When eighty-six black passengers sailed from New York harbour in the United States of America in 1820 to the West coast of Africa, to settle where would be Liberia today, they all took the fifty-two week journey to find a new home following fear of racial mixture by some white Americans.
The journey yielded a result that can be credited for the formation of a democratic nation called Liberia. Declaring self-independence on July 26 1847, Liberia became the first and oldest independent republic on the African continent.
Liberia enjoyed a relatively smooth path for over a century until 1980. For more than hundred years it was run by one-party – the Grand Old True Whig Party. Former slaves from America brought with them some of the bad practices, similar to those they and their ancestors received at the hands of their former slave masters.
Just as they were treated, they began to mete out some of those ugly treatments against the aborigines, whom they met on the ground.
Though it was a single party state, many elder Liberians and their children still hold the True Whig Party’s legacy close to their hearts.
“Liberia was stable, peaceful and life was enjoyable. I remember my father took us to places during holidays and dropped us off after school. We used to go to our village to speak to our grandparents and enjoyed vacation with families and relatives,” Curtis Dorley, Youth League Chairman of the present governing Unity Party, narrated.
However, all of this soon changed when Master Sergeant Samuel Kayon Doe seized power through a violent military coup d’etat. The overthrow of the political hegemony in 1980, brought an end to the one-party dominance in Liberia and gave rise to multi-party democracy.
However, for the first five years into its rule, the military men ruled the nation with ‘iron fists’. The Constitution was suspended and its provisions replaced by military degrees from the Head of State.
In fact, the Constitution was re-written, which ended the ‘First Republic’, thus beginning the ‘Second Republic’.
The odds soon dropped on a period of peace, love and unity when Liberia entered a period of insecurity. Killing the True Whig Party’s last leader, President William R. Tolbert Jr., Head of State Samuel Kayon Doe soon turned into one of the world’s deadliest dictators by transforming the country into a military state and using brutal force to quiet down every opposing party.
By 1985, the military returned the country back to civilian rule and allowed multi-party democracy. Master Sergeant Doe won the election held that year and became the first and only President of the ‘Second Republic’.
President Doe’s ten-year rule came to a rude end in September 1990, when he was captured and butchered by one of the warring rebel factions, which were fighting to unseat him. The civil war had started on December 24, 1989.
Even though he was executed in 1990, the killings, mayhem and wanton destructions didn’t end. The war raged on for more than a decade breaking and tearing down every fabric of the society. More than 200,000 Liberians and foreign nationals lost their lives in the senseless war as the nation further descended into chaos, anarchy and became a failed state.
The civil war was a strange phenomenon for generations that had enjoyed peace for over a century.
“I remember hearing from people in our community in Monrovia, that rebels have entered Liberia through the borders with Ivory Coast. I did not know who or what rebels were and the consequences of civil war,” Dorley told ECHO.
The conflict was believed to have come to an end in 1997 when the rebel leader Charles Taylor, who led the invasion in December 1989, was elected as President and sworn-in in the same year.
Before 1997, numerous peace deals had been signed among the warring factions, various interim governments and authority of the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Most of those peace agreements were broken and every time it happened, conflict resumed.
However, this period of summersaulting to peace in the face of guns was soon cut short when a second Civil War began in 1999 with the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, a rebel group based in the northwest of the country, launching an armed insurrection against Taylor.
It became worse when a second rebel group, Movement for Democracy in Liberia, began launching attacks against Taylor from the southeast of the Country in March 2003.
By July 2003, the rebels had launched an assault on Monrovia. Under heavy pressure from the international community and the domestic Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement, Taylor resigned in August 2003 and went into exile in Nigeria.
A peace deal was signed later that month and The United Nations Mission in Liberia began arriving in September 2003 to provide security and monitor the peace accord. This was the first time the United Nations deployed 15,000 peace keepers in any armed conflict in the world.
Making the impossible jump
The 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the ensuing two-year-long National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL), which brought together two rebel forces, the former government and members of civil society, justifiably had many critics but also one positive and possibly redeeming feature.
In 2005, Liberia held its first post-conflict elections, two years after a peace agreement ended 14 years of civil war. Navigating treacherous political waters and facing both time constraints and citizen scepticism, the Harvard trained Economist and former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected as the first female President of the Country and Africa.
Liberia’s had a crumbling infrastructure, 80 percent of the country illiterate, unemployment was around 85 percent and teachers were paid irregularly. Monrovia, the capital, had significant plumbing and electricity problems. Schools and hospitals also scarce.
“Liberia’s first post-war elections in 2005 was very cardinal because it was seen by many as the shadows of hope they were hanging on to, particularly one that would have put an end to political and military confrontations that have ravaged the country for decades”, Moses Zangar Jr., a media Development specialist, said.
Zangar who then worked for the United Nations Mission in Liberia also disclosed that as result of the elections Liberia’s huge numbers of refugees and internally displaced people had some cause for optimism to return home and restart a normal life again.
Liberia has had two post-war elections with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2005 and 2011) emerging as winner on both occasions along with a host of legislators. This is the first time that Liberians had smile at democracy since the existence of the country close to two centuries ago.
Period of Transformation
The end results of the elections have brought somewhat political balance in Liberia. Moses Zangar also pointed that some of the vices that contributed to the political crisis in Liberia are somewhat visible but are ignored by Liberians because they now believe in the democratic process.
As a means of taking the government to the people, County Service Centres have been established across the Country, through which an increased range of public services, such as birth certificates, driver licenses, business registrations, marriage licenses and other documents, are being provided, making it unnecessary for citizens and business people to travel to the Capital Monrovia for that purpose.
Addressing the joint session of the legislature on 23rd January 2017, President Johnson Sirleaf said, “The introduction of the County Development Fund and the rotation of celebrations of Independence Day in the counties were firsts in the history of our country”.
She said the initiatives were meant to demonstrate commitment to a decentralized governance system that allowed participation of the representatives of the people, and the people themselves, in decisions and the establishment of priorities that affect their lives.
“Today, under this administration, young people in Liberia have a future, many are enrolled in school, some working as professionals, and the country is on course when it comes to rebuilding the broken life and infrastructure,” said Dorley who was upbeat about his party’s leadership.
Democratic Transition
For the first time in close to three decades, Liberians will participate in a political process that is expected to see another civilian government taking over from the incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The Peace, Freedom and Development in the country will be some of the reasons Liberians will again want to cast their ballots in October 2017 but measure must be put in place to maintain the current status of the state.
“Major gap that needs to be filled are engaging and training of young opinion leaders and political parties’ youth stalwarts in identifying potential threats to peace in the coming elections to prevent pre and post elections violence,” Greaves told the ECHO.
However, there will be so much to do to maintain the status quo for a new government.
The next leadership must agree on a common vision which moves the country’s politics away from short-term power struggles and towards working for the well-being of all members of society, especially those living in abject poverty.
In the last ten years there have been dozens of election violence across the African continent but Liberia, transitioning from 14 years’ of civil war, can safely say elections have been a “Game Changer”.
About the Author
Moses Kollie Garzeawu is an award winning Liberian Journalist and Development Journalism Scholar at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi, India. He is also a Newscaster and Producer at the Liberia Broadcasting System and Executive Director for Local Voices Liberia (www.localvoicesliberia.com) – This research article is Published the ECHO JOURNAL of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, which the author is serving as Managing Editor