Wilton Sankawulo, Sr. argues that it is Liberian artists who substantiate progress, who make it palatable to the average person.

Liberian writers have been accused of failing to produce literature of high quality addressing the burning issues confronting the nation, Africa, and the world. Some of our critics go on to charge that Liberian writers unduly preoccupy themselves with politics as if it were the only subject worth writing about. Three reasons that often feature prominently among the many excuses Liberians give for this failure are the clampdown of our politicians of the old order on press freedom, the nation's lack of colonial experience, and the absence of a vibrant readership due to the high rate of illiteracy in the country. A shortage of writing talent is often excluded from this list because we have many inspired writers, young and old, of the diverse literary genres.

It is true that literature grows substantially where there is freedom of expression. The problem has been our failure to support the production of literature as a priority. Noting that democracy flourishes mostly where the people are literate, President Tubman initiated a universal literacy program in the '50s and the '60s "to make the Republic of Liberia a Reading Liberia." This worthy effort was short-lived and we consequently paid a high price for its demise.

Artists have a rare sensitivity for seeing into the lives of people, with the instinct to identify the underlying causes of their problems, and suggest practical solutions. Liberia does not benefit much from this potential of her artists because artists are not given the needed support to develop their talents. Perhaps it is thought that the solutions to our problems rest entirely with politicians, but politicians can only facilitate progress. Without the backing of the creative imagination, vision, and industry of their people, they cannot accomplish anything substantial.

We have fallen to the depths of ignominy, emerging from which is not simply a matter of political manoeuvring, for most of our politicians are only concerned with their own interests: Once they are not in power, the nation has no peace, and once they come to power they forget the people. But good artists are committed to the truth as revealed to them whether or not it involves their personal interests.

Many of our sister republics that acquired political independence just yesterday are relatively stable and progressive because their artists bear witness of their sources of strength and motivate them to use such sources to improve the quality of their life. When you land on Mohammed Mutala International Airport in Lagos, no one need tell you that you are on African soil because the art works decorating the airport predominantly reflect the African experience. With all their Western education, the Nigerian elite maintain respect for their culture, for they know that culture promotes self-confidence which is the key to the growth and development of the individual as of the nation. The great sacrifice which our African brothers and sisters made to save us from ourselves was chiefly motivated by their love and appreciation for Africa--a phenomenon inspired by the works of their musicians, painters, sculptors, and writers who are forever bringing to light factors that unite them. A Liberian proverb says, “A baby antelope can show its mother a trap.” It is time we swallowed our pride of being the oldest African republic and learn from our younger brothers and sisters who are far ahead of us in development and progress.

Unlike other African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria that maintain viable institutions and programs for developing their arts, Liberia has no organised program or institution for studying and developing its arts. In the sixties, the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs, and Tourism tried to redeem the situation by establishing a centre for the arts at Kendejah near Monrovia, but all the emphasis was placed on the performing arts. No effort was ever made to explain or interpret Liberian arts in writing for students and connoisseurs of the arts as well as the general public. It was enough for singers and dancers to entertain guests and government officials. The works of foreign artists continue to decorate our homes; the music heard on our radio stations and the textbooks used in our schools are mostly foreign. No wonder many of our African brothers and sisters do not even consider us as Africans.

It is of great importance that we pay urgent attention to the development of our arts to assure the growth and integration of our society, although the civil war has claimed many of our artists. We have produced great artists whose works could place the nation on the art map of the world. In the absence of comprehensive accounts of their fates, several of our prominent artists were killed in the civil war while others fled the country for refuge. Although his death occurred a year before our civil war commenced, Bai T. Moore, that pioneer of modern Liberian fiction and an ardent promoter of the performing arts, died as a result of the unsettled condition of the country. Shortly after his death, the nation’s most proficient sculptor, Vanjah Richards, was killed by unknown gunmen for political reasons. Tecumsey Roberts, an accomplished musician and entertainer, was murdered during the war. One of our leading singers Miatta Fahnbulleh, resided outside of the country for years, both in search of refuge and an audience. Fatu Gayflor, a distinguished dancer and singer, returned to the country from the Ivory Coast where she had taken refuge during the war, to engage in the uphill struggle of revitalising the performing arts. Ballah, our only comedian, no longer performs due to lack of support. Kenneth Best, a journalist of great renown and newspaper publisher, fled the country to Gambia in search of asylum and to continue with his publishing, although he was most needed at home to help with national reconstruction.

The list could continue endlessly. Indeed, we have numerous professional and budding artists who are ready to spearhead the development of our arts, but they need support, for no aspect of national development comes to fruition spontaneously. The Ministries of Information, Cultural Affairs, and Tourism as well as Education must promote cultural awareness in the country. Indeed, Liberia needs a cultural revolution to unite the people, cultivate in them a spirit of nationhood, release their creative forces for national development, and restore the nation’s good image. Since art and culture have commercial value, their development can be an economic asset rather than a liability. A school for musicians could be built with instructors from such African countries as Nigeria and Ghana, which have made notable progress in art development. Our schools, especially the University of Liberia and Cuttington University College, could maintain arts’ and writers’ workshops for our writers and artists to perfect their talents. The Ministry of Education could either commission established Liberian authors to produce textbooks for our schools or give preference to books written by Liberian authors for the schools’ lists. National awards should be given to the best artists and writers of the year. The government should establish a commission headed by a professional Liberian artist or writer to study the art situation in the country and suggest practical measures to improve it. In addition, as the Ghanaians, Nigerians, and many other African nationals have done, the commission should be empowered to evolve a national Liberian language in addition to English we can identify with. This will abolish the unnecessary shame and embarrassment we experience for being unable to handle the Queen’s English with proficiency.

Liberia has a rich culture but it requires nurturing. It is unfortunate that we perceive our arts as something for the stage alone. Consequently, we have very little knowledge, respect, and appreciation for ourselves and our rich cultural heritage. No wonder we carelessly embarked on a systematic program of self-destruction. Today, we are confronted by a welter of problems which no politician can solve because the key to their solutions lies in self-knowledge and self-motivation which artists are very good at creating. Such problems as corruption, tribalism, mediocrity, and sloth, which have ruined the social, political, and economic fabric of our country, can be solved once we develop our arts to renew our vision and integrate our lives, the only means by which we can achieve a noble destiny.

Our artists, however, should not wait for encouragement or support before committing themselves to the lonely and gruelling hard work and sacrifice required for mastery of their trade. They should courageously give all they have to develop and fulfil their potential and make their productions competitive on the world market, for, in the final analysis, it is quality production that popularises art. Relying principally on inner motivation, our writers must produce first-rate literature; our musicians and dancers must produce their hits; our carvers, weavers, sculptors, and painters must flood the world market with their works. The sacrifice required for such exercise is inestimable because the price of progress requires all that a people can offer.

In the final analysis, it is effective communication that will improve the quality of life in our country. In the West, decision makers have access to their people's analysis and assessment of national issues. No leader however brilliant can solve all the problems of their country without the participation of their people in a search for solutions. Unfortunately, in many African countries the leaders alone must evolve the solutions to all problems, accounting for the prevailing chaos and perennial development problems that beset the continent. This problem is especially true of Liberia. If we continue neglecting the development of the intellectual resources of our country in preference for that of physical infrastructure alone, we will break down tomorrow what we build today. ?

* Wilton Gbakolo Sengbe Sankawulo has published novels, collections of folklore, and non-fiction texts. He has served in the government of Liberia as well as taught English Literature at the University of Liberia and Cuttington College.

* 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

Eva Acqui illustrates Liberia’s little known, yet vibrant literary tradition.

Before delivering a lecture at a university in Hungary two years ago, I presented some slides to the professors of the board along with two wooden masks I had brought from Liberia, holding them in my arms as if they were my children. The professors of the board asked about my choice. I responded, “These are images of African wood carvings, masks, hailing from Liberia, the West Coast of Africa. I chose them because of the power of supremely well organised forms, the unification of form and expressive power.

These masks belong to an art with origins before recorded history; their images were chosen to illustrate permanence, universality, perfection. They correspond to humankind’s instinctive search for beauty, giving shape to fundamental beliefs and feelings, transmitting ideas, values, attitudes, from generation to generation. Thus, they are culture carriers across time and borders. They have a definite role in the evolution of culture, ensuring its continuity and bringing about innovation. They are Liberia's ‘cultural ambassadors’ to this part of the world.”

A nation survives through its culture. One of the main functions of art is to keep and build on tradition, create new values. Art is called upon to establish the future of culture. Liberia's historic experience of civil war has motivated its artists to engage their art in the struggle for the survival of their culture and nation. Art has to address spiritual and cultural needs, social needs, to develop an aesthetic, which has to act as a cultural stabiliser. Stabilising culture means to keep all traditional achievements together, innovate, and create new works of art to ensure continuity and survival.

Back in the 1990s, still at the beginning of the war, there were people who found enough inner power to take refuge in their artistry, to record events, feelings, reactions. K. Moses Nagbe's book ‘Thinking Through the Times’ was published in 1991 and was on sale in Monrovia; Aaron Fallah Brown continued to paint and write in that time of sorrow. These artists felt they had to tell the world somehow what was going on, to speak for people who did not attend universities or expensive schools, but did entrust their last words to those who they felt able and willing to carry out a very hard task: "Go and write about us. Tell the world. Let people know," convinced that the sound of their names would raise awareness and interest in their culture and fate.

Liberian literature has a valuable canon, a cultural asset to be preserved, organised, and recorded by literary history, both in Liberia and the world. It contains a chronological record of Liberia's pastoral, folk literature, with its folk songs, proverbs, folk tales, known since the 1800s. There are writers, genres, and species, from poetry to drama, important to be taught for the ongoing development of Liberia’s literary history. We find the first novel in English written by an African, Guanya Pau, by Joseph Walters, 1891. We find written poetry dating back to the 1800s; ‘Leaves from Love's Garden,’ written by Edwin Barclay, 1836-1961; ‘Echoes of the Valley,’ edited by Roland T. Dempster, 1947; ‘Poems of Liberia,’ collected by A. Doris Banks Henries, 1963. We find Liberia's novelists, Bai T. Moore, Henry B. Cole, Wilton S. Sankawulo; short story writers, such as Robert H. Brown, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley. Dramatists also occupy a notable position: Lester Parker, Kona Khasu, Peter Ballah, Kerkura Kamara, and Womi Neal have all contributed by their work to the development of a literary genre in Liberia.

Art can have a powerful transformational and restorative effect within society. Being exposed to cultural contexts provides an insight into society, too. Works of art reveal details about dominant social values of the period in which they are produced, conveying the feelings and ideas of that period, and the human experience, through a variety of details, on social, political, and environmental issues. The collaboration among art creating groups is another aspect of the social function of art: it ensures the joint effort of groups and individuals in the process of creation, in the attaining of social objectives by the aid of art. One such vital objective is peace. Artists are those who use the power of their means (word, sound, colour, image, dance, etc.) in the struggle for these supreme human values.

Liberian culture as a whole, literature especially, has several culturally vital tasks to attend to, within exercising its role of struggling for a better future, for speaking to the spiritual and cultural needs of a nation it has culturally attempted to keep up. It has to preserve its rich foundation of folk culture, consisting of customs, rites, and the related literary products, such as tales, legends, etc. The danger of myths and motifs vanishing into oblivion does exist, unless people themselves hand over this rich cultural heritage to the present and future generations, and teach them the pride of holding such an inheritance. There have been notable efforts in preserving folklore, in the writings of Wilton S. Sankawulo, A. Doris Banks Henries, Peter Dorliae, addressing the preservation of Liberia's rich folklore by bringing it into print.

Another vitally important task for Liberian writers is to keep writing, to ensure development and progress in both culture and society. Liberians have successfully responded to this “call,” whether from home or abroad, to cultivate the feeling of belonging to Liberia carrying their country's name and specificity into the future. Joining the literary forum provided by the Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings and offering their work to the reading public, aided by the Internet, many cultural personalities have contributed to the establishment and development of a body of literary work, internationally recognised. In his statement on the importance of the literary journal, Professor Wilton S. Sankawulo underlines the importance of the freedom of expression, production of literature, around the literary forum thus provided, with regard to what it represents for the generations of the future, stating that, “If we continue neglecting the development of the intellectual resources of our country in preference for that of physical infrastructure alone, we will break down tomorrow what we build today.”

However rich and valuable a culture may be, if it does not find its way to universality, it is doomed to oblivion by other cultures and peoples. Therefore, it has to integrate itself into the culture of the world, keeping its originality and yielding the best of the people it represents. It has taken centuries of evolution to reach today's multi-expression by arts' various forms: in the 1800s art was primarily concerned with ideas of truth and beauty; in the 1900s it was marked by radical breaks in modernism and postmodernism, while the 1990s and 2000s witnessed the idea of art as cultural-image making, based on survival as core of contemporary experience: artists have addressed this reality in the most powerful terms possible. For art to carry out such a function, it needs to address another critical aspect: the educational function.

The quality of aesthetic experience can be ensured only by educating art consumers towards a well-developed intellect with a thirst of knowledge and a continuous search for beauty. The engagement in cognitive activities entails the use of associations and the understanding of abstractions: the use of imagination to make a difference between what is implied and what actually exists. Glancing beyond the facades into details needs good skills of impression that help art consumers to identify, analyse, and evaluate what is experienced. All this literary work is extremely valuable to the nation's culture. The world has to know, and through its literature know the country, its people, their view of the world and its representation, for Liberian literature to be part of world literature.

* Eva Acqui, Ph.D., lives and works in Baia Sprie, Romania. She is a university lecturer, translator, award winning poet, fiction writer, and scholarly writer of feature articles and scientific papers

* 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

As mountains of garbage expand in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, the UN Environment Programme has called on the government and private sector to repair the country’s broken system for collecting trash. “Solid waste management is arguably the greatest public health threat in Monrovia,” UNEP’s Michael Cowing told IRIN. “There is virtually no waste management secto

Three weeks ago, when the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor opened in The Hague, the accused made headlines for failing to appear in court. In his former capacity as the president of Liberia, Taylor is accused of having presided over a criminal network of armed combatants, whose crimes in Sierra Leone between 1996 and 2002 amounted to violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

An eclectic group of 53 refugees, including students, tailors, professional soccer players, musicians, artists and restaurant owners, returned home this week on the first UNHCR-organised voluntary repatriation of Liberians by air from Burkina Faso.

Liberia's auditor general accused a senior economic adviser to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of striking and threatening him in parliament after he denounced a phantom department in the presidency. Auditor General John Morlu said presidential adviser for economic affairs Morris Saytumah hit him after he told Liberian legislators he had discovered two departments in the national budget with identical roles.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the use of violence by members of the national police and United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) against several journalists, including Daylue Goah of the privately-owned daily "New Democrat" and Evans Ballah of "Public Agenda", during a student demonstration on 19 June 2007. Goah was seriously injured.

The United Nations Security Council has agreed to set up a three-member panel of experts to probe into the “hidden wealth” of the former rebel-turned President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. Experts will try to uncover Mr Taylor’s wealth he had acquired from illegal blood diamond and timber trade in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor goes on trial next week charged with instigating murder, rape and terrorism during Sierra Leone's civil war in a case prosecutors say could end impunity for African strongmen. Taylor, once one of Africa's most feared warlords, faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, including recruiting child soldiers during the 1991-2002 conflict.

Looking for a Livelihoods Coordinator to provide technical and management support to the livelihood security programmes in the four programme counties, Grand Bassa, Lofa, Bong and Montserrado. Career sector: Management, Coordination, Leadership; Type of work : Accomodation Provided, Contract, Full Time. Closing Date: 15.06.2007

Liberian authorities have been taking opportunity to provide education to thousands of its children denied by several years of civil war. Chief Executive Officers of RLJ Companies and G-III Apparel Group, Robert L. Johnson and Morris Goldfarb, pumped $100,000 into the Liberian Education Trust this month, a charitable trust created to harness American support for the restoration of basic education in post-civil war Liberia.

The management of the "Liberian Express" bi-weekly newspaper has been threatened with legal action by a member of the House of Representatives of Liberia. Representative Dusty Wolokollie accused the newspaper of publishing what he termed "a falsehood against him" and boasted that he will take the newspaper to court for libel and will demand US$20,000 in damages.

The Digital Bridge Project, which aims to close the digital divide in Liberian universities, made its public debut on Friday, April 27th at the main campus of the University of Liberia when President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf inaugurated the state-of-the-art SocketWorks Limited (SocketWorks) computer laboratory.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/authors/adetokunbo-borishade.jpgAdetoku… Borishade calls for an African centered curriculum in the new Liberia that is inclusive of gender and ethnic diversity.

It amazes me that the more things seem to change, the more they remain the same.

African educational systems appear to be the only ones on the planet that do not teach their students in accordance with Africa's own cultural values and perspectives.

At a time when Liberia’s education system is staggering under the burden of physical reconstruction, this topic might appear insignificant. The ministry of education is stretched thin doing all it can to recover.

However, there are some things so serious and fundamental to Liberia’s future progress that they need to be undertaken slowly, thoughtfully, deliberately and collaboratively.

I believe that one of those considerations is the development of an African culture-based curriculum that includes, values, and supports the diverse range of potentialities presented by females and people from the 16 or more indigenous ethnic groups in Liberia.

This is not a popular subject because as Africans we believe that we are the only people in the world who do not have a history, belief and philosophical system worthy of study or even discussion.

Therefore, I understand that discussing it openly creates animosity. However, there are some things that are so important that they need to be said anyway. My commentary aims to get people thinking, talking.

Talk about things remaining the same. As far back in Liberian history as 1881, Edward Wilmot Blyden, who was at that time President of Liberia College, laid out an educational programmme for the Africa-centred instruction of Liberian students and for youth throughout the African continent.

Over the course of his lifetime, 126 years ago, Dr Blyden spoke, wrote, and preached that the elements of genuine and permanent progress in Liberia and the rest of Africa are found in teaching African students about the true history and culture of African people and the contributions Africans have made to world civilisations.

As one of the original fathers of pan-Africanism, he dearly wanted to live long enough to see positive change in the slavish thinking and situation of Africans worldwide. This is the man who inspired generations of continental and diaspora Africans, including Marcus, W.E.B. DuBois and Kwame Nkrumah.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/302/41130b.jpgIn 1989, the late Dr Mary A.B. Sherman reminded us of the dialectical relationship that exists between education and the society it serves. This message was the focus of her keynote address at the 21st Annual Conference of the Liberian Studies Association in 1989. Dr. Sherman eloquently pointed out the evolutionary and synergistic processes involved with educating a society:

'Education originates from that society, contributes to changing it and is, in turn, changed by the society.'

Liberia’s beloved educator went on to reflect on the three forces that shaped education in Liberia:

'The emigrant ethnicity, the influence of Christian missions, and the intersection of values.'

Dr. Sherman’s reference to education as an agent of social change strongly implies that one role of education is to keep in step with a constantly changing world by preparing students to meet new challenges and to develop new visions and expectations.

Dr Elwood Dunn (2006) recently spoke of Liberia as being 'heavy with history' that 'cannot be wished away'. Dr Dunn suggests that we study the historical dynamics of the founding of Liberia in the 19th century:

'Africa and Africans were abased and debased. Those touched with a bit of European culture were considered charged with elevating the culture-less Africans.'

Dr Dunn set forth three critical questions focused on: national identity; national purpose; and national mind-set or culture.

Inspired by the ideas and words of the three scholars cited in this article, I propose four suggestions.

First, Liberia’s educational system needs to get in step with the ever-changing world academically, socially, culturally, and philosophically.

Second, Liberia’s educational system desperately needs to cease perpetuating notions of African inferiority.

Third, Liberia needs to develop a curriculum that includes and values females as well as the contributions Africans have made to this world for hundreds of thousands of years. There is no reason why, in this enlightened age, Liberians are taught to value and valorise everyone else besides themselves.

My fourth and final suggestion is that these three building blocks combined just might form a cornerstone of Liberia’s substantive renewal, out of which can develop a national identity, national purpose, and national cultural pride.

'Momie may have, Daddie may have,
But God loves the child that has his own.'
- African American proverb

Now it is time for Liberia to begin catching up and getting in step with international changes that are 21st century realities. We need to pay attention to the educational systems in other so-called developing countries that are making great strides at national independence.

Some Asian countries, for example, direct their students’ education to serve the interests and needs of the nation.

As a result, those countries are increasingly able to control their natural resources because they have mathematicians, chemists, engineers, and technical experts skilled in applied science, mining, manufacturing, and building industries.

Those countries are harnessing the power that still resides within the core of their people’s ancient cultural ideals and philosophical doctrines to stride forward.

We need to take a sharp look into the statement made by Kim Il Sung, President of North Korea, when he claimed that they were able to quickly jump ahead in their nuclear missile technology program by using 'indigenous knowledge'.

My question is why is Liberia not developing and harnessing the tremendous sources of power and indigenous knowledge that reside within the Liberian people, instead of paying out scarce resources for foreign knowledge that does not fit African culture and environment?

'If you are not bought at home,
You will not be sold in the market.'
- Liberian proverb

Up until now, Liberian educational and social realities consist of alien cultural values and notions of African inferiority that are taught to students, who in turn teach it to their children and grandchildren.

It all began in 1822 when repatriated Africans from America arrived in Liberia. According to Dr. Sherman (1989), the repatriated Africans were imbued with the idea that they were on a 'Christianizing-civilizing mission'.

They were led to believe that they were returning to Africa 'to spread the light of the gospel and of civilization' to the 'heathenish' Africans in Liberia.

Sherman relates how, during the early nineteenth century, the Christian missions isolated the indigenous Liberian children from their parents for the purpose of instruction lest they become 'corrupted'. Indigenous Liberians fought to preserve their culture and societies by placing their young ones into Poro and Sande Societies.

Despite these efforts, the ruling class in Liberia perpetuated discriminatory practices against Liberian masses based upon a misguided, false notion of superiority since they were mixed with non-African blood and/or had contact with Western culture. But I would like to know: if Liberians believe they are inferior, by virtue of their Africanity, how can this possibly gain respect from other nations?

'Lion rules the forest
Because Lion babies are taught it is their birthright.'
- African proverb

It is unimaginable that in the 21st century Liberia’s educational system does not teach even one class in Africana or Liberian studies. Nor does it value the cultural and social experiences of its indigenous populations.

Liberian students are not taught anything about their own civilisations, culture, and history. But they know all about everyone else’s.

Liberians are not taught that Africans walked this earth for tens of thousands of years when there was no one else but them.

They are not taught that Africans are the parents of all humanity and that Africa is the cradle of all world civilisations.

Nor are they taught that African people have made more contributions to world civilisations than any other group of people on this earth.

The Liberian curriculum does not include the historical activities and cultural contributions of its people prior to European and American contact.

These are facts that are validated and documented even by many of the greatest European scientists. Learning this information is a birthright, not just some useless privilege.

The people of other cultures know more about Africans than Africans know about themselves.

African history books in Liberia and elsewhere begin with the coming of Europeans. I would like to know: if Liberians teach their students that their Africanity makes them so inferior; that there is nothing about themselves worthy of study, then how can they be expected to rule an independent nation once they grow into adulthood?

'The house of the King,
Once burnt, is more glorious.'
- Nigerian proverb

When something precious is destroyed and rebuilt, the beauty of the new version always surpasses the first. Dr Sherman’s words are more significant now than they were in 1989:

'A clear understanding of Liberia’s place in the international economy, definition of national purpose, and reformulation of the goals of education would be a good starting point as we look to the 1990s. Unless we confront the realities growing out of our past, we can not have clear directions for the future.'

The sharp questions posed by Liberia’s beloved educator are more applicable today than when she spoke them eighteen years ago.

'What is the new international order that we would like to see? How will Liberia fit into it? How can she reduce the external dominance –economic, cultural, and psychological – which impinge on her? How can her hidden potential be released? Can we create a new society, new individuals? Are there indigenous values we would need to preserve and foster to promote these ends?"

I conclude by pointing out that Edward Blyden’s words continue to echo through the annals of time, calling for us to create positive psychological, cultural and social change in the midst of world events that are speeding ahead while we lag behind.

But just as we choose to fall behind, we can also choose to surge forward. Just as we are knowledgeable of the problems, we are also knowledgeable of the solutions. All it takes is the courage to make the right decisions.

We need African minds creating African solutions to African problems within the parameters of African culture. If we are serious we will make the necessary changes now that will ensure a glorious future for the new Liberia.

Blyden, Edward W. (1881). The Aims and Methods of a Liberal Education for Africans.

Dunn, D. Elwood (2006). 'Liberia and New Beginnings', The Perspective, Atlanta: Georgia, September.

Sherman, M. Antoinette Brown (1989). 'Perspectives on Education in Liberia'. Unpublished manuscript. Ithaca-New York: Cornell University.

* Adetokunbo K. Borishade is based at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
Contact: [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Thanks for the very informative article based on facts from empirical data. I think we have an idea as to how we can remedy the problem with some degree of success. First, we must accept that the genesis of our problem stems from lack of education and vision on the parts of our 'forefathers'.

Any leader who negotiates a deal of this magnitude, so lopsided and skewed towards the opposition belongs in the Guinness Book of Records for being of inferior intellect. On the other hand, Liberia's inability to do things right has earned us a place in the infamous category of this book for election fraud. Holding our elected officials to their pledges and not accepting the aged old excuses that 'it will take time', or 'it is on the agenda' would be a good start. The contracts were signed by crooks disguised as government officials. This in essence should make it null and void.

Ms Sirleaf should void the contract and renegotiate the deal fairly.

Jerome Gayman
Florida

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/broadcasts/ezekielkofi.jpgEzekiel Pajibo and Kofi Woods speak to Robtel Pailey from Pambazuka News about the role of Firestone Rubber Company in Liberia.

Firestone has operated in Liberia since the 1920s and been accused of using forced labour, polluting water sources and tax evasion by activists. The new administration in Liberia is currently embroiled in a difficult process of renegotiating the contract with Firestone.

In this podcast, Liberian Minister of Labour Kofi Woods and activist Ezekiel Pajibo explore the role of Firestone in Liberia and what is being done to redress the asymmetrical relationship between the company and the people. You can find out more about the struggle against Firestone by going to the Stop Firestone Campaign website at

See also the Pambazuka News article

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/301/firestone-child-labourers… England celebrates its 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, plantation workers in Liberia are trapped in a time warp of monumental proportions. They exist in the parallel universe of multinational corporate checkmate, where the prize goes to the highest exploiter. Robtel Neajai Pailey exposes the plantations of Firestone Rubber Company in Liberia.

Emmanuel B. is 30, a slender five foot three, and a slave whose piercing brown eyes tell unspeakable truths. He’s not the kind of slave we’ve seen in the collective imagination of 19th century plantations in the deep South of the United States. No, Emmanuel is a modern slave in 21st century post-conflict Liberia, and Firestone Rubber Company his unyielding master.

Like many workers on Firestone’s largest rubber plantation, Emmanuel was born in Harbel, has lived in Harbel all his life, and will most likely waste away in Harbel. Previously a student in Gbarnga, Emmanuel has ambitions to return to school, but those are pie in the sky dreams considering his family has no means of supporting him. As Westerners drive around in their heavy-duty SUVs propelled by another type of black gold—Firestone tires—Emmanuel wakes up at the crack of dawn to tap raw latex from 800 rubber trees daily. His clothes are tattered, and his shoulders covered in red puss-infected blisters from carrying buckets full of raw latex suspended from an iron pole to the Firestone processing plant two miles from his tapping site. For Emmanuel and his fellow tappers, a 5 a.m. start is the only means of filling their daily quota. Some have even begun to use their children to complete the herculean task.

Emmanuel sat perched like a statue, surrounded by green shrubbery and tall eerie splotched rubber trees one afternoon last December. He was taking a break, and had just finished tapping a record 800 trees when I spotted him while driving on a winding road on the Firestone plantation. He was gracious enough to demonstrate what a tapper does from sun-up to mid-morning. With a pitchfork suspended in the air, Emmanuel extended his long wiry arms to ease the raw latex out of the trees and into small red cups that catch the white liquid. The drip drip drip of the white coated liquid was almost as laborious to witness as Emmanuel’s daily task...another 799 trees to go and only five hours left. If workers don’t fill their quotas, their wages are reduced by half.

I visited the Firestone Rubber plantation for the very first time in December 2006 while on a research fact-finding mission for my dissertation. I decided to take a break from high browed academic work, and visit the sprawling modern day encampment I had heard so many horror stories about. It’s what I imagined the South to look like during the centuries of chattel slavery in the United States, with the hustle bustle activity of plantation life and the accompanying strokes of exploitation. As my brother-in-law, Christopher Pabai, and I pulled into the one million acre—and constantly expanding—plantation, we were welcomed by an ungodly stench, a stench I can only compare to the smell of rotten cheese. Not just ordinary rotten cheese, but the kind that has been drenched in burning oil, steamrolled on a conveyor belt, and neatly packaged for non-human consumption. That’s what raw latex smells like when it’s being processed. Rather than wearing masks to protect their noses from the assault, the plantation workers ingest the foul stench day in and day out. It took all my willpower not to retch all over Firestone’s perfectly manicured lawn or lush green golf course that senior management frequents while on hiatus from their back-breaking overseeing.

Believe it or not, the foul stench is the least of the workers’ worries.

While England celebrates its 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, plantation workers in Liberia are trapped in a time warp of monumental proportions. They exist in the parallel universe of multinational corporate checkmate, where the prize goes to the highest exploiter. Firestone has been playing the chess pieces of Liberia’s rubber slaves since the company signed a concession agreement with the Liberian government in 1926 to lease one million acres of land for six cents per acre—an abominable exchange given the astronomical dividends garnered from rubber sales then and now. In 2005, Liberia’s transitional government signed another concession agreement for an extra 37 years of rubber slavery. Rubber is Liberia’s largest export, and Firestone its largest international corporate exploiter, I mean employer, to date. The country and its people have paid a high price for the asymmetrical relationship.

In March 2007, the Firestone Rubber Company, a subsidiary of the Japan-based Bridgestone Corporation, won the Public Eye Global Ward for its social and ecological sins which demonstrate the shady side of pure profit-oriented globalization. The award was bestowed upon Firestone precisely because of the slave-like conditions on the plantation in Liberia. Workers live in dilapidated mud huts and are forced to seek the aid of their children in the strenuous and dangerous task of extracting latex from rubber trees. The deliberate and strategic use of children is against international laws including ILO Conventions, American and Liberian labour laws.

Since the plantation opened in 1926, company housing, mainly single room mud huts with no electricity, running water, or toilet facilities, has never been refurbished and updated to modern safety standards. Firestone’s plantation workers and their children toil under the same slave-like conditions they have endured for the past 80 years. The children’s labour usually includes cutting trees with sharp tools, applying pesticides by hand, and hauling two buckets on a pole, each filled with more than 30 kg of latex. Every day, these child laborers have to work long hours and are thus denied the right to basic education. Access to the company run schools is further impeded as parents must present a costly birth certificate in order to register their children.

Violation of child labour laws is only one among a long list of indictments against Firestone. According to Friends of the Earth USA, discharge from the company’s rubber processing plant has contaminated the adjacent Farmington River and other waterways, killing once vibrant ecosystems and polluting communities that depend on river water for drinking, bathing, and fishing. Furthermore, plantation workers are exposed to toxic chemicals and compounds on a daily basis while tapping. The merciless exploitation of Liberia’s people and natural resources by Firestone is directly linked to the nation’s impoverishment as the raw materials produced in Liberia are sent elsewhere for processing, thereby shutting out the possibility of added value. If a processing plant is built in Liberia, it could revolutionize the way rubber is used within a continent in dire need of manufactured goods such as condoms in the heyday of Bush’s conservative AIDS funding policies.

Clear violations of the law prompted a legal complaint filed in November 2005 against Bridgestone Corporation and Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC by the International labour Rights Fund (ILRF), a member of the Stop Firestone Campaign which is an advocacy coalition launched in 2005 to highlight Firestone’s exploitative undermining of Liberian labour laws. The 35 plaintiffs either have been or are currently child labourers on the company’s rubber plantation in Liberia. They describe their lives as “trapped in poverty and coercion.” The plaintiffs have brought their case to a U.S. court since Liberia’s legal system eroded during 15 + years of civil war and strife. The case is currently ongoing.

The ILRF, along with its Stop Firestone Coalition partners, demands that Firestone:
- provides workers with basic rights, including a living wage and the freedom of association;
- ends all child and forced labour and assigns achievable quotas;
- adopts health and safety standards; stops exposing workers to toxic compounds and chemicals;
- improves housing, schools, and health care centres to provide safe and comfortable facilities;
- ensures public disclosure of revenue and all types of foreign investment contracts;
- stops releasing chemicals into the environment and redresses all environmental damage; and
-publicly discloses the identity and quantity of all toxic compounds that it releases or transports.

Liberia’s Minister of Labour, Kofi Woods, a long-time human rights activist/lawyer and a major catalyst for the Stop Firestone Campaign, has been in rounds of renegotiation sessions with Firestone representatives recently in Washington, D.C. Because of his list of demands—which are reminiscent of the Stop Firestone Coalition demands—Firestone representatives stormed out of the meetings in March 2007. Go figure. Woods and his cohorts are what I imagine African legislators should be like, uncompromising and unyielding when it comes to corporate social and ethical responsibility. Liberia’s post-conflict reconstruction agenda will be null and void without a reconfiguration of the concession agreement with Firestone. After all, any post-war scheme involves a drastic revving up of the national economy, and given Firestone’s economic entrenchment in Liberia, it will need to refashion how it deals with Liberian workers, thereby increasing employee profit margins.

History challenges us to stay on a forward moving dialectic of change. The Firestone example shows us that an ironic distortion of that dialectic is taking place right under our noses. Slavery ain’t dead, it’s manufactured in the rubber we use daily. We owe it to Emmanuel and his comrades on the Firestone Rubber plantation to change the course of history, to make a clean break from modern-day slavery and its peculiar 21st century manifestations. We owe it to ourselves.

For more information on the Stop Firestone Campaign, visit

Listen to Robtel Pailey's interview with Liberian Minister of Labour Kofi Woods and activist Ezekiel Pajibo about the role of Firestone tyre company in Liberia in this weeks [email protected]