By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | MONROVIA (IDN) – Decades after Liberians agreed to close the chapter on years of disunity and nagging inequality between groups of African-American settlers and indigenous Liberians, efforts to solidify the nation’s fragile state of peace appear to have deadlocked.
At a National Unification Day conference in Paynesville, a suburb of Monrovia, Augustine Arkoi, head of the Better Future Foundation (BFF), called the Unification Policy promoted by the late President William V.S. Tubman, a critical challenge 56 years after its formal launch.
“It is the candid view of BFF, that since the country’s independence in 1847, true unification and integration of its entire people are yet to be realized.”
“Liberians are primarily divided and segregated by class, ethnicity and religion. This is usually hidden under the so-called ‘country-Congau’ divide, which is a major impediment for our country to move forward.”
The Paynesville confab was sponsored by BFF and the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation at the University of Liberia.
Akoi continued: “…Since the death of President Tubman, changes in the attitudes of Liberians, especially amongst the upwardly mobile social and economic classes towards the disadvantaged, poor and indigenous populations leave much to be desired. Sentiments of brother and sisterhoods including citizens having mutual respect for each other remain sadly low in Liberia today.”
Similarly, prospects for unification seemed dim in the views of civil society writing in the Daily Observer.
“Please annul this holiday!” wrote Miatta S. Momoh bluntly… “Where is the unification now? We are divided more than ever before. People are supporting leaders based on tribal allegiance. It is a stupid holiday.”
For Mamadu S. Bah, President Tubman’s laudable efforts to unify Liberia were undercut by his role in the Pan African movement, where Tubman served as the ‘monkey wrench’ in efforts to form an African Union, Bah said.
“(He) led a huge chunk of other newly independent African nations to form an Organization of African Unity (OAU) instead of an African Union as proposed by Kwame Nkrumah… The Union would have made the entire Africa one nation, one military, one parliament and so forth. Imagine if we would have been like China or the USA.”
“From my layman understanding the word ‘unification’ is the process of being united or made into whole,” wrote Albert B. Cope. “Are we united as Liberians when there is no justice for the poor? No freedom for the oppressed? No equality? What is the message for tomorrow?”
From Isaiah Daynyan: “This day is remembered because of Tubman and trust me very soon if this generation and government doesn’t design a strategy to unite our people, this day will not be honored and will be forgotten.” [IDN-InDepthNews – 01 June 2020]
Photo credit: Facebook Executive Mansion-Liberia.
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