Liberia: Better A Slave in Poverty than A Dictator in Wealth

From October 17-19, 2022, the University of Liberia held an International Symposium on The Afterlives of Slavery under the theme Colonialism, Christianity and Commerce in collaboration with the Princeton Theological Seminary. The Symposium had internationally acclaimed scholars from the United States of America (USA), Europe and Africa. The Co-Chairpersons of the Symposium were Dr. William Allen of the University of Liberia and Professor Afe Adogame of the Princeton Theological Seminary.

The Symposium was held with the intention of celebrating the founding of Liberia. The Bicentennial Celebration is for the landing of the freed people of color from the United States of America (USA) on what is called Cape Mesurado on January 7, 1822, 200 years ago. This is why Dr. Allen said: “We are here today to deliberate on the lives of people of African descent who relocated to Africa after their emancipation from slavery in the USA.” 

There is a scholarly claim to the finding of a land deed in Chicago, USA, that is considered to be evidence for the purchase of the land on which the former slaves landed. This claim is illegal, as the land was owned by the indigenous inhabitants of the land and not by the few illegal sellers of the land.

Similar illegality took place in South Africa when the Boers declared that they owned the land of the indigenous South Africans. As it is well known, the apartheid system established by the Boers has been placed into the dustbin of history by the democratic entities of South Africa through the exemplary sacrificial leadership of Madiba Rolihlahla Mandela.

Witness what took place over half a millennium ago when slave buyers from the USA came to Africa and bought indigenous Africans from African slave sellers. No wonder, there is the expression: “if your house does not sell you, the street will not buy you.” The local land sellers, being money-driven, sold land to the money-driven slave buyers from the USA. Witness also the fact that some of the same slave buyers helped to found the American Colonization Society (ACS) that facilitated the return of the freed slaves when the invention of the cotton gin made it less profitable to have many slaves to work on the cotton plantations.

From the global scene to the local scene, we witnessed the sale of indigenous Africans in Liberia to slave buyers in Fernando Po during the mid-1920s, not forgetting the purchasing of indigenous Liberians for USD200 a pickup load in the mid-1920s to work as forced labor, without secondary schooling over fifty years, in the Firestone rubber plantations.  

The people of Liberia continue to struggle for Justice today because they strongly hold the position that they prefer to live in poverty as slaves than to live in wealth as dictators. This strong preference is constitutionally based, as it is found in the first Chapter of the Constitution of Liberia. This Constitution is not being implemented by national Legislators in Liberia who have access to L$150,000 a day and their foreign partners, in the commercial sector alone, have access to L$300,000,000 a day while nearly all of the people of Liberia have access to at most less than L#300 a day.

As we bring this Commentary to a close, let us remember the words of the President of the Liberia Council of Churches and of the Inter-Religious Council of Liberia when he said: “Most of the corrupt government officials are Christians.” Within the posture of Christianity, we must bear in mind the Word of God, as found in the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter twenty-two verses thirty-four to forty, when a Pharisee confronted Jesus Christ, testing him by trying to find out the most important Commandment of God and Jesus replied that one must love God first and then love one’s neighbor as oneself.

This reply left the Pharisee dumbfounded and exposed because he did not walk the ‘Love Your Neighbor’ talk, as he favored poverty in the midst of plenty, and slavery in the midst of dictatorship. Islam, in The Holy Qu'ran, addresses the question of Loving One’s Neighbor correctly, as seen in Nobel Qu'ran 2:136. In effect, when one walks the ‘Love Your Neighbor’ talk, one promotes Justice for All in a No Justice No Peace Environment.

It is the State-based corruption that does not Walk the ‘Love Your Neighbor’ Talk because it is observed to be promoting the poverty generation colonial system of the production of raw materials for export without any prioritization of Value Addition. We can do better for Liberia, especially as we observe the overlooked and unrepresented Lepers engaged in Value Addition. Let us continue to work together through the Rule of Law to move Liberia from Poverty Generation to Poverty Alleviation.