Liberation from Suffering

On May 25, 1963, fifty-nine years ago, 31 African Heads of State met in a Summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now African Unity (AU), and established May 25 as African Liberation Day, formerly African Freedom Day. So, on May 25, 2022, within the Pan African Spirit, we have the opportunity of celebrating African Liberation Day.

In effect, Liberation is the experience of moving from an unacceptable condition to an acceptable condition. For nearly all Africans, there is interest in moving from the unacceptable condition of poverty generation to the acceptable condition of poverty alleviation. In observing what continues to happen in the African States, the colonial posture of African leaders is seen in their being just like the former colonial masters by becoming the African Union (AU) because the former colonial masters have their European Union(EU). The African Heads of State are presiding over countries but they are using the same colonial system of production of raw materials for export that is the source of the longstanding and widespread poverty in Africa, now the pretext for coup d'etat and civil war.

The African raw materials are exported to the former colonial masters who determine the prices of the raw materials. The African raw materials are used as inputs for adding value in the production of European manufactured products for export to Africa. The former colonial masters determine the prices of the manufactured products exported to Africa. The African State managers say that they are attending to the suffering of the people while the State managers are promoting the colonial system and receiving grants, loans, and signature fees amounting to at least USD50 million for each deal, as in a Mineral Development Agreement (MDA). The greed-driven African State managers continue to promote the colonial system because they perceive themselves to be beneficiaries of the system. 

The promotion of the colonial system is called new colonialism or neo-colonialism. the same colonial media manipulation to divide people, creating conflicts, presenting new slogans,  to give the impression that something better is happening. Although Liberia is considered to be a Country that has not been colonized, Liberia has all of the characteristics of having been a colony of the United States of America (USA). Observe the Liberian flag with the USA colors but one star, the star of Liberia. The Liberian Emblem states that The Love of Liberty brought us here, when, in fact, the former slaves from the USA met people in the space now called Liberia.

The former slave masters claim that they bought land from some individuals here, but these individuals had no right to sell the land because they were not the people, the landowners. This divisive tactic of illegal land purchase is seen in South Africa, where the Boers engaged in violence to take the people's land, leading to the establishment of the now abolished apartheid system of rule. Thanks to the Leadership of Madiba Mandela, the system of apartheid has been placed into the dustbin of history.

The Liberian experience is seen in the Civil War in Liberia that took the lives of at least 300,000 people, damaged billions of dollars of infrastructure and left the Liberian economy unrecovered to its pre-war level. National Legislators in Liberia have access to at least USD1,000 a day and their foreign partners, in the commercial sector alone, have access to at least USD2 million a day while over 80 per cent of the people of Liberia have access to at most less than USD2 a day (Annual Reports of CBL, LISGIS, MFDP, MCI, WB, IMF, ADB and UNDP).

In the Americanization posture that continues to dominate Liberia, the Bicentennial Celebrations were held recently, where State entities wrongly referred to the Bicentennial as the Bicentennial of Liberia, when. In fact, Liberia began to exist from July 26, 1847. Liberia was not founded in 1822. The year 1822 marks the landing in this space now called Monrovia, named after the USA President Monroe, by the freed slaves from the USA.

With all of this suffering of the masses of the people of Liberia, there is the conclusion that Liberia is heading in the wrong direction (Afrobarometer, 2020). How can Liberia and other African Countries head in the right direction? Liberia and other African Countries can head in the right direction when knowledge is utilized to raise awareness in ways that motivate people to work together, through the Rule of Law, as provided in National Constitutions to change the UNFAIR electoral system to the FAIR electoral system. It is only the FAIR electoral system that elects good people to take good actions for ending the suffering of the people. The electoral system remains UNFAIR because it operates in ways that violate the Constitution of Liberia and other African Countries, respectively.

HAPPY AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY!