The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
December 2, 2019

The first-rate Liberian adage “cow poop,” which explicitly paints the dryness of the outer part of a cow’s feces whilst the innermost is drenched, consummates the innate psyche of the former slaves that were repatriated from slavery by their captors to experiment the black man’s ability with self-government in his homeland. These formerly repressed, oppressed, and well-nigh worn-out Africans were unable to break the umbilical cord from their slave masters, even though they had been set freed and brought back to the lands from whence they were exported as the most profitable goods of the day. They founded a republic in Africa with their backs turned against their brothers and sisters (native Liberians), considering the natives as less intelligent cannibals, unsophisticated brutes and cursed children of the devil; and, sadly, their faces were focused primarily on the United States of America.

Former slaves now became slave masters; formerly repressed people became inconsiderate repressors; those who toiled in agony like machines became the oppressors of the day; therefore, the wedge between the returnees and the original inhabitants of the Liberian territory was shining brightly from the Providence Island to the top of the Ducor Hill in Monrovia (formerly Christopolis) from the very day the new republic was founded, till date. The politics of exclusiveness, elitism, mischievousness, enslavement and parochial family ties adeptly practiced by the former slaves brewed amongst the natives deepened resentment, distrust, abhorrence and fiery bête noire for the Americo-Liberians in native communities throughout the Liberian territorial confines.

Considered non-Liberians, grossly incapacitated to make commonsensical decisions, illiterate and illogical, the natives were not allowed to form part of voting processes that brought elected governments to power, nor were they allowed to compete for elected offices that represented their communities until May 1, 1951, when Americo-Liberian women and local Liberian men (natives) who were property owners were allowed to vote – this was 104 years after the territory declared itself an independent state. Far and wide the so-called elites kept the resource-rich nation largely underdeveloped and contemptibly poor; shortchanged the country and squandered proceeds and royalties generated from exporting raw materials to the West through bargain-based concession agreements; deprived the Liberian people of urgently needed resources; distributed among themselves the little revenues that reached government’s vaults from the badly negotiated concession agreements; illegally smuggled money to America to buy expensive mansions for their families. In Liberia, they led extravagant lifestyles, lived in the best homes and wasted resources on women in and out of the country. Liberia was a beaming prototype of democratic rule to the world but, inside, the stench of mummies was broad.

The American emancipation declaration unequivocally states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Power from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Although the US has not lived out the true meaning of these sacred words, and its proclaimer was guilty of considering the black “inferior to the so-called white man,” and “in so far as its citizens of color are concerned,” as stated by Civil Rights fighter Dr. Martin Luther King, the case in Liberia was unbearably detestable. But for their security and protection, the Americo-Liberians deployed the services of illiterate sons of natives; and for their care and amusement, they had daughters of the natives as their wards.

“Congo woman born rogue, native woman born soja (soldier)” was the redemption song that greeted the streets of Monrovia on April 12, 1980, the day on which 133 years of ostracism, corruption, repression, exclusion and tyranny came down crumbling through a brutal coup d’état – William R. Tolbert would pay the ultimate prize with his life. However, in "Beyond Good and Evil", Nietzche forewarns: “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

So was the fate that befell Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe, leader of the band of low-level and largely illiterate soldiers that assassinated President Tolbert, when he became a monster himself – turning against both natives and Americo-Liberians with unwonted inhumanity. The barbarous charlatan carried out summary executions; pillaged the vaults of the National Bank and looted every nuke and cranny of Liberia that had cash; instituted more draconian measures (Decree 88A) against the state and its citizenry; and, the despot led a more corrupt, reckless and careless government than his predecessor, Tolbert. He excavated the mummies that necessitated the termination of the Americo-Liberian rule on that fateful morning of April 12, 1980.

For a period spanning over a decade, President Doe wreaked havoc as he “gazed for long into the abyss,” and then there was a rude awakening in Butuo, Nimba County, “the abyss also gazed into him.” He was slain by an extremely cruel man on September 9, 1990, joining ranks with President Tolbert and hundreds of thousands of Liberians from all spectrum of the society and some foreign nationals who had fallen prey to the brutality that precipitated Tolbert’s abrupt end. Doe’s demise, however, did not bring to cessation the civil war that began on December 24, 1989, in Butuo, Nimba County. The next time a magnificent opportunity shone on the Liberian shores was in 1997 when special elections were organized by regional bodies in an attempt to wean the nation off its tracks to annihilation. But the veterans of more than a century of man-made suffering and alienation gladly exhumed a vampire that brought the nation shamefully down to its knees like a volcanic eruption – the populace went berserk and sang “You kill my ma, you kill my pa, I will vote for you.” Taylor, another mummy was seated at the helm of power, and it was an emergence of a bonanza of political gangsterism.

The progenitor of the most destructive mayhem ever witnessed on the West Coast of the African Continent, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was the new sought-after-redeemer for a lost nation – the nation was drowning and a broken straw in the grasps of its sons and daughters was held onto for twelve years with uninterrupted peace and huge foreign direct investments. Not much got changed or developed during the period, but, for someone who had the blood of innocents dripping off her hands, the reward of leadership was a handsome one that she would only turnover to an individual who would vow to work at her beck and call whilst she retired peacefully on her little farm with the world prostrating before her as a mother of democracy in a troubled country. Grave-digging continued!

Passing on the corruption legacy

For a man with deep resentment, he is convinced that his various disabilities are caused by someone or something out to get him and that if only the scourge were eliminated from the world all would be well – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf never doubted that an independent successor would have brought her before the courts to account for the billions her government raised and expended in the twelve years of her presidency. And so, with the aid of a cross-section of Liberian citizens, President Sirleaf handpicked a footballer with absolutely no philosophical or ideological conviction; no proven track record of leadership, management and productivity; grossly incompetent, unfit and intellectually lame; noticeably corrupt, deceptive and careless; these were the characteristics that perfectly suited Sirleaf’s desired successor. It is unarguable that there was an abundance of more qualified, competent and determined Liberians who could have delivered far-reaching development and outperformed Madam Sirleaf in a shorter period of time in the presidency than she did in twelve years – the much-needed change that seems to be eluding the state every time an opportunity presents itself was right in the reach of the people. Howbeit, the people were preoccupied with digging mummies!

The decadence and declination in the governance of the Liberian Republic cannot be likened to any before George Weah’s Presidency, and, owing to the untold suffering being experienced in the country, there is no likelihood that such an ill-thought decision will ever be repeated by electorates in future electoral processes. However, lest we forget, our people also shouted in melodies for him: “You know book, you na (don’t) know book, we will vote for you.” Like a people hunted by some ghostly figure that surfaces repeatedly to feed on their blood, the curse continues until we can raise the nation beyond the reach of parochial, sectarian, ethnic, and deep religious cleavages that can fundamentally be captured as ailments the nation is decaying from, we are looking, but only in the wrong places for the right answers.

Recounting the periodic show of inconceivably poor judgment by a majority of Liberian electorates at critical decision-making points, one would be coerced to ask: (a) Why have Liberians become accustomed to inflicting the greatest destruction on their homeland? (b) Where is the patriotism and nationalism of the people of the first African Republic? (c) Why do Liberians always vote for the worst individuals amongst usually large number of contestants, etc.? There are no empirical or statistical data available to answer the afore enumerated questions and more. And it would be folly for any single individual to vaunt of having a long list of answers the bewilderment. In our sisterly African nation, Ghana, her citizens are widely renowned for considering Ghanaians as being the best for everything good. A Ghanaian would proudly shout: “We Ghanaians we are the best!” And, yes, when Ghanaians go to the polls, their filtration system is tailored to ensure that their best sons and daughters are the ones that get elected. Patriotism and nationalism are the hallmarks for such a nation and its people.

Every nation on the face of the planet endeavors to cultivate an unbreakable bond between individual citizens and the state – an attachment to the state that can be rooted in a combination of many different emotions relating to one’s own homeland; including ethnic, cultural, political, historical or geographical orientation. Sadly, even our history is written to portray one group of people like the saints of the fatherland, while the others are barbarous, treacherous and not qualified for any form of great reputation – our hopes are lingering on. Liberians must be thought that they are inextricably bound to the homeland – whatever affects the state will, directly and indirectly, touch every roof – the fourteen years of insensible, devilish, devastating mayhem is an example. Until we rise above the lop-sided native and congo argument and begin to use "patriotism" as a measure for good leadership where people will be awarded leadership on the basis of their contribution to the development of the Liberian society and not their affiliation with a certain class, we are yet excavating mummies and anticipating they would employ contemporary leadership techniques to lift Liberia from the dunghill of paralysis to the buoyancy of a new hope!

---

About the Author:  Mulbah Kesselly is the Secretary General of the ANC Youth.  He can be reached at kesselly.mulbah@yahoo.com / mulbah.kess@gmail.com 

---