As the 7th Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) summit is in progress, civil society organizations from the United States of America (USA) and Africa in a parallel Summit have called on the US Authorities to further liberalize their market and extend the number products under AGOA for Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA).

The warnings are grim. Cape Verde may lose 80 per cent of its import revenues. Three-quarters of Ghana’s industry may collapse. And African countries could end up even more dependent on trade with Europe than with each other. Such worries about the possible impact of ongoing “free trade” negotiations between Europe and its former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) are beginning to galvanize public debate in the region.

As Africa’s leaders met in Accra, Ghana, last week to consider ways of consolidating continental unity through increased trade, pertinent questions were being raised over the impact that a new trade arrangement between the European Union and the 75-member ACP trading bloc will have on regional integration.

Cameroon's ruling party has won a landslide victory in last Sunday's elections, according to provisional results released late Monday. But opposition parties allege "massive fraud" in the parliamentary and municipal polls. The opposition also say they will challenge the results in court.

The Cornell Institute for African Development offers numerous fellowship programs for study at the graduate school. Of these, Cornell annually coordinates two of these programs, which are specifically directed to African students; the Institute for African Development (IAD) Tuition Fellowship; and the Provost South African Fund Fellowship. The Institute for African Development hereby offers links to various external Institutions and organizations with fellowships, scholarships and grants for African studies and issues appertaining to African Development.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has announced his cabinet, almost three months after he was elected. Four members from his predecessor's administration have been given key positions, suggesting Olusegun Obasanjo will still be influential.
In the new line-up, the president will double as energy minister just like Mr Obasanjo did before him. This will make Mr Yar'Adua responsible for Nigeria's petroleum industry and its troubled power sector.

A South African-led initiative to pluck neighbouring Zimbabwe out of crisis this week looked in danger of collapsing as President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party insisted it would not discuss a new constitution with the opposition, Sources told ZimOnline. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) last March tasked South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki to lead efforts to resolve Zimbabwe’s eight-year political and economic crisis by facilitating dialogue Between ZANU PF and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)party.

The DRC is in a post-conflict reconstruction period. Until now, ICTs have not been considered part of reconstruction and excluded in development schemes for the country. A report produced by Lina Gjerstad from Alternatives, a Canadian social rights NGO, which has worked in the DRC since 2002, posits that the four ICT challenges are: lack of infrastructure, lack of a broad-based ICT vision for the country, absence of properly defined institutional roles and responsibilities, and lack of public funds and human resources.

The Credentials Committee of the Interim Economic Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union met in Accra, Ghana, from 17-20 June 2007, to shortlist eligible candidates for the forthcoming elections to the post-interim ECOSOCC Assembly. A total of two hundred and eighteen (218) applications from African Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in thirty-five (35) countries were received and examined.

Most Kenyans support the creation of a United States of Africa, a recent research says. Kenya has the highest number of people supporting the idea at 57 per cent, followed by Tanzania at 51 and Uganda at 50, says the Steadman Group study. The idea is being pushed by Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

Independent Advocacy Project (IAP), Nigeria’s leading anti-corruption group has called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to table, in the coming months, before the National Assembly, a bill that makes it mandatory for all public office holders – including the president, his vice, state governors and their deputies and local government chairmen - to publicly declare their assets. The 1999 Constitution only allows private declaration to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) within one month of assumption of office.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/blogs_01_afromusing.gif comments on Uganda’s reversal of its longstanding “ABC strategy” for combating AIDS. Afromusings wonders whether this strategy is being abandoned because of strings attached to United States financial aid.

“The strategy of ABC - Abstinence, Be Faithful and Condoms had been successful in reducing the AIDS infection rate, but a reversal of that strategy by President Yoweri Museveni perhaps directly or indirectly due to the strings that came with the aid money to combat aids appears to be counter productive. 1/3 of the 15 billion dollars allocated in PEPFAR - President’s [GW Bush] Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief be used to promote abstinence only programs around the world. That is 5 billion bucks.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/blogs_02_sokwanele.gifhttp://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/blogs_03_business.gifBusiness in Focus writes about the failure of post-independent African leaders to promote economic development at national and continental levels, with Zimbabwe serving as the case study :

“Before Zimbabwe overthrew white rule, in 1980, a pothole on the highway was a disaster. A late train would cause public outcry. Now we have unfinished roads, bulldozed neighbourhoods and hyperinflation, while our dictator blames the West.

Why is it that when the white man handed over Air Rhodesia to a black manager, the airline had 30 airplanes but now there are only three left? Why is it that before 2000 there were only 4,000 white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe and we were the bread-basket of southern Africa, yet now there are 40,000 black commercial farmers and we have to import maize from little, poor Malawi?

I know. There is a fine line between self-criticism and self-loathing. But our problems are not caused by our being black but by authoritarians with incompetent and even murderous policies.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/blogs_04_harowo.gif Harawo.com posts a review of Andrew Keen's new book, The Cult of the Amateur which argues that the "democratization" of the internet has, unfortunately, not led to a democratization of excellence, creativity and civility:

“Before the internet it seemed like a joke: if you provide an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters one of them will eventually come up with a masterpiece. But with the web now firmly established in its second evolutionary phase – in which users create the content on blogs, podcasts and streamed video – the infinite monkey theory doesn’t seem so funny any more…

Instead of creating masterpieces, the millions of exuberant monkeys are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity: uninformed political commentary, unseemly home videos, embarrassingly amateurish music, unreadable poems, essays and novels.

Worse still, the supposed “democratisation” of the web has been a sham. “Despite its lofty idealisation it’s undermining truth, souring civic discourse, and belittling expertise, experience and talent,” he says.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/blogs_05_blacklooks.gifSok… at Blacklooks revisits the ouster and exile of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, with an interview of Trans Africa Forum’s Randall Robinson as the backdrop. She comments on the similarities between Haiti and Palestine:

“Reading the period between 1999 1991 and 2004 in Haiti is like reading Palestine in 2007. The same tactics used by the US government and France to destroy the elected government of Aristide is being used to destroy the elected government of Hamas. Denial of aid, denial of debt relief, (today this stands at an incredible $1.34 billion, much of it from loans during the Duvalier regimes) destabilisation, supporting the opposition with money, disinformation, lies, every dirty trick that the CIA have used was unleashed on the elected government and people of Haiti. Reading Haiti’s history from the time of the slave revolt led by Toussaint Louverture to the present tells me that Haitians are still being punished for daring to rise up against their oppression and for achieving independence in 1804. South Carolina Senator Robert Hayne spelt it out at the time and it remains the case today.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/blogs_06_imhotep.gifhttp://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/blogs_07_dibussi.gifhttp://www.dibussi.com

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org

Sengbe K. Khasu discusses what may only be considered the 'Liberian Condition'.

Sermon Title: “Occupy Until I Come” (text and verse forgotten). Circa 1980.

We are at Sophie’s Ice-Cream Shop playing truant from church again when she preached this sermon. The pastor’s eldest son and grandchildren. Scandalous.

The blood clot bubbles up an artery and lodges itself someplace in her brain, seizing her tongue. Saints take her into the upper-room. They lay hands on her. They exalt.

Rebuke. Speak in tongues. Some face the wall. She dies.

They say it was a miracle. An act of God.

My grandmother was one of many units that make up the place called Liberia. She died of a stroke. It was the “how,” the symptom, not the cause, as some would like to believe. The Liberian Condition was the “why,” the cause.

I am fruit of her fruit. My human constitution, which governs my health and well-being, I get partly from her. My full-time occupation these days is making sure I cure this condition at least in me.

This grandmother, the one I was closest to, not the quiet Muslim woman we giggled at when she spoke Vai to us or the grandfathers, men bearing surnames that could never be their own even if passed down several hundred years from the time of the Providence landing.

This grandmother, she was a Bassa (her father or grandfather may have been from Jamaica, West Indies). A nurse. Administrator of a school for the poor. She loved us dearly and took mess from no one. But “Pentecostal minister,” “Christian,” “Prayer warrior,” would be her primary identity. Her life story is what I must use to focus my personal discourse in this post-conflict period (although I have come to learn we have had many post-conflict periods before). She is my chart.

I count back my grandmother’s age from my father’s. She is a 20th Century born woman. To Bassa people. And perhaps, a West Indian ghost.

I imagine her as a child the same age as I was when she died. Ten going on eleven.

Whuh you parents pray to? Whuh dey worship?
De people beat you to come to de pray to de strange man?
You was scare?
Da who name you Rebecca so? You pa?
I wonder how long it took before she learned to discard herself in order to survive in ““Sweet Liberia”? She cannot tell me. She has been dead nearly a quarter century. But I imagine the instant her native soul was “won.” I imagine that moment multiplied a million and more ways and times everyday for nearly two hundred years.

Liberia. “Sweat land of Liberty.” “Africa’s oldest republic.” “Founding Member of the League of Nation.” Liberia. The only African country without at least one nationally spoken African language.

We hide our ancestral gods and goddesses under soggy mattresses. But our delusions of grandeur and inferiority has burst once again for all to see. With the exception of one group us. I hear this time is different.

I look forward to getting on the ground and being a part of repairing what was broken when the souls were “won.” My grandmother would be so upset at me were she here. She would be hurt. Angry. But most of all, she would fear for my salvation. Others will do it for her. Cousins, aunts, uncles. The ol' man will understand even if he is initially stunned. Someone close has already given up on my salvation. They will not bother to read the rest.

But the truth of the matter is all that matters: we have deluded ourselves into a quandary. And the net creation of our delusions of grandeur/inferiority is plain for the world to see. Every Liberian life contains a small perfect atom within it. And I am aware that ever so often that atom bubbles over and bursts like a vessel set to some remote timer, visible to all others except us.

I do not believe our Liberian Problem stems only from our traumatic conception. And I refuse to believe in our position in the 500 year plus old “New World Order” (must remain static in order to maintain harmony in some minds. And in the main time, we should all be good global citizens and go through the motions).

It is the role we’ve played to date. And risk playing unless we change character(s). And I do not just mean individuals. That step comes only after we reclaim our sense of self. Some would say we are doing that. We have got trained Liberian minds on the ground, the first woman President (again one of our glorious firsts), we have foreign investors. We have a new resolve.

Then why do we continue to avoid the business of dealing with our real truths? That our history is rife with all that we have seen the last twenty years. And more. You want so-called ethnic cleansing? Gaze into our past. Cannibalism? Presidential coups real and make-believe? Start with E.J. Roye, the fifth President. He was killed shot while swimming to a ship or dragged through the streets of Monrovia, depending on who is telling long before “native people” were even recognized under the Liberian brand.

And what about our habit of calling Papa America to help? Goes back to the very first attack of the deadly “fever” and marauding “heathens” years before the start of official Dependence in 1847. Would we have “acted up” as usual if we sobered to the fact that America’s lack of response has been their consistent response every single time since 1821?

Okay, so they usually respond when our mouth is dragging, as the saying goes.
Would we tear shit down if we realised “de Poppay” was not coming. Or maybe he did. Ol’ man Jimmy did. And those young surfer dudes who declared our graveyard beaches home to the best waves in the world. And they would know. They claim to have hit all the top resorts around the world when on breaks from the Ivy League schools of the West.

We are where we are because of our Constitution as a people. Because of our actions (or inactions). I’m not apologising for the bad behavior of outsiders. I just want to acknowledge our role in the whole play.

We keep looking for reasons to be “saved.” I have lived amongst tribesman from the dominant Tribes of Europe and Asia for most of my life now. I know them well. They are not better nor less diverse as a people. They have many languages. They have beheaded cousins and clansman for centuries. Their brains are not sharper. They do not work harder. Their “kpahn-kpahn” not more potent. They are more honest with themselves. And their agendas around the world. They spend no time devising ways to fool us. We do that quite well ourselves.

I look at my grandmother. I see the girl who probably went to live with some “Congo” or Americo-folks. I pass no judgment. It is the past. It cannot be changed. But nature is not kind to animals who forget or refuse to be themselves. I am reminded of what a close friend recently said to me: you torture a tree you corrupt the fruits. Corrupted fruits over a period of time will be accepted as what has always been. A body out of touch with its cognitive memory functions is connected to nothing. It is incapable of self-preservation. At best, it depends on others for everything. Here is the Liberian Condition. The African in general. Stuck chasing stimuli from outside in order to feel “alive” - even if it kills. More “book,” “big-big house dem,” “prayer vigils,” “fancy embroidered paper engraved Harvard degrees,” and cell-phones. We do this over and over again blindly--we pray to God or Allah when we need brain surgery and then blame certain death on “sumu” or “juju.”” A nation of pathologically delusional people would.

Battles fought for your soul don’t hurt when fought by people who not just look like you but to whom you belong. And in the ‘80s the crusade raged on. We enjoyed it tremendously. Saturdays spent with the world’s greatest grandmother involved matinées at Relda Cinema, sometimes two. And for me, a large bowl of fufu and soup. Then came the spider stories told on the porch by older cousins. Now what kid in his right mind would mind a long Sunday afternoon in church after that? An aunt calls to tell me she has heard my father is a fixture in the old church on Sundays. “The Lord gets you when it’s your time, Sengbe.” I take that as a warning and call the guy up. He admits his backslide. I tell him he is such a disappointment. We laugh about the changing of familiar roles. He tells me he has changed his mind about church. That I must begin to go; his mother would rage hell if he showed up on Judgment Day without any of her grandbabies. We laugh again. But there will be no more talk about it. The Liberian Condition is the “why.”

* Senghbe K. Khasu is a screenwriter, film director and musician living in New York City.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Elma Shaw discusses how refugees are being reintegrated into Liberias societal fabric.

What makes refugees decide to return to a home they left in shambles? What are the challenges to becoming adjusted and reintegrated into a society after years of absence? How are refugees being reintegrated in post-war Liberia?

What makes refugees decide to return to a home they left in shambles? What are the challenges to becoming adjusted and reintegrated into a society after years of absence? How are refugees being reintegrated in post-war Liberia?

It is early July, 2007, and at Roberts International Airport a team from LRRRC, UNHCR, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and GTZ (German Technical Assistance) is waiting to receive a group of Liberian refugees returning from Ghana. The lady from NRC is wearing a T-shirt with the map of Liberia on the front, and the words Theres No Place Like Home. I am there with Nancy Garley, herself a returnee (Yomou Refugee Camp, Guinea, 1990-1999) who now works as a Repatriation Monitor at LRRRC, the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission.

This airport mission is significant because June 30th was the deadline for refugees in the West African sub-region to sign up for Voluntary Repatriation to their home countries. The returnees we came to meet are among the last that will be transported back home with assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. All of them will be given enough bulgur wheat and split peas for four months, non-food items such as blankets, buckets and cooking pots, and a small amount of money to help them get to their final destination.
Voluntary Repatriation began in October 2004, and UNHCR statistics show that as of June 30, 2007, a total of 108,198 refugees have been repatriated with assistance. 51,237 came from Guinea; 28,701 from Sierra Leone; 19,907 from the Cte dIvoire; 5,906 from Ghana; 2,136 from Nigeria; and 311 from other countries. These asylum countries have recorded, during the same period, 50,032 spontaneous, unassisted departures.

The returnees soon file out of the Kenya Airways plane clutching the clear plastic folders that hold their Voluntary Repatriation Forms. This formthe VRFserved as a passport, and will continue to be used as official identification for several more months if they wish to apply for further assistance from UNHCR and its partners.

The 55 returnees at Roberts International Airport today consist of 16 women, 20 children, and 19 young men in their teens and 20s. They are separated from the other passengers, whisked through Customs, and led outside where they will board a large truck for the drive to the Transit Center. I ask Eunice Lloyd, a returnee who spent six years between Nigeria and Ghana, about her first impression. I dont see any armed civilians walking among us, she says with a smile. Im very happy about that. So far, so good!

At the Transit Center, a 30-minute drive from the airport, the returnees gather in a large room where they are officially welcomed by Saah Fayiah of UNHCR. Hanging from the ceiling behind him are encouraging signs. Among them:

LIBERIA CAN ONLY BE BUILT BY LIBERIANS THEMSELVES
UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. ITS TIME TO COME BACK HOME TO REBUILD OUR MOTHERLAND LIBERIA
RECONCILIATION IS THE BEST WAY TO NATION-BUILDING

While Saah tells them about the procedure to be followed at the Center, someone passes around large bottles of Blue Lake mineral water bottled right here in Tubmanburg, Bomi County. I can see the surprise in some of the faces as they read the label that displays the Liberian flag, and I am so proudof Blue Lake and of the brave returnees and of the welcome team for giving out our own waterthat my eyes suddenly fill with tears. The returnees get their first Liberian meal, and then go through the routine: screening by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalisation, medical screening, cash payment of transportation, pick-up of non-food items, and pick-up of food rations.

For urban-based returnees (i.e. returnees who will live in Monrovia, Montserrado County) there are a number of opportunities available through Education and Economic Recovery programs. The Monrovia Vocational Training Center, for example, offers masonry, carpentry, electronics, tailoring and other courses. LOIC, the Liberia Opportunities Industrialisation Center, provides computer training, as does many other vocational schools. UNHCR, in the Economc Recovery and Reintegration Sector, awards small business grants ranging from $100 to $500 to applicants who have skills and good business plans. Returnees who qualify for this extra assistance are able to adjust and reintegrate quite quickly, while those who come with no skills, or who resettle in other counties, sometimes find it more difficult.

Richard Johnson is a success story. He stayed in Liberia throughout the battles of the1990s, but when renewed fighting reached Monrovia in 2003 and he lost his car to the rebels, he decided he did not want to experience any more trauma. He gave away the simple metal file he used to cut keys in his small key duplicating shop, and was one of the few lucky Liberians allowed to leave on a plane that had come to evacuate Ghanaian citizens.

While Richard was at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, he got a job with a metalcraft company in Accra. There he learned how to use a machine to cut keys, and how to melt brass to make new keys. Richard decided to return home after he saw President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Ghanaian television saying the war was over and Liberians should come home to help rebuild the country. He signed up for voluntary repatriation and came home on a ship, along with returnees from Nigeria, in April 2006.

When Richard got home he applied to UNHCR for a small business grant. He had bought a key-cutting machine in Ghana, but had no shop to work from, and no generator to run the machine. He received a $500 grant from UNHCR to help him start over. With it he got a small generator and was able to rent shop space at $40/month. Two Keys are Better than One is located on Newport Street, opposite the Duncan Alley gas station. Richard says he needs to make more people aware of his little shop, and will eventually melt brass and produce his own keys.

On 18th Street and Cheesman Avenue in Sinkor, Margaretta Guanue-Donkeh is another example of successful reintegration. Margarettas situation was a little different from most refugees. She and a younger sister started off living in Accra with their older brother, who was doing well with an import-export business. It was not until the business suffered at the hands of a dishonest partner that things became a little difficult.

During her 10 years as a refugee in Accra, Margaretta studied computer software and engineering, while her sister learned sewing. When her sister died, Margaretta took up sewing as a way to keep the girls dream alive. She signed up for lessons at Ghanas well-known KALBS school of fashion, and after a while, because of her talent and her business acumen, she was asked to work there as a manager as well. But what Margaretta wanted to do most was finish school. She had left Liberia during her junior year studying Economics at the University of Liberia. Although Ghana assisted Liberian refugees in many ways, Margaretta was not allowed to transfer credits to a Ghanaian university. Her desire to complete her degree was one factor in her decision to return home. Another was the death of her father. Her mother needed her at home. What finally prompted her to come back though, was the new government. Enthusiasm was in the air and we had a lot of hope for a better future, Margaretta says. She was confident that with her sewing skills she could work to support herself and not have to rely on anyone. Friends said it would be tough, she adds, but I told them people can make any situation better.

Upon arrival in Monrovia, Margaretta began working out of her mothers home, but business wasnt going too well and she knew she needed more visibility. With a grant from UNHCR, she built a small tailoring shop in her mothers front yard and called it Workmans Fashion from a Bible verse in II Timothy. Business improved immediately, and she now wants to buy another machine and hire an experienced tailor to help with the increased workload. In the meantime, Margaretta is giving back and contributing to national development by training two women in the skills of tailoring.

The assistance given to both Richard and Margaretta has helped them become fully reintegrated, and, through their work, is helping to revitalise the national economy. Computer trainees like Vivian Franklin, who spent nine years in Ghana, and Augustine Pardea, who was in Sierra Leone and Guinea from 1990 to 2007, also feel like they are accomplishing something and will be able to contribute to nation-building activities upon graduation. But what is being done about the non-skilled returnees who dont qualify for training or for grants, and those who choose to return to rural areas?

According to LRRRCs Reintegration Officer, Nehemiah Gbaba, NRC helps build shelters for vulnerable returnees (the elderly and handicapped) to Bomi County, while other humanitarian partners provide community-based assistance in both urban and rural areas of return. This assistance includes school renovations, construction of hand pumps (covered wells) and latrines, and, in Lofa County, rehabilitation of roads by UNHCR. The projects help the entire community, rather than only the individual returnees. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also plays a major role in community-based assistance by establishing and empowering District Development Councils (DDCs) to identify the development needs of the community and oversee implementation of development projects.

Registration for Voluntary Repatriation has ended, and those who signed up will all return very soon. With the exception of protection, assistance to refugees who choose to remain in countries of asylum will gradually be reduced, beginning with food rations, then medication, then education. After all, the war is over and Liberia, though not fully at peace until security and justice systems are working well, is in its reconstruction era.

* Elma Shaw writes about living in post-war Liberia, and strives to balance the scale between despair and hope. Writing with a sense of history, a bit of humour, and a sprinkle of irreverence, Shaw presents profiles & photos of people, places and current events that make Liberia truly the Lone Star of Africa.

* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Thomas Jaye lays out the contexts of and challenges to Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Accra, Ghana on 18 August 2003 and the subsequent holding of elections in 2005 have ushered in an atmosphere for durable changes in Liberia. Like other post-conflict societies, the country faces enormous but surmountable challenges that must be addressed in order to make the relapse into armed conflict difficult, if not impossible. Certainly, one of the challenges facing the country is how to reconcile the people and heal the wounds of the past. The enactment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Act, 2005, and the subsequent launching of the Commission in February 2006 constitute positive steps in the right direction. The TRC provides a window of opportunity for the pursuit of transitional justice through truth telling. Nevertheless, the TRC cannot heal nor reconcile the Liberian society on its own; other things must be done in order for Liberian people to reconcile with each other.

Contexts

Like other post-conflict societies, the establishment of a TRC was based on recognition of the fact that there was a need to address impunity in the country. There was a need to deal with the deep sense of injustice generated by the war and even before. In this light, the setting up of the TRC reinforces the basic assumption that one of the unique characteristics of Liberian politics is that almost all the major political changes in the history of the Liberian state have been brought about largely because of a deep sense of injustice. Fifteen years of armed violent conflict caused the death of more than 250,000 people; led to massive and flagrant human rights abuses; destroyed the fragile environment; and led to state and societal collapse.

At the Accra peace talks there emerged two trends of thought about what to do with those who committed crimes during the war years. On the one hand, Liberian civil society groups, including delegates of some political parties, advocated for a war crimes tribunal in order to bring the perpetrators of crime to justice. On the other hand, the realities of post-conflict politics in Liberia suggested an alternative and compromised approach to pursuing transitional justice. Thus, the idea of a TRC became more attractive than a war crimes tribunal. The nature of the outcome of the war did not favour the latter.

Hence, Article XIII of the CPA called for the establishment of the TRC in order to address the issues of impunity, investigate the root causes of the conflict, Perhaps the point should be made that Liberia has a poor history of exploiting political changes for addressing past injustices. The declaration of independence on 26 July 1947, and the military coup of 12 April 1980 failed to address the grievances that caused and triggered these changes. Given the experiences of the past with specific reference to addressing injustices, the question is whether the TRC will make any difference or will it be business as usual?

Mandates

After the Accra Talks, the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) was formed incorporating all stakeholders to the Liberian conflict including armed factions, political parties, and civil society groups. One of the legacies of the NTGL (dubbed in Liberia as ‘Nothing To Give Liberia’) is the TRC Act of 2005, which provides the legal framework for the work of the Commission.

According to the Act, the TRC is empowered to:
-investigate human rights violations and economic crimes with January 1979 and October 2003 as the cut off points (However, cases before 1979 can be considered if there is application from any person or groups of persons to this effect);
-provide a forum to address impunity and an opportunity to facilitate ‘genuine healing and reconciliation’;
-investigate the root causes of the armed conflict; critically review the past in order to address falsehoods and misconceptions of the country’s socio-economic and political development, and establish ‘historical truths’ thereof;
-adopt mechanisms and procedures to address the experiences of vulnerable groups such as women, children and others; and recommend measures for the rehabilitation of victims of human rights violations in order to ensure national reconciliation and healing;
-and write a report on the activities and findings of the Commission.

The objectives outlined in the mandate are crucial to the overall process of post-war reconstruction in Liberia. For post-conflict Liberia, it is important that the people understand why there was war. Indeed, the people should be aware that there is a direct link between cause and effect because it is only through such an understanding that the country can find durable solutions to its problems. In this light, it is crucial that the root causes of the conflict be examined in order to address the problems of the past.
It is also important to stress that the TRC should not be an end in itself; it should be a means to an end – a strategy. If this is the case, then the TRC can serve as a vehicle for generating debates in Liberia that could shape the future of the country. In this sense, any attempt to investigate the root causes of the conflict as well as human rights violations and economic crimes over the past three decades should ultimately feed into broader tasks of post-conflict reconstruction. It should feed into the building of viable and stable national polity that is democratic and inclusive in every respect.

The other broader point to make about the significance of the TRC mandate is that the victims of human rights abuses have the right to justice; they have the right to know what happened and to reparations. Truth telling is very important for societies like Liberia because it brings to light what really happened in the past. Nevertheless, as important as the above objectives are, what worries me is the broad and ambitious nature of the TRC mandate. To add fuel to fire, it is inconceivable as to how the Commission can implement such a mandate within its initial life span of 18 months. Although truth hearings have started both within and outside the country, it seems impossible to complete such an exercise on schedule. The Commission is facing many challenges that must be addressed in order to do a successful job.

Challenges

To reiterate, the TRC is facing enormous challenges but a mention of the most critical will suffice. First, the entire process raises concerns over what constitutes truth, and whose truth. From historical experiences, you can get the ‘truth’ without reconciling people. Truth telling may not necessarily resolve tensions, distrust and mistrust among the people but produce an adverse effect. Under circumstances where both victims and perpetrators of crimes are apprehensive about the outcomes of truth telling, it may be difficult to get the truth; it may never be told but remain hidden under the carpets. This is a challenge that the TRC must address.

Secondly, although the Government of Liberia contributed 1% of its budget to the work of the TRC, the work of the Commission depends largely on donor funding. Based on experiences elsewhere, donor funding can sometimes induce donor-driven agendas; they have a tendency to push certain agendas that do not necessarily reflect national realities. In some cases, they bring in ‘experts’ who have little knowledge of the local situation and such behaviour can easily undermine national ownership. However, the dilemma for Liberia’s TRC is that without donor funding, it will be extremely difficult to implement its mandate. In recent times, the relationship between the donors and the Commission have been characterised by deep suspicion, mistrust and tension over the capacity of the latter to do its work; and the way in which resources were used by and on Commissioners.

Third, although the Commission had started some work in the area of truth telling, there is very little to show for the rest of its mandate. This verifies the assumption that the broad and ambitious mandate of the Commission cannot be achieved easily. For example, investigating the root causes of the conflict requires people with interdisciplinary academic backgrounds and experiences. My gut feeling is that the Commission should concentrate mainly on truth telling and reconciliation. The rest can be pursued if the life span of the Commission is extended. The challenge therefore is to prioritise its work or risk failure and mockery.

Fourth, as indicated earlier, reconciling the people of Liberia will not be achieved solely through the work of the TRC. Its work can certainly contribute towards national healing and reconciliation but its work should be mainstreamed. The TRC should combine with other national programmes that can improve the socio-economic, cultural, and political environment for national healing and reconciliation. For example, there is the need to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people; there is the need for inclusive and not exclusive politics; and traditional methods of healing and reconciliation must be used to achieve this objective.

Finally, reports of internal squabbles among Commissioners have tainted the image of the Commission; it has undermined its credibility in some ways. The challenge is for the Commissioners to confound their critics by addressing their internal problems in a way that will facilitate the work of the Commission.

Conclusion

It is important to stress that the TRC has a historic role to play in shaping the future of post-conflict Liberia. Its work can reassure victims by addressing impunity. To achieve its objectives, the TRC should serve as a vehicle for generating debates about the future of the country through its investigation of the crimes, human rights violations and root causes of the armed violent conflict.

References:

Funmi Olonisakin, Reinventing Peacekeeping in Africa. Conceptual and Legal Issues in ECOMOG Operations (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000) p. 69

Funmi Olonisakin, Reinventing Peacekeeping in Africa. Conceptual and Legal Issues in ECOMOG Operations (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000) p. 69

Article XIII of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, 18 August 2003, Accra, Ghana

Article IV, An Act to Establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia, 2005, p. 4

* Dr. Thomas Jaye is currently serving as Senior Research Fellow at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana and writing on regional security issues. He is author of the book, ‘Issues of Sovereignty, Strategy and Security in the ECOWAS Intervention in the Liberian Civil War,’ published by Edwin Mellen Press in 2003.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Keith Best postulates about how individual Liberians can act as change agents and advocates on their own behalf.

Among the many things the late Liberian political commentator and pamphleteer Albert Porte could always be counted on to do, one that impressed me most was his readiness to say what he felt about whatever claimed his attention. As those who read and listened to him might recall, Porte’s writing and comments, as they related to life in general, liberty and government in particular, often alluded to the “perception of things,” the way things appeared or were desired to be seen, as opposed to what might have been in actuality.

It was not until I found myself at a Liberian social event on Park Hill, Staten Island, in the late 1990s, that I was able to recollect and review Mr. Porte’s constant preoccupation with the difference between substance and form. It was all there. Someone had laid it all out, leaving nothing to chance: the fragrances and accents that wafted out of the décor, the distinct flavours that exotic dishes announced. And as the familiar, singsong chitchat floated across the room, despite barely audible inflections, it seemed impossible that any addition could render the atmosphere more evocative of the old country I had left behind over a decade before.

Gradually, chilled Heinekens, Becks, Guinness and wines, perennial staples at Liberian parties, began working their charm, pulling the guests to the dance floor. Soon they were gyrating to the seductive power of soft notes and angst-filled lyrics: once again, music and dance had trumped war and the confusion it bred, bringing brothers and sisters of a region together as one. Soon, young ladies from The Ivory Coast kicked the party into gear, flaunting their signature mime of a male and female negotiating a retreat to a less-crowded place. Their performance drew appreciative attention. The Sierra Leoneans followed. No longer strangers to the social scene in Abidjan, Accra or Freetown, a few Liberian couples joined what seemed to be turning into a competition. As more guests arrived, a burgeoning circle of Liberians that had fled the war-torn country were heard rediscovering one lost acquaintance after the other. Others joined in recalling their hurried flight from home and new experiences that awaited them.

Many had not travelled outside of Liberia; they had seen Guinea, Nigeria, The Ivory ?Coast, Ghana, Sierra Leone and even Senegal represented by local business people and traders, however. So why had Liberia had not been the commercial or cultural hub they thought it was, or had the potential to become, many of those forced to travel had asked in amazement? Imagine more paved roads in the Ivory Coast than Liberia had roads, though they never would have guessed, based on how importantly Liberia’s political and educated classes perceived and conducted themselves. Still, from the launching of the U.N. to the overthrow of blatant colonialism in Africa, Liberia has had its moment in the sun. Accordingly, following the demise of apartheid, that ultimate bastion of racism on the continent, the Liberian delegation had been the first ?received by South African president, Nelson Mandela, following his ?inaugural.

But back to the party and the emotional dam that broke as our young Liberians recalled the experience of leaving home aboard departing ships with standing space only. The dancing area now a crowded deck, our young men and women broke into song! And all at the party understood that rather than a defeated people, frightened of the unknown, those on deck had been laden with excitement, and hope, that historically had sailed with the adventure of promise and anticipation of possibilities the future held. With their heads held high, those fearless and hopeful young people had braved the ocean’s depths, caring little that they possessed no more than the clothes on their backs. Their triumphant “All Hail, Liberia, Hail” and ““The Lone Star Forever” gave wings to the irrepressible human spirit known to strike fear in the hearts of those who lurk in the shadows, scheming to control or take away by guile, though none could accomplish either. And those that had not been a part of that celebration felt left out and wished they had been there as well.

Now they knew what Bertha Corbin had felt and celebrated, singing the Liberian national anthem on her way to prison over half a century before, at Tubman’s behest; for that experience, Judge Emma Walser and John Stewart walked behind the Revelation Four through the streets of Monrovia singing “We Shall Overcome” to rattle the prison bars in 1975. So let others go on calling out to and waiting on national leaders to do one ?thing or the other. What must be hammered home to those to whom the future belongs is that they burden themselves needlessly over questionable baggage passed on by the choices made by generations past; that, shorn of the burden of care and need handed down by the system their fathers opted for, they allow their nobler qualities to come out; that moving ahead as a group will not happen if individual steps are not taken, though no more than one or two might be willing to move at times; that a “great nation” and “wholesome functioning society” someday might be built on the west coast of Africa; not by leaders who promise them but by those who stand up for what they believe and feel strongly about, especially as individuals.

'Leaders’ will do no more than what the people make them do. And until then, they will do everything in their power to make people accept reality as what they say it is. Only fools abandon what has sustained them in exchange for something questionable, that another proffers. That is why our young people must follow their own minds and listen to what comes from within. That is what will sustain them. That is the lesson of Wilmot Blyden, Albert Porte and a few others!

* Keith Neville Asumuyaya Best is a poet, essayist, journalist, and author. He was a member of the Revelation Four, a group of young intellectuals who set the pace for an era of radical free speech and were imprisoned at various times during the 1970s for their political activism and journalistic activities. Copyright © 2007 Keith Neville Asumuyaya Best
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Ezekiel Pajibo and Emira Woods express their concerns about the proposed U.S. Africa command military structure that could possibly be based in Liberia

Africom – Origins

February 2007, just 2 months after U.S. aerial bombardments began in Somalia, the Bush Administration solidified its militaristic engagement with Africa when the Department of Defense (DoD) announced the creation of a new U.S. Africa Command infrastructure, code name AFRICOM, to “coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the continent.”

President Bush said in a White House statement, “This new command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa.” Ordering that AFRICOM be created by September 30, 2008, Bush said, “Africa Command will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy, and economic growth in Africa” [1]

The general assumption of this policy is that prioritising security through a unilateral framework will somehow bring health, education and development, and that the Department of Defense can best serve as architect and arbiter of U.S. Africa policy. Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, director of the AFRICOM transition team, emphasised that “By creating AFRICOM, the Defense Department will be able to coordinate better its own activities in Africa as well as help coordinate the work of other U.S. government agencies, particularly the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development” [2]

This military driven U.S. engagement with Africa reflects the desperation of the Bush Administration in its efforts to control the increasingly strategic natural resources on the African continent, especially oil, gas and uranium. In what is becoming a multi-polar world with increased competition from China, among other countries, for those resources, the U.S. wants above all else to strengthen its foothold in resource-rich regions of Africa.

Nigeria is the fifth largest exporter of oil to the U.S. The West African region currently provides nearly 20 percent of the U.S. supply of hydrocarbons, up from 15 percent just five years ago and well on the way to a 25-percent share forecast for 2015.[3] While the Bush Administration endlessly beats the drums for its “global war on terror,” the African context underscores that the real interests of the Neoconservatives is less Al Quaeda and more access and control of extractive industries, particularly oil.

Responsibility for operations on the African continent is currently divided among three distinct Commands: U.S. European Command, which has responsibility for nearly 43 African countries; U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya; and U.S. Pacific Command, which has responsibility for Madagascar, the Seychelles and the countries off the coast of the Indian Ocean.[4] All three existing Commands have maintained a relatively low-key presence, often using elite special operations forces to train, equip and work alongside national militaries. [5]
A new Africa Command, based potentially in or near oil-rich West Africa would consolidate these existing operations while also bringing core avenues of international engagement from development (USAID) to diplomacy (State Department) even more in line with U.S. military objectives.
Africom – Liberia?

Africom’s first public links with the West African country of Liberia was through a Washington Post oped written by the African-American businessman Robert L. Johnson, "Liberia's Moment of Opportunity." Johnson forcefully endorsed Africom and urged that it be based in Liberia. Then came an unprecedented allAfrica.com guest column from Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, “Africom Can Help Governments Willing To Help Themselves,” touting Africom’s potential to “help” Africa “develop a stable environment in which civil society can flourish and the quality of life for Africans can be improved.”

Let’s be clear, consolidation and expansion of U.S. military power on the African continent is misguided and could lead to disastrous outcomes.
Remember, Liberia's 26-year descent into chaos started when the Reagan administration prioritised military engagement and funneled military hardware, training and financing to the regime of the ruthless dictator Samuel K. Doe. This military "aid," seen as “soft power” at that time, built the machinery of repression that led to the deaths of an estimated 250,000 Liberians.

Basing Africom in Liberia will put Liberians at risk now and in the future. Liberia’s national threat level will dramatically increase as the country becomes a target of those interested in attacking U.S. assets. This will severely jeopardise Liberia’s national security interests while creating new problems for the country’s fragile peace and its nascent democracy.

The Bush Administration has already been given the exclusive role of restructuring the Armed Forces of Liberia. A U.S. private military contractor, DYNCORP, was tasked to carry out this function. After more than two years in Liberia and an estimated $800,000 budget allocated, DYNCORP has not only failed to train the 2,000 men it was contracted to train, it has also not engaged Liberia’s National Legislature nor civil society in defining the nature, content or character of the new army. DYNCORP allotted itself the prerogative to determine the amount of men/women to be trained and the kind of training it would conduct, (exclusively infantry training), even though Liberia had not elaborated a national security plan nor developed a comprehensive military doctrine. In fact, the creation of Liberia’s new army has been the responsibility of another sovereign state, the United States of America, in total disregard to Liberia’s constitution, which empowers the National Legislature to raise the national army.

This pattern of abuse and incompetence with the U.S. military and its surrogate contractors suggests that if Africom is based in Liberia, the Bush Administration will have an unacceptable amount of power to dictate Liberia’s security interests and orchestrate how the country manages those interests. By placing a military base in Liberia, the U.S. could systematically interfere in Liberian politics in order to ensure that those who succeed in obtaining power are subservient to U.S. national security and other interests. If this is not neo-colonialism, then what is?

The Bush Administration’s new obsession with Africom and its militaristic approach leads to an Africa policy that brings U.S. interference in the affairs of Africa along with more weapons, equipment, and military hardware than schools. By helping to build machineries of repression, these policies reinforce undemocratic practices and reward leaders responsive not to the interests or needs of their people but to the demands and dictates of U.S. military agents. Making military force a higher priority than development and diplomacy creates an imbalance that can encourage irresponsible regimes to use U.S. sourced military might to oppress their own people, now or potentially in the future. These fatally flawed policies create instability, foment tensions, and lead to a less secure world.

What Africa needs least is U.S. military expansion on the continent (and elsewhere in the world). What Africa needs most is its own mechanism to respond to peacemaking priorities. Fifty years ago, Kwame Nkrumah sounded the clarion call for a “United States of Africa.” One central feature of his call was for an Africa Military High Command. Today, as the African Union deliberates continental governance, there could not be a better time to reject U.S. military expansion and push forward African responses to Africa’s priorities.
Africom must be rejected at all cost. Further, Liberia, long suffering the effects of militaristic "assistance" from the United States, would be the worst possible base.

* Ezekiel Pajibo is executive director of the Liberia-based Center for Democratic Empowerment (CEDE).
* Emira Woods is co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/eva-acqui-1.jpgAnthony Morgan, Jr. highlights the complexities and contradictions inherent in Liberia’s checkered past.

It is not difficult to imagine the grandeur of July 26, 1847 if one goes by the memory of more contemporary 26 Day celebrations. The dazzling splendor of parades, gaily decorated and crowded streets, the lavish banquets, balls and endless receptions attended by dignitaries from as far away as India, Sweden and Japan. But if the majesty of that glorious day can be visualised by students of African history, the contradictions surrounding the nation in its infancy are even easier to imagine. For even as the Fort Norris cannon noisily announced to the world that Africa's first republic was still alive despite the enormous odds arrayed against her from inception, stark contrasts were illuminated with each explosion of fireworks in the Monrovia night sky. These contradictions formed the core of Liberia's being, and speak to the very essence of Africa and Africans, to the collective 'soul of Black folk,' in the paraphrased words of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois.

Glaring schisms between perception and reality, liberty and subjugation, democracy and repression, no-show jobs for the privileged and forced labour for others, prosperity for a few at the top and grinding, debilitating poverty for the masses. A government credited with ending slavery on the Grain Coast at great and heroic sacrifice of life, and itself charged with slavery and forced labour. Contradictions within the ruling American settler upper class itself, which, unknown to most people, was actually composed of equal Vai, Grebo, Bassa, Mandingo and Kru elements. Diametrical lines between Pan-Africanists like Edward Blyden, President Arthur Barclay and Gabriel Johnson, High Potentate of the Garvey Movement on the one hand, and the corrupt, slave-trading President CDB King on the other. King himself was a living contradiction for he had quite brilliant ideas about indigenous inclusion and his second term vice president was a Grebo, Henry Too Wesley. With Wesley's death, however, King's choice for vice president was Allen Yancy, Mr. Fernando Po, one of the worst examples of settler human rights abusers.

Contradictions indeed. Between the fledgling nation's precarious struggle for survival against a world hostile to the very idea of a "Black republic," the Berlin Conference's partition of Africa by colonial powers, and the 1960s, when her crippling hundred year-old debts had been mostly paid off, and she was for the first time enjoying a favourable balance of payments and a growth rate second only to Japan. Between a perception of her on the part of thousands of Africans who flocked to Monrovia from other countries as a shining beacon of inspiration, and how the residents of Monrovia's slums viewed their country.

To some she was the elder sister with the most experience navigating the treacherous waters of international affairs, and according to Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe's book ‘Liberia in World Politics,’ a very effective voice for the masses of colonised Africans. Along with Ethiopia and later Egypt, she ably represented the continent at the League of Nations and the succeeding United Nations Organisation, co-founded the OAU, bankrolled liberation movements, afforded asylum to African freedom fighters and hundreds of Haitian dissidents in the 1950s, and sent troops to the Congo in 1963. But while the country's performance and status on the international stage were quite impressive, her dismal domestic record of inclusion, while much improved since World War II, still stood in stark, embarrassing contrast. Did a father in the slums of Soniwehn for example, really care about Angie Brooks being elected President of the UN General Assembly when he could not afford to feed his children, much less send them to school.

There is a dichotomy also in the interpretation of Liberia's history, between ethnic minority oppression as the defining factor, and a glorious if imperfect achievement in African self-rule. "If I hear 'freed slaves imitating their plantation masters' one more time," says a Liberian writer in exasperation, "I'm going to strangle somebody!" His argument is that Liberia was and is no different from any other Black country; that all the worst aspects of our history—social stratification, rural neglect, contempt by the westernised ruling class for the more African majority—are present in every single country run by Africans or people of African descent, and that it is unfair to single out Liberia.

The Haitian Gens du coleur and the Jamaican Twenty-one Families exactly mirror the old Liberian aristocracy. Ask the people of Cite Soleil or those in the ghettos of Kingston. It is difficult to think of any African country, continental or Diasporan, that doesn't have a westernised ruling class lording it over a more African majority. The common threads linking all these ruling classes are elitism, power from indirect foreign rule and all of the other contradictions that have characterised Liberian society.

Though the central issue throughout American history has been its most shameful aspect, race, she is not defined by it. Her complexity is appreciated, even by her critics, along with her ability to challenge herself morally and attempt to right wrongs against her citizens of African descent. Somehow when it comes to Liberia, a double standard is plainly applied and no distinction made between historical Liberia and the contemporary Liberia which is a very different country.

One of the greatest contradictions seems to be in the way Africans perceive themselves. Who decided for instance that, as a writer from the opposing school of thought says, the indigenous people of Liberia were deemed "inferior?" This question of "inferiority" delves deep into the psyche of the African. Understandably, we do not like to discuss it. But can a sense of inferiority really be imposed from outside oneself? One finds it hard to imagine the Vai people, for example, an advanced society in their own right, complete with Islamic scholars and the very first written language in sub-Saharan Africa, feeling "inferior" to anyone, much less a group of people descended from Vai slaves who could easily be wiped out if not for the US Navy gunboats off shore. Most people are unaware of the 1826 mutual protection treaty between Liberia and the Vai, when the latter was in trouble with other ethnic groups incited by the British, and how the treaty resulted in an alliance with the powerful Massaquoi and Fahnbulleh clans, thus securing the colony's existence. The Vai people played as much a part in the building of Liberia as the American settlers, and to lump them and other coastal groups into some oppressed "native" polity is misleading and erroneous.

Obviously the contradictions at the core of Liberia's makeup are her strengths as well as her weaknesses. The Vais, Grebos, Mandingos and Krus were most successful at integration into the ruling class because they were not intimidated by westernised people, nor did they show any of the deference to them characteristic of some members of other interior groups. They were also wealthy from trade on the coast and that always helps. They had the advantage of education and long exposure to western culture. And they all participated in the building of Liberia, in all areas, to the detriment of the myths about "Americo-Liberian" domination.

The list of contradictions continue, from those who defined William Tubman to those who destroyed his successor William Tolbert. Vat Tubman, unifier, creator of Liberian national consciousness and champion of indigenous rights on one hand, staunch guardian of upper class privilege and foreign interests on the other. Although single-handedly responsible for Liberia's post-World War II prosperity, Tubman with his iron-fisted twenty-seven-year rule almost guaranteed a chaotic power struggle after his demise. That the fragmentation of society was staved off for a decade after Tubman's death is to the credit of his successor, William R. Tolbert, another study in heightened contradictions. Tolbert was Pan-African oriented, stressing a non-aligned foreign policy and greater inclusion on one hand, but he was indecisive on the other. That the more progressive Tolbert was less popular than the benevolent dictator Tubman is perhaps the contradiction that speaks most directly to the soul of Africa. Tubman was more a Paramount Chief than a president. Liberians understood him. They did not understand Tolbert. Our preference for strong, decisive, benevolent chiefs was recently reaffirmed in a petition by the people of Gedeh to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to basically remain in office as long as she likes. This was common during the Tubman years. "The Old Man" is a good chief, was the reasoning. Why replace him? What else could explain Charles Taylor's election as president? Taylor was the definition of a charismatic, ruthless but generous warrior chief. Unfortunately, though, one who had no idea how to run a country.

If the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is to fully serve its purpose in Liberia, it must explore and examine all these historical contradictions to get to the root of our national psychosis. It must investigate why we continue to follow the patterns of governance set by the True Whig Party even as we condemn them for their neglect of the rural majority, why we criticise their belief in the superiority of western culture while we also act in accordance with that belief. It must ask why we continue to repeat in the formulation of domestic policies, the same mistakes made by the old ruling class we condemn as unAfrican and oppressive. It must address why we continuously fail to factor into development programs the fact that most of our people are not westernised and have no desire to be. And why we continue to portray past governments as bad people rather than simply people trapped in a bad system. Why do we think we can make the failed, foreign-imposed system of the past work today for the inclusion and to the benefit of all our people?

But perhaps this may require us to look too deeply into ourselves, as Africans hate to do. It would raise too many difficult questions, like why the 1980 "revolution" instituted no social reforms but divided what had become one nation, Liberia. Liberians demand acknowledgement of too many mistakes, too many shameful and bloody episodes that could have been avoided.

"I do not make any distinctions between Africans," my writer friend says. "Native, Americo, continental, Diasporan, Jamaican, American, Francophone, Anglophone, Portuguese, none of that crap. We are all victims." I am reminded of a Lucky Dube song. "We are the victims every time," he sings, "We got double trouble, every time."

* Anthony Morgan, Jr. is the author of the forthcoming book excerpted here ‘ Kru Wars: Southeastern Revolt in 19th to Early 20th Century Liberia.’

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/314/eva-acqui-2.jpgStanding at the apex of Ducor in central Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, one can see why the country used to be a beacon of light for the continent of Africa and its Diaspora. With lush green trees standing in stark contrast to an artist’s vision of modern chromed buildings, only loss and destruction spurned by a 15-year civil war now emanate from the country’s recovering edifice. Liberia’s collapse is said to be the product of an intersecting nexus of political, economic and social realities that have replicated themselves throughout time: the indigene vs. settler dichotomy; elite/non-elite fisticuffs for power, natural resource exploitation, an over-reliance on the U.S., and civil war and anarchy borne out of entrenched structural inequities.

Social justice in Liberia has most often been equated with political radicalism, and political radicalism is most often equated with anarchy, a threat to the status quo, the colonial authority, the elites, the proxy power structure. There has been a tradition of assault from the earliest founding of the republic against any impetus to inspire a mass social justice movement for progressive Africanist social change beginning with Edward Wilmot Blyden, who W. E. B. Dubois called "a prophet of the renaissance of the Negro race" and who was inarguably one of the most significant Pan-African thinkers of the nineteenth century.

For Liberia, it is not yet Uhuru. And so, the Liberian writers in this Special Issue dissect the country’s historical trajectory into disparate parts while constructing a future that is devoid of division and factionalism. Anthony Morgan, Jr. begins by highlighting the complexities and contradictions inherent in Liberia’s checkered past. Ezekiel Pajibo and Emira Woods express their concerns about the proposed U.S. Africa command military structure that could possibly be based in Liberia. Keith Best postulates about how individual Liberians can act as change agents and advocates on their own behalf. Thomas Jaye lays out the contexts of and challenges to Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sengbe K. Khasu discusses what may only be considered the “Liberian Condition.” Eva Acqui illustrates Liberia’s little known, yet vibrant literary tradition. Elma Shaw discusses how refugees are being reintegrated into Liberia’s societal fabric. Wilton Sankawulo, Sr. argues that it is Liberian artists who substantiate progress, who make it palatable to the average person. And last, but certainly not least, Annaird Naxela and Omanza Eugene Shaw show that war and carnage can give birth to revolutionary and transformative poetry.

Found near Liberian villages and towns in large trees or perched on light pole wires in cities, the pepper bird is a symbolic representation of what contemporary Liberian activists should replicate. Covered in majestic yellow, blue and red plumes, the indigenous Liberian pepper bird eats small pods of pepper, which contributes to its melodious alarm clock calls from a distance, as pepper is known to clear the vocal passage and make one’s message fiery hot. The pepper bird is known for waking up the community early in the morning, and these writers manifest its message in an attempt to wake us up from our reveries about Liberia’s past, present and future. The writers in this Special Issue not only offer heartbreaking and sobering reflections on Liberia’s 160 years plus of existence, they also make bold suggestions about what needs to take place to move forward.

* Stephanie Horton is a writer, editor, consultant, and founder of the Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings (http://www.liberiaseabreeze.com/).
* Robtel Neajai Pailey is a former multi-media producer for Fahamu/Pambazuka News and a graduate of Howard and Oxford universities.

*In putting this Special Issue together, we are indebted to Dr. Eva Acqui, Doughba Carmo Caranda, CoCo Harris, and Dr. Thomas Jaye for helping to create a polished product.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Tanzania's Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), through its Directorate of Research Control and Statistics, will engage a consultant to conduct the National Government and Corruption Survey (NGACS). The survey is part of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan (NACSAP II) 2006-2010 and is intended to develop empirical information that will be discussed, analysed and used to help the government, civil society and the private sector to formulate policies and programmes to strengthen good governance.