CHAPTER 1
It all started in 1822 when some of our people decided to goback to their ancestors' land after centuries of unspeakableordeals in the Americas. They were inspired by the sense offreedom and the courage of hope to reach their origin and help thosewho were on the continent of Africa improve their ways of livingand take their ancient civilization to another level. Even thoughthey weren't wealthy when they made the decision to go back tothe continent of Africa, they had some God-fearing people in theAmericas who were determined to assist them in repatriating totheir ancestors' land.
Several meetings were held for the preparation of their journey,and West Africa was chosen as the place for their repatriation sinceit was one of the main regions within the continent of Africa wherethey came from. When this region was selected by those who wereinterested in returning to their ancestors' land, those folks overseasthat wanted to see them go free in peace founded an organizationcalled American Colonization Society (ACS), which was responsiblefor their repatriation to Africa. I do believe the sole purpose of thisorganization was to help all those people of African descent settlepeacefully and then start with the issue of educating the people onthe continent on Western civilization. When the plan was finalizedfor their exodus, they were given a ship called Elizabeth: The MayFlower, which took its journey from the Atlantic Coast of Americato the Atlantic Coast of Africa.
The May Flower first arrived on the West African coast ofSierra Leone, to specify, on a piece of island called Sherbro Islandin present-day Sierra Leone. Because of bad weather and unpleasantenvironment at the time, they decided to forward their journey tothe grain coast of Africa, which is present-day Liberia, on a pieceof island that was given the name Providence Island. This islandis situated in the midst of the Dou River (Montserrado River),which was preoccupied by our ancestors from the Bassa tribe witha few from the Dai and Gola tribes living side by side. The Bassaare from the Kwa-speaking group that have their source fromthe ancient Ghanaian empire, and they're found mainly along thecoast with different vernaculars but similar attitudes, whether insinging, fishing, swimming, etc. When the May Flower arrivedon the island, the captains (Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess)decided to make that part of the continent the final destination oftheir voyage. They got down with our people who were on board theship Elizabeth and then went to look around their new homeland,although it was the land of their ancestors. They became to sharetears for what had taken placed and for what was taking place. Theaboriginals of the land (the Mamban Bassa) were excited to welcometheir brothers and sisters who were taken away for centuries, butthey were skeptical about their intention to come closer.
However, as time went on, there were scuffles among them (thesettlers and the natives) for reasons best known to themselves; butas the saying goes, "Blood will always be blood." They found acommon ground by putting their differences aside for a single cause,which was to integrate. When they became to emerge, that was thetime they named the historical site Providence Island, in honor of thesettlers. Then the settlers started expanding to other parts of the land,especially along the coast where the Kwa-speaking people are found.For example, within the Bassa region, they migrated to a piece ofisland that they named Edina. Because of the hospitality of the Bassapeople, they all became to integrate and later named half of the Bassaregion Grand Bassa County, with its capital, Buchanan, named afterThomas Buchanan, who was one of the backbones of the ACS andwas an agent on the ground at the time. The other side of the coastwhere they first arrived was given the name Montserrado County,with its capital, Christipolis (City of Christ), but it was later namedMonrovia in honor of James Monroe of the United States.
As progress was made on the West Coast, the ACS startedexpanding their sphere of settlement along the East Coast of theGrain Coast, such as in the Kru region, and founded a county calledSinoe, with its capital Greenville, and then to the Grebo regionwith the creation of another county called Maryland County, withits capital, Harper, as more returnees were coming home. As themigration and integration were taking place, the British and theFrench were determined to incorporate the Grain Coast into thescramble for Africa. With all these actions taking place, the settlerswere moving ahead with the Commonwealth they did organize togovern themselves.
The Commonwealth was mainly concerned about the settlersrather than the Grain Coast as a whole. The first governor of theCommonwealth was Thomas Buchanan of the United States, whowas representing the ACS on the continent of Africa. As the settlers'issues were primarily concern about the Commonwealth, someof the settlers suggested that few indigenous be included in thegoverning process of the settlements; therefore, few indigenous werebrought into the affairs of the Commonwealth. The natives that werebrought in were never given executive or administrative position butwere appointed to accomplish local tasks like communication andother traditional issues that were beyond the reach of the settlers.When the Commonwealth started becoming successful, the settlersstarted building schools, hospitals, and churches in other parts ofthe country, especially along the coastlines of the Commonwealth.Because of constant intrusions and violations by other powers at thetime upon the Grain Coast, representatives from various settlementsincluding members from the ACS came together to declare theCommonwealth (the Grain Coast) as an independent nation on thecontinent of Africa. With all the meetings that were going on forthe declaration of independence, the majority of the population (thenatives) were excluded from the founding of the nation. Even thoughsome of them were around to occupy space, the rest of them wereconcerned about what was going on in their regions. From 1822 to1847, the drama did reach its climax, and the resolution was thedeclaration of independence.
Eleven ladies came together and designed our flag after thestate of Texas's naval flag, and other documents were designed inconnection with the United States to keep the connection betweenthe new nation and its godfather. The eleven stripes represent theeleven designers of the flag, the white in our flag represents thepurity of heart, the red represents the bravery of our people, the bluefield represents the dark continent at the time, and above all else,the lone star represented the only independent nation to be at thetime with the exception of Ethiopia. This is the design of our flag.Then here comes the seal of the prospective republic. The Atlanticocean in our seal represents the route our people used to go back tothe land of their ancestors; the ship within our seal represents themeans of transportation our people used from across the Atlantic;the dove flying above the sky with the sheet in its mouth representsdiplomacy, peace, how the new nation that was to be born was goingto communicate with its neighbors and other nations of the worldin peace and harmony; the palm tree within our seal representshow rich our soil is with natural resources; the plow and the shovelrepresent how we are going to excavate the natural resources fromthe soil, such as goal, diamond, iron ore, oil, etc.; the dark soilrepresents how rich our soil is for agriculture; and above all else, therising sun beyond the ocean stands for the new birth of Africa. Themotto of our nation (The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here), which isinscribed in our seal, represents the unspeakable ordeals that drovethe settlers back home. From our national anthem to the name of ournation (Liberia), we are all about freedom and the will of the peopleto choose their own destiny.
On July 26, of 1847, our people came together with all theirproposals to tell the watching world that the Grain Coast of Africawas now an independent nation called Liberia, that our sovereigntywas going to be protected by its people and posterities. With allthese ceremonies taking place, the indigenous people's voice wasinvisible from July 26 of 1847 onward. Our president was chosen;from there onward, the entire first republic was ruled by cliquesthat failed to bring the entire society together in the kingdom ofunity because of greed for wealth and power. Then came the secondrepublic of Liberia with President Tolbert in charge of the cliques.After knowing about government and right from wrong, he decidedto change things for the betterment of the entire society. However,some influential figures within his government and the burdens hispredecessors left with him made it so difficult to turn the courseof history in a blink of an eye (a decade). As the world progresses,human minds expand.
Because past leaders failed to erase ignorance from the mindsof their people by giving them education so they could alwayschoose peace over violence and solve the problems of injustices andinequalities that were affecting our society, our nation did witnessan alarm, I mean, a paradigm shift on the morning of April 12,1980. On this day, our people, our nation, our future were in greattrouble. Our president was gone; he was captured and killed by someseventeen enlisted men from the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL)who felt it was time to turn the page of our nation's history fromthe traditional institutions of corruption and exploitation, whichwere affecting the nation as a whole. It was not only our presidentwho was killed but also some officials in his government whom ourpeople thought were the brain and spinal cord behind the society'sinjustices and inequalities. They lost their lives by the way of firingsquad in that identical April. Since that time, our nation was neverthe same again.
The entire eighties brought instabilities to our land. Those ofus who came through the eighties and previous generations wereforced to live by political decisions. Now with our new presidentstruggling to bring the good to the general society, other folks in andout of the country who were active in politics started undermininghim from all angles. Like his predecessor Tolbert, his entire dreamwas to move his country forward, but there were always obstaclesdisturbing the entire society through opposition forces. PresidentSKD was always messed up by coup d'état, but he didn't allow thesefailed attempts to hold him down from performing his national duty,so he was providing means of prosperity for the society as well. Butwhen skepticism grew because of those putsches, the regime becamedesperate sometimes. This was our political climate until December24, 1989, when the first sound popped out at the border of Butuo, inthe northern part of the country. As our people would say, "From thebeginning, it starts with fun." On the eve of the people's festival ofChristmas, the land the Almighty God gave to us was now about toexperience something that was going to change our lives forever.
When the first attack took place on December 24, the alarmdid spread all over the country by all forms of communicationsat the time; this alarm brought fear and fun to our country. Somepeople said it was a lie, there was no rebel incursion. They said thegovernment was playing track to delay and jeopardize the incomingelection at the time. While some people said they were waiting tomeet the rebels face-to-face to raid hell with them, some peopleasked what kind of foolishness we were hearing. Some people saidthe rebels should come because they wanted to be rebels too. Therewere all kinds of speculations about the incursion that took placeon December 24, 1989. Days later, like on April 12 of 1980, thepresident officially went on air to tell the Liberian people and thewatching world that the sweet land of liberty was truly at war. Withthis announcement, what started as sweet fun began to convert intosour fun for the Liberian people, especially for the ones who knewthe consequences of war.
What was far away in action drew people together like amagnetic field in action. Liberians and other foreigners startedcoming together for social discussion—three to six, four to seven,five to eight—in every corner of our land. People started adaptingto the behavior of sitting around a radio in groups to listen to BritishBroadcasting Cooperation (BBC) for world news, especially thosethat focused on Africa, to know what was there for our sweet landof liberty. Few people used to listen to Voice of America (VOA)to admit; they were really interested in BBC than VOA. As a kid,we all sat around the radios to truly understand what was reallyhappening to our land and our future. Whenever the news came onand everyone had gathered around the radios, you could drop a pinin the sand and you'd definitely hear the sound of that tiny object. Iwas on vacation in the coastal city of Buchanan with my sister CB,as it was a custom to go over there to spend a few months with ourmother and the rest of the family whenever school closed. Therein Buchanan, some folks paid less attention to the news and moreattention to the discounted commodities that were on the marketbecause of the season fever. My mother, like most parents who wereinterested in getting new things for their children, went to TubmanStreet one night and got me some materials from a boutique that wasthere at the time. Among those materials there were a blue Levi'sjean and a solid-red T-shirt, which really captured my attention atthe time. However, all these items she bought for me and the ones Itook from Gbarnga for the season were not making me happy at thistime at all. My prime concern at the time was our nation, our people,our future, and our destiny. With all these things on my mind, wewere all there for our sweet land of liberty whenever BBC comeson. Whenever my grandmother cooked, I sometimes ate a bit; andon some occasions, I also went about skipping meal just because ofwhat was happening then to our nation. Knowing that our futureand destiny was now in trouble, our dreams and visions was nowgoing to be a nightmare.
Our nation and our lives were never going to be the same again.We were now going to lose the people we love. It could be you, itcould be me, it could be the next-door neighbors, who knew? All weknew for sure was that there was going to be a great destruction inthe nation, and people were going to lose their lives because bulletscannot distinguish, and the result of war is total destruction, nottotal development. We were not going to sit among our schoolmates,our classmates anymore; we were not going to go for talents showsanymore; our school leagues and our community were not goingto be in session anymore; our gather days, all those activities wereplaying on my young mind. Worst of all, we were all about to goin different directions. From the great beyond to beyond the ocean,we were now going to be present everywhere—dead or alive. Withall these and many more playing on my mind, it was difficult to eatwhat people call food. At eight in the evening, we all used to sit inthe living room just to watch and listen to the latest developmentof the news at the time. Whenever the newscasters sit to give thenews, there used to be complete silence lest the Lord was in his holytemple. After watching the news quietly, we used to put movies onor watch the last show the television station used to offer us at thetime, just to make ourselves lively sometimes. And then we wouldgo through our evening devotion and go to bed so we could get upearly in the morning. We would watch our mother go to the marketto sell her bitter ball, palm oil, and other vegetables she used to bringfrom the rural areas. And we would also watch our grandmother fixher doughnuts for sale.
With all these activities, the war was now the leading topic onevery concerned citizen's mind. In the morning, folks would groupagain to start discussing the war, mainly about the source of therebels, the strengths and weaknesses of the government, and whatthe government could do to prevent the advancing rebels at thetime. Sometimes their conversations would be harsh against therebels or the government, whereas we kids just sat quietly to watchwhat was unfolding. Weeks later after the season, the police inBuchanan arrested a guy and shot him dead, blew his brain apart,and they said he was a rebel; his body was displayed in front of theLiberian National Police (LNP) headquarter in Buchanan, GrandBassa County. Media crew went in to get their side of the story aswell as that of the citizens of Grand Bassa County who went thereto see the proclaimed rebel's dead body displayed at the policestation. I was one of those citizens of Bassa who went there thatday to see the dead body of the proclaimed rebel. The story of thatdead brother captured the entire evening news both in Bassa andaround the country. The next morning, it was the headline of allthe newspapers, and it became the talk of the week. Weeks later,some guys were arrested again and taken to the media and displayedon air for confession and public viewing. They were alive, and thistime, it was in Monrovia.
