My fellow Liberians and friends of Liberia living there. There is “tribal” and tradition and then there is backwardness.
Liberia must throw out all that is “backwards” and infringes on the very basic principle human rights of another being to safety and security from violation of their physical self and soul by anyone else or the state itself.
This is the heart of the matter I investigated in my masters dissertation “Civil War in Liberia:
A Manipulation of Chaos?” in 1995-6 in which I cogently and aggressively argued for the case of my core hypothesis that Liberia’s modern problems and challenges are NOT political or economic per se/alone, but much much deeper and linked to a “psychosocial malaise” promoted largely by a mutated bastard form of “hybrid” traditional/modern patriarchy that has spawned a mutated political economy and very sick “norms” of cultural practice especially in the dynamics of daily gender relations and in daily dynamics of power relations between “the haves” and the “have nots” that are de facto taken as “acceptable” and “Liberian traditional” or so called “country” cultural practice when they are de jure in many cases in the modern legal system in Liberia (which should be the supreme law of the land!) stated and known to be wrong.
At the heart of the crisis is a maladaptation to what it means to be “modern” (note I do not use the loaded word “civilised”) while at the same time holding on to and nurturing beneficial “traditional” norms and practices that are still of great benefit in the 20th and 21st century.
In that regards, Liberia is a flip side to Japan. Is it any wonder then that while Liberia was second only to Japan in economic growth rates in the 1960’s (read Clausewitz et al “Growth without Development” 1966 Northwestern Uni, USA for more on this) Liberia is where it is today and Japan is where it today: very very traditional but also very very modern and at peace with its self, and the societal moral economy functions still while Liberia is mired in a continued malaise?.
To date, I have not found or heard or read a SINGLE Liberian politician articulating the depths of the crisis I am talking about and offering a platform for renewal, healing and change.
This has nothing to do with country or Congo or right wing or left wing ideology. I am not a member of any party and I am not seeking any office.
However I was born in Monrovia Liberia and my ancestors from other parts of Africa, the USA and the Carribean, as well as the Grebo heartland of Cape Palmas, Liberia all, shed their sweat and blood to try and make the “modern project” at the heart of the idea of Liberia (once our ancestors wrought control of matters from the White led American Colonisation Society in 1847!)
It sickens me to see the state of the nation’s soul today after their sacrifice of over a hundred years!! It disgusts me in fact. What concerns me is very deep and delves into the very “soul” of the nation.
It is often said that a nation is an “imagined community”.
If that is the case then we are currently experiencing a collective psycho-spiritual nightmare as Liberians.
In that regard, I am a Soul-Cialist. Are there many others in the political discourse of the nation right now?
I am sure there must be and I welcome the opportunity to hear their perspectives.
We need to do some serious “soul work”. It’s time to dream new dreams and confront and chase the demons away.
Max Bankole Jarrett, Contributing Writer