Liberia: “We Have Been Forgotten”

 

By Patrick S. Tokpah, Bong County Correspondent 

On a sweltering afternoon, Andrew Miller, a father of four, sits close to his family lamenting the bleak future that lies ahead of his children born into the worst state of systemic neglect.

Miller, one of the dependable farmers in his community, lives in the Sanoyea town of Gbaquelleh in Bong County. Like many rural communities, the town lacks basic social services, fueled by decades of government neglect.

“See the living condition of people here — it is all about abject poverty,” Miller laments as he sits in front of a mud hut, which is the most common dwelling structure in Gbaquelleh Town. “We do not deserve this and I do not know why we have been forgotten. Sadly, our children are experiencing neglect.”

Andrew Miller of Gbaquelleh Town

The conditions of the Gbaquelleh Town people, from a socioeconomic perspective, have been like this for generations, while the taste of modern life continues to elude them. 

Miller’s pain comes as Gbaquelleh exists with nonexistent infrastructure and little or no provisions for other critical social services. Of particular concern is the severe neglect of educational opportunities, which according to Miller has doubled the town’s illiteracy rate as children are turning out as adults without the faintest formal education — these conditions lay bare the issues of extreme poverty, inequality, and unemployment.

This less visible side of Liberia brings to the fore the consequences of decades of political and economic neglect of hundreds of other rural communities in the country.

It is the Dickensian tale of two cities. A country whose urban areas are rapidly expanding and gradually booming, but in its rural settlement, basic infrastructure development becomes lacking as millions of others, seeing a better life from afar, struggle to survive.

In Gbaquelleh Town, a so-called decent surviving means leaving the town for Gbarnga, the capital city of Bong. Now, there are few young adults remaining as most have gone away to seek work in other areas as their home suffers from poor economic activities.

Those who are left eke out a living through subsistence farming, most of which is kept by households for their own consumption. The situation in the village is extreme — a fact acknowledged by Miller. 

“It is important for the government to do all it can to help us. We do not have anything, and life is very hard here. We the village people need help,” Miller noted, pointing to dilapidated courtyard homes which cut across the town. 

He said those homes, made of only sticks stuck together by red-dirt clay,  are the main source of shelter in hundreds of villages and towns in Bong.

The levels of inequality between rural and urban Liberia are becoming staggering — clearly indicating why Liberia, rich in natural resources, lacks the human capital and the knowledge to transform the natural resources into wealth — whether through farming, mining, fishing, or other productive ventures that require technology or financial investments. 

“Severe neglect of infrastructure development but most especially  educational opportunity is now a threat to the future well-being of Gbaquelleh Town peoples,” Gbaquelleh Youth Chair, Junior, disclosed as he bent his head in disappointment. “Our children are growing up uneducated, which in return limits their economic gains.”

“Those who are expected to be in school have all become farmers and some are now having babies by chance.  This broad day robs of equal opportunity and is a clear indication that a child's experience of education in Liberia very much depends on where they are born, and how wealthy their parents are. If their parents are poor like us, they just have to grow up in the cycle of poverty. It is what it is.”

The cost of neglect of Gbaquelleh Town and many rural communities is reflected in the lives of about three million Liberians (70.1 percent) who were multidimensionally poor (deprived of development), according to a 2021 International Monetary Fund.

Bong County, home of  Gbaquelleh Town is one of the five counties most deprived of education, health, and standard of living, IMF said. Most children in Bong and other counties live in poor households and cope with gross deprivation.  

According to the Work Bank, around 68 percent of the country's poor live in rural areas where poverty incidence is 71.6 percent, more than twice as high as in cities (31.5 percent). In addition, 44 percent of the population lived under the extreme international poverty line of US$1.90 per day, the Bank said, as poverty overall remains widespread, with more than half of the population 50.9 percent below the national poverty line.

The government, according to the IMF, sees pervasive poverty, inequality, and widespread deprivation as the greatest restraint to sustaining peace and accelerating growth and sustainable development.

Evidence of this pervasive poverty can be seen in the lives of the people of Gbaquelleh Town as many are unable to afford to send their children to Sanoyeah District to attend school. 

The children instead are left to roam the town wasting their childhood in unproductive plays and later become motorbike taxi drivers and parents sooner than expected. 

The high rate of illiteracy in  Gbaquelleh Town as it is in many rural communities clearly contributes to the adult illiteracy rate in the country is 51% according to a 2017 World Bank and UNESCO report. 

The alarming  Illiteracy rate has adverse impacts at both an individual and societal level. People who are illiterate are far more likely to live in poverty, facing a lifetime marred by poor health and social vulnerability. Economically, the impacts of illiteracy are also sizable; a country’s literacy levels affect all workplace productivity, unemployment rates, and even national GDP.

The IMF 2021 report highlighted when it claims that Liberia is relatively rich in natural capital, it is relatively poor in relation to its peers in both human and produced capital. 

“Moreover, because of a legacy of entrenched inequality in access to development opportunities, widespread infrastructure deficits and pervasive poverty have become the binding constraints to future growth and prosperity,” the report noted.

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