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Wilton G. S. Sankawulo

Wilton Gbakolo Sengbe Sankawulo, Sr
Chairman of the Council of State of Liberia
In office
1 September 1995 – 3 September 1996
Preceded by David D. Kpormakor
Succeeded by Ruth Perry
Personal details
Born (1937-07-26)26 July 1937
Haindii, Liberia
Died 21 February 2009(2009-02-21) (aged 71)
Monrovia, Liberia
Political party Unity Party
Alma mater Cuttington University
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
University of Iowa

Wilton Gbakolo Sengbe Sankawulo, Sr. (July 26, 1937 – February 21, 2009) was a Liberian politician and author.

Sankawulo was born in 1937 in Haindii in Lower Bong County. He entered Cuttington College and Divinity School (now Cuttington University) in 1960. He began his literary career there by publishing his short stories in the Cuttington Review, the college's literary magazine. Upon his graduation in 1963 he was awarded a fellowship to study at Sacred Theology at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. He earned his master's degree in divinity and subsequently attended a writers' workshop at the University of Iowa, which led him to earn a second master's degree in English.

Upon his return to Liberia in the late 1960s, Sankawulo was employed at the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs (now Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism), where he served first in the Press Bureau and was later appointed Director of the Overseas Press Bureau. During this time, he maintained a teaching position at the University of Liberia, where he rose to the post of Associate Professor from 1985 until 1990. He also taught English and Literature at his alma mater, Cuttington.

Sankawulo began his fame as a writer in the early 1970s. In 1974, he published The Marriage of Wisdom, and Other Tales, a collection of Liberian stories. He subsequently published Why Nobody Knows When He Will Die. In 1979, he wrote a novel, The Rain and the Night. He also authored Sundown at Dawn: A Liberian Odyssey and produced an anthology of African stories entitled More Modern African African Stories. His novel Birds Are Singing was posthumously published in 2010.

When William R. Tolbert became President in 1971, Sankawulo, while still in the employ of the Ministry of Information, wrote a biography of the new president entitled Tolbert of Liberia. After serving as Research Specialist at the Ministry of Information, Sankawulo was transferred to the Executive Mansion, where he spent almost a year as Assistant Minister of State for Presidential Affairs. He served as Director General of the Cabinet from 1983 until 1985 and subsequently as Special Assistant for Academic Affairs to President Samuel K. Doe. It was in the latter position, as Doe's teacher, that he helped Doe to complete his academic work, leading to Doe's graduation from the University of Liberia in 1989.


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