultural icons: Fatu Gayflor and Kekura Kamara. Balawala International was sponsored by global football king George Manneh Weah, who is now the president of the Republic of Liberia.

But I had a problem regarding my guardians: neither of my parents were with me, and I had no other biological relatives around me. I had only friends, themajority of who were my seniors in age. The notorious April 6 War in 1996 tore me from my parents and all my other biological relatives.

There in Ivory Coast's refugee camp I developed great dexterity in music, art and culture. After spending a few years in Ivory Coast's refugee camp, I travelled to Ghana for a culturally advanced life, which I felt Ivory Coast wasn't offering me.

In Ghana, I had a problem with my biological guardians again. The bandwagon of cultural friends (dancers) travelled to a town in Togo named Aferposo. Here, we performed for some tourists on the beach, but there was no economic attraction to life. We raced back to Ghana.

Back in Ghana, I made up my mind to stay in a second asylum country in spite of any uncomfortable things that might happen to me. I got daily meals by doing different domestic jobs for people, especially washing clothes. I also got survival money from working at construction sites. For the latter, my Ghanaian friends took me along. I did these menials jobs until a Canadian child-protection organization, War Child Canada, came and started working with the Liberian dance troupe, a refugee camp-based group. The Canadian organization hired cultural dance groups to entertain during its programs. The organization also focused on the training of Liberian kids based on the refugee camp. This provided an opportunity for me, a child at the time, to showcase my cultural talent: dancing and drumming.

Even though I was now deeply involved into cultural dance, I never forgot my dreams of becoming a musician. Apart from my musical education, I got classroom education at Calvary Chapel Mission High School in Paynesville, Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa.

In spite of my struggles in each strange environment—Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo—and regardless of all the terrors and agonies of life, I remained uncompromising to the day-to-day challenges. I did not abandon my dream and aspirations for my innate passion. Months later, I started educating other children and Liberian youth to become great in my areas of passion.
I worked with several institutions and organizations—local, national and international—on training children and youth to develop their potential. Below are some of my partner institutions and organizations:

1. International Humanitarian Organization [War Child Canada], in Ghana.
2. Alberta University (Canada), with an extension program in Accra, Ghana.

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