MONROVIA — Former Vice President Joseph Boakai, 79, appears to be on the verge of being Liberia’s next President after a very close contest with incumbent President George Weah, who came to power through a popular vote in 2017.


Boakai served as Vice President under former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for 12 years, amassing over 40 years of experience in the public sector.

The National Elections Commission released the latest results of the November 14 run-off election on Friday evening, revealing a closely contested race between the two candidates. According to the NEC, President Weah obtained 785,778 votes (49.11%), while Ambassador Boakai as secured 814,212 votes (50.89%) resulting in a difference of 28,434 votes (1.78%).

During his campaign, Boakai promised to rescue Liberia from the Weah administration, which he claimed was marred by mismanagement and corruption. He was, however, criticized for selecting Nimba County Senator Jeremiah Koung who was recommended to him by former warlord Prince Y. Johnson, also a Senator of the vote-rich Nimba County. This choice left many of his supporters wondering on his stance for the establishment of war crimes court.

Weah’s administration suffered a significant blow a year before the election with the United States Department of Treasury imposing sanctions on three top officials. They were found liable for corruption and the substantial diversion of government contracts for personal gain. These officials include the former Minister of State, Nathaniel McGill; the former Managing Director of the National Port Authority, Bill Twehway; and the former Solicitor General, Cllr. Sayma Syrennius Cephas.

The Weah administration faced severe criticism for not taking substantial action to investigate these officials, despite numerous calls from citizens and the United States Embassy in Liberia.

Weah’s administration, however, brags of being developmental-driven and focused more on the construction of community infrastructures and roads as part of his government’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD).

While indelibly tied to the role that made him famous in 1971, he remained active for more than four decades afterward.

Richard Roundtree, the actor who redefined African American masculinity in the movies when he played the title role in “Shaft,” one of the first Black action heroes, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81.

His manager, Patrick McMinn, said the cause was pancreatic cancer, which had been diagnosed two months ago.

“Shaft,” which was released in 1971, was among the first of the so-called blaxploitation movies, and it made Mr. Roundtree a star at 29.

The character John Shaft is his own man, a private detective who jaywalks confidently through moving Times Square traffic in a handsome brown leather coat with the collar turned up; sports a robust, dark mustache somewhere between walrus-style and a downturned handlebar; and keeps a pearl-handled revolver in the fridge in his Greenwich Village duplex apartment.

As Mr. Roundtree observed in a 1972 article in The New York Times, he is “a Black man who is for once a winner.”

In addition to catapulting Mr. Roundtree to fame, the movie drew attention to its theme song, written and performed by Isaac Hayes, which won the 1972 Academy Award for best original song. It described Shaft as “a sex machine to all the chicks,” “a bad mother” and “the cat who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about.” Can you dig it? The director Gordon Parks’s gritty urban cinematography served as punctuation.

A fictional product of his unenlightened pre-feminist era, Shaft was living the Playboy magazine reader’s dream, with beautiful women available to him as willing, even downright grateful, sex partners. And he did not always treat them with respect. Some called him, for better or worse, the Black James Bond.

Mr. Roundtree played the role again in “Shaft’s Big Score!” (1972), which bumped up the chase scenes to include speedboats and helicopters and the sexy women to include exotic dancers and other men’s mistresses. In that movie, Shaft investigated the murder of a numbers runner, using bigger guns and ignoring one crook’s friendly advice to “keep the hell out of Queens.”

In “Shaft in Africa” (1973), filmed largely in Ethiopia, the character posed as an Indigenous man to expose a crime ring that exploited immigrants being smuggled into Europe. The second sequel lost money and led to a CBS series that lasted only seven weeks.

But the films had made their impact. As the film critic Maurice Peterson observed in Essence magazine, “Shaft” was “the first picture to show a Black man who leads a life free from racial torment.”

Richard Arnold Roundtree was born on July 9, 1942 (some sources say 1937), in New Rochelle, N.Y., the son of John and Kathryn (Watkins) Roundtree. His parents were identified in the 1940 census as a butler and a cook in the same household.

Richard played on New Rochelle High School’s undefeated football team and, after graduating in 1961, attended Southern Illinois University on a football scholarship. But he dropped out of college in 1963 after spending a summer as a model with the Ebony Fashion Fair, a traveling presentation sponsored by Ebony magazine, the news and culture publication aimed at Black readers.

Mr. Roundtree moved back to New York, worked a number of jobs and soon began his theater career, joining the Negro Ensemble Company. His first role was in a 1967 production of Howard Sackler’s “The Great White Hope,” starring as a fictionalized version of Jack Johnson, the early 20th century’s first Black heavyweight boxing champion. A Broadway production starring James Earl Jones opened the next year and won three major Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

After “Shaft,” Mr. Roundtree made varied choices in movie roles. He was in the all-star ensemble cast of the 1974 disaster movie “Earthquake,” appearing alongside Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner, among others. He played the title role in “Man Friday” (1975), a vibrant, generous, ultimately more civilized partner to Peter O’Toole’s 17th-century explorer Robinson Crusoe.

In “Inchon” (1981), which Vincent Canby of The Times described as looking like “the most expensive B movie ever made,” Mr. Roundtree was an Army officer on the staff of Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Laurence Olivier) in Korea. He starred with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds in “City Heat” (1984) and with a giant flying lizard in “Q” (1982).

On television he played Sam Bennett, the raffish carriage driver who courted Kizzie (Leslie Uggams) in the acclaimed mini-series “Roots” (1977). That show was transformational, Mr. Roundtree said in an ABC special celebrating its 25th anniversary: “You got a sense of white Americans saying, ‘Damn, that really happened.’”

ImageRichard Roundtree in 2019. He remained busy as an actor for more than four decades after his first big role.Credit…Celeste Sloman for The New York Times

Mr. Roundtree’s name remained associated with the 1970s, but he was just as busy during the next four decades.

He was an amoral private detective in a five-episode story arc of “Desperate Housewives” (2004); appeared in 60 episodes of the soap opera “Generations” (1990); and played Booker T. Washington in the 1999 television movie “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years.” He was a big-city district attorney in the film “Seven” (1995) and a strong-willed Mississippi iceman in “Once Upon a Time … When We Were Colored” (1996).

After the year 2000, when he was pushing 60, he made appearances in more than 25 TV series (he was a cast member of or had recurring roles in nine of them — including “Heroes,” “Being Mary Jane” and “Family Reunion”) and was seen in half a dozen television movies and more than 20 feature films.

In 2020, Mr. Roundtree starred as a fishing boat’s gray-bearded captain in “Haunting of the Mary Celeste,” a supernatural maritime movie mystery. In 2022, he was a regular in the second season of “Cherish the Day,” Ava DuVernay’s romantic drama series.

Mr. Roundtree married Mary Jane Grant in 1963. They had two children before divorcing in 1973. In 1980, he married Karen M. Cierna. They had three children and divorced in 1998.

Mr. Roundtree is survived by four daughters, Kelli, Nicole, Tayler and Morgan; a son, John; and at least one grandchild.

The Shaft character, created by Ernest Tidyman in a series of 1970s novels, endured — with Hollywood alterations. Samuel L. Jackson starred as a character with the same name, supposedly the first John Shaft’s nephew, in a 2000 sequel titled “Shaft.”

In 2019, another “Shaft” was released, also starring Mr. Jackson (now said to be the original character’s son), with Jessie T. Usher as his son, J.J. Shaft, an M.I.T.-educated cybersecurity expert. Like the 2000 “Shaft,” it also included Mr. Roundtree in the cast.

The film felt something like a buddy-cops comedy, but the smartest thing it did, Owen Gleiberman of Variety noted in a review, was to take Mr. Roundtree, “bald, with a snowy-white beard,” and “turn him into a character who’s hotter, and cooler, than anyone around him” and whose “spirit is spry, and tougher than leather.”

Orlando Mayorquin contributed reporting.

Corrections were made on

Oct. 25, 2023

: 

An earlier version of this obituary misstated the year the theme from “Shaft” won the Academy Award for best original song. It was 1972, not 1973.

An earlier version of this obituary referred incorrectly to Mr. Roundtree’s role on the television series “Cherish the Day.” He appeared in all eight episodes of the show’s second season, not just one. The earlier version also misspelled the given name of one of Mr. Roundtree’s daughters. She is Tayler, not Taylor.

How we handle corrections

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Richard Roundtree, The Widely Dug Star Of ‘Shaft,’ Dies at 81. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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My stepson and Jasmine are planning to flee to UK as a couple – Mr Ibu’s wife spills, blasts Verydarkman
Stella Maris Okafor, Mr. Ibu’s wife, took to her Instagram to slam Verydarkman, branding him a wicked individual for dubbing her a dangerous woman.
She didn’t stop there – addressing the misinformation fed to Verydarkman by Jasmine, her husband’s adopted daughter, Stella claimed that Jasmine is cooking up plans to run off with her stepson, Daniel Okafor.
While tending to her unwell husband, Mr. Ibu, Stella Maris Okafor has clapped back, alleging that her stepson, Daniel Okafor, and the actor’s adopted daughter, Jasmine, are scheming to relocate to the UK as a couple, using the donations intended for Mr. Ibu’s treatment.

Recall that activist VeryDarkman had leveled accusations against Mr. Ibu’s wife, Stella, asserting that she aimed to divert funds intended for Mr. Ibu’s hospital bills for her personal benefit.

According to him, Stella allegedly sought to extract money from the funds raised for the actor’s health bills to acquire a new phone and undergo a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL).

In a comprehensive disclaimer, Stella refuted all allegations made by VeryDarkman. She criticized VDM as a malicious individual who had been misled with false information, tarnishing her reputation online.

The mother of three vehemently denied the report suggesting she intended to use her husband’s donations for an iPhone 15 and a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL), asserting that it was based on a conversation recorded by Jasmine without her knowledge.

Stella, currently facing the heat as Mr. Ibu’s wife, also alleged that her husband’s adopted daughter, Jasmine, and her second stepson, Daniel, are planning to escape the country with the funds intended for Mr. Ibu’s medical treatment.

WITHIN NIGERIA recalls reporting that when Mr Ibu’s wife went online to deny using her hubby’s donations to acquire a car.

Stella, in a series of posts shared on her Instagram page, called out her husband’s adopted daughter, Jasmine, alleging fraud and embezzlement

In her post, Stella alleged that her husband’s daughter and her cohorts have denied her access to her husband’s donations.