The House at Sugar Beach: Helene Cooper

Helene Cooper is "Congo," a descendant of two Liberian dynasties -- traced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. Helene grew up at Sugar Beach, a twenty-two-room mansion by the sea. Her childhood was filled with servants, flashy cars, a villa in Spain, and a farmhouse up-country. It was also an African childhood, filled with knock foot games and hot pepper soup, heartmen and neegee. When Helene was eight, the Coopers took in a foster child -- a common custom among the Liberian elite. Eunice, a Bassa girl, suddenly became known as "Mrs. Cooper's daughter."

For years the Cooper daughters -- Helene, her sister Marlene, and Eunice -- blissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But Liberia was like an unwatched pot of water left boiling on the stove. And on April 12, 1980, a group of soldiers staged a coup d'état, assassinating President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. After a brutal daylight attack by a ragtag crew of soldiers, Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Sugar Beach, and then Liberia, for America. They left Eunice behind.

A world away, Helene tried to assimilate as an American teenager. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill she found her passion in journalism, eventually becoming a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. She reported from every part of the globe -- except Africa -- as Liberia descended into war-torn, third-world hell.

In 2003, a near-death experience in Iraq convinced Helene that Liberia -- and Eunice -- could wait no longer. At once a deeply personal memoir and an examination of a violent and stratified country, The House at Sugar Beach tells of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence with unflinching honesty and a survivor's gentle humor. And at its heart, it is a story of Helene Cooper's long voyage home.

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[TheMicalaura]

Dear Helene,

I read your book in Italian, it has been translated last year. I was very curious about your history and I find it very nice. Thank you for describing us your life history.

Happy New Year

Micaela fom Italy

[JPHowy1969]

Hi Helene, I just finished reading your book that I bought at Starbucks in Logan, Utah - USA back then on vacation in November 2008. I LOVED IT!!! Thank you for sharing your memoir; I didn't even know anything about Liberia and all related details. So happy I brought this with to read on vacation here in Phuket, Thailand. Wishing you all the best. - Jason Peterson, from Germany

[vaimende]

@nathans226 she did

[LJboogy27]

@aped You may want to ask Helene herself because things like that differed in each household. My grandfather's adoptive brothers were always treated as equals. They were sent to the same schools as him and had all the same opportunities. Their birth parents were glad to give them to my greatgrandfather because they knew they'd have a better life. I'm not saying some Americo-Liberians didn't use them as domestics but not all. Stop accusing and get the facts first...

[PATRICELUMUMBAS]

ok

[DESTEER1]

@apedi highly disagree about what you said are you aware of the history?? or are you just ashamed to state the facts but anyway this is just nonsencse, let me give you an advice, do a research than you can comment because you are potriting false information to the viewers and you are completely oblivious to what was happening around the country

[urgencyharviefcem]

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[shifragri]

@aped wrong, none had been free for 2 centuries and if they were white enough to pass they would have.  try that bs on a less knowledgeable person.

[shifragri]

@aped Not true, if they were light enough to pass, the would have, none of the Americo-Liberians had been free for the 2 centuries you falsely claim. Some may have been born to free parents, but not for 2 centuries.

[aped]

@gbeyee I have to admit that part of the book was a disgrace. Helene knows very well that girl was little more than a domestic. Southern white slave owners used to give their daughters black playmates as well.