The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
July 10, 2023
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US President James Monroe |
The whirlwind fever of the 176th Liberian Independence celebration is blowing across the Liberian landscape at home and in the diaspora. From the homeland to the United States and elsewhere in the world where Liberians reside, the mantra is the celebration of July 26. It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 500,000 Liberians in the United States (iimn.org). Without empirical data, I will guess that Liberians in the United States will spend around $2 million for this celebration. In addition to the millions expected to be spent in the Liberian diaspora community on July 26, Liberians will send family members in Liberia millions of dollars for this national holiday. Foreigner businesses in Liberia are expected to rake in millions of dollars during July 26, the hottest sales season of the year.
In the last ten years, I have constantly questioned the nature of our independence celebration. The historical facts suggest that Liberia was never a colony of foreign powers from whom we had to fight for independence. Liberia’s so-called independence is sui generis among the nations of the world. The independence question was more about economic necessities for the survival of the newly declared independent nation rather than an armed struggle for freedom from oppressor Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), or Kenya. The settlers never shed a drop of blood or had revolutionary fighters imprisoned for fighting for independence, like Ghana (Nkrumah) or Kenya (Jomo Kenyatta).
I think Liberia’s independence was a serendipity. Queen Victoria of England did not insist that the American Colonization Society (ACS) colony (the commonwealth of Liberia) had no sovereign rights to levy taxes on British ships doing business along its coastline. Well, the question of sovereignty became the hottest political issue in the 1840s. Without the American government's financial support, the ACS was not in a position to maintain a colony in West Africa like the European powers after the 1885 Berlin conference. The ACS had no option but to let the commonwealth declare sovereignty. Hence, Liberia’s independence came without a war.
Since we do not have independent revolutionary heroes like Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Thomas Sankara, or Patrice Lumumba to celebrate on our independence anniversary, we should be celebrating men and women who would have been icons for transforming Liberia into the first industrialized country or the land of Eden in West Africa. But sadly, THERE IS NONE!! Instead, we venerate an ENSLAVER, James Monroe, by naming our capital city in his honor. Liberia had celebrated the Silver Jubilee of sovereignty when the 2nd industrialization (technological revolution) came along and has lived throughout all the technological revolution since; yet Liberia is light-years behind modernity when compare to other African countries like Ghana and Rwanda.
After the initial donation of $100,000.00 from the James Monroe administration to the ACS to get the African colony project started, the United States government stopped funding the ACS. With only voluntary monetary contributions from goodwilled people, the ACS could not have complete hegemony of the colony. For the colony to sustain itself, she had to declare independence from the ACS and get international recognition from the Great Powers. This would give Liberia the international legal rights to levy taxes on ships doing business along her shores. The ACS agreed to the sovereignty question. So, in 1847, the Commonwealth of Montserrado, Grand Bassa, and Sinoe declared Liberia’s independence after the constitutional convention of 1847.
Since the settlers didn’t have to fire a single shot to gain independence, international recognition became more problematic. The most logical source of recognition of Liberia’s independence would have been the United States, since Liberia was an outgrowth of American slave institutions. Because of America’s racist attitudes, President James K. Polk (an enslaver of Africans) refused to recognize Liberia’s sovereignty. Liberia had to wait 15 years to get the United States' recognition of her independence which was given by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862.
Liberian President J. J. Roberts turned to England for help. In 1849, Roberts visited Queen Victoria of England and secured British recognition of Liberia as a sovereign nation. England was the first world power to do so. The next international recognition came from Europe. We do not have an Independence Square or Independence Hall or town to symbolize European support for our independence. But the United States, the racist country that refused to recognize our independence proclamation in 1847, is symbolically recognized everywhere, on the Liberian flag, seal, etc.
On July 26, 2023, Liberians will celebrate the 176th so-called independence of Liberia in the capital city, Monrovia, named in honor of a man who ENSLAVED Africans in the United States. James Monroe was not an abolitionist, but an enslaver of Africans. As a member of the ACS and President of the United States, he (like Thomas Jefferson) wanted former enslaved Africans out of the United States. So, he got Congress to appropriate $100,000.00 to establish the African colony in West Africa. It is for this shady act that the ACS got the sovereign state of Liberia to change the capital city's name from CHRISTOPOLIS to MONROVIA. For 176 years and counting, we have lived with this SCARLET LETTER and many Liberians think IT IS OKAY. I think this has to do with the fact that we have deconstructed our minds to recognize our inherent dignity and value in contrast to what we have been indoctrinated with.
I think if we are to honor a significant historical person who helped to solidify our independence, that person would be Queen Victoria. Hence, the capital city should have been named “Victoria City". This would have been more appropriate and logical. I preferred the original name Doukor, as it is known by the largest population, the indigenous people. It is deeply confounding that after 175 years, Liberians (especially Americo-Liberians) are so enamored with American symbolism rather than feeling strong aversion when the history of the transatlantic slave trade is replete with the horror of inhumanity and degradation against Africans in the American “peculiar institution.”
Cities like Monrovia, Greenville, Buchanan, etc., streets like Clay Street, Ashmun Street, Broad Street, etc., and many other places along the coast are reminders of White supremacists and ENSLAVERS. I think if we had learned to deconstruct our minds to see the worth of our Africanism and human dignity, we would have begun to reckon with this ugly past. Keeping the name Monrovia in honor of James Monroe, a man who ENSLAVED Africans in the United States. This is an affront to the Pioneers' sons and daughters, and an insult to the indigenous who want the original African name: DOUKOR. I will hope that during this so-called independent celebration, a patriotic and nationalistic senator or legislature will have the courage to uphold the CONSTITUTION by calling for a Legislature debate on this question.
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