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Dixon welcomes mayor of war-torn African city
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Mayor Esther Coaline-Warbey, from Baltimore's sister city of Gbarnga, Liberia, right, performs a robing ceremony for Mayor Sheila Dixon at City Hall on Tuesday after being presented with an honorary citizenship to Baltimore.
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Mayor Sheila Dixon welcomed to City Hall on Tuesday a delegation from Baltimore’s oldest sister city, Gbarnga, Liberia, the latest in a series of exchanges with foreign dignitaries and leaders from overseas.
Dixon and her Liberian counterpart, Gbarnga mayor Esther Coaline-Warbey, took the ceremony as an occasion to bolster their cities’ historic relationship, as Coaline-Warbey’s country – settled by a group of freed American slaves in the early 19th century – struggles to emerge from the ruins of two bloody political conflicts.
“Our country took a dark turn in 1989,” the visiting mayor said, referring to the start of Liberia’s first civil war.
That conflict was triggered by the brutal Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, who plunged Gbarnga into turmoil when he took up arms there and staged a military coup.
Coaline-Warbey’s city has seen a slow-but-steady resurgence since then, which she and Dixon committed to facilitating with their newly revived partnership. Ggarnga and Baltimore have been sister cities since 1973.
“In the past, the sister city relationship has benefited both our peoples,” Coaline-Warbey said. “Together we work to reconstruct this historic relationship, so that once again the benefits can fall both ways to our cities.”
Dixon spoke of the many ways in which she felt Gbargna could benefit from its relationship with Baltimore, praising the city’s schools and public health infrastructure as models for international development.
“One of the things that is very precious to me is not only having a relationship with one of our oldest sister cities, but enhancing that relationship,” she told Coaline-Warbey. “Our door is open to you and your people.”
At one point, Coaline-Warbey and the members of her delegation draped Dixon in the traditional Liberian garb, which the mayor wore for the remainder of the meeting. In return, Dixon offered Coaline-Warbey a key to the city, a symbol of Baltimore’s commitment to assist the people of Gbarnga through their post-war reconstruction.
“Now what this means is, you don’t have to pay taxes,” Dixon quipped.
sgentile@baltimoreexaminer.com
