By D. Moses Wantu
Liberia is the first Independent black nation in the continent of Africa. Prior to independence, the colony experienced provocations and disadvantages in the cruel hands of western and European hustlers in the name of business owners as explorers.
The colony loosed many of her territories to British and French colonies. Research has shown that consistent encroachment as British, Portugal and French merchants, used their connection with some high profile politicians and business tacos in their countries of origin to robe Liberia of taxes and even settled on part of her territories bordering the Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
People always ask, who gave Liberia independent?
The U.S. Government lent some diplomatic support, but Britain and France had territories in West Africa and were better poised to act. As a result, in 1847, Liberia declared independence from the American Colonization Society in order to establish a sovereign state and create its own laws governing commerce.
Prior to independence, Liberia loosed much of her territories because she could not protect her territorial domain due to lack of sovereignty, and guards who were called the Frontier Forces to protect its borders.
Due to these persistent provocations and bullying of the Colony (Liberia) by these white merchants, by denying payment of taxes to her customs points, the colony had no option, instead, but to announce to the world the declaration of her independence from the American based philanthropic group called the American Colonization Society (ACS).
As the matter of fact, Liberia is the only country that is not colonized by another country in Africa, instead an organization. This is what makes us (Liberians) peculiar people. Our history is so amazing and unmatched to any African nation.
The premature independence of Liberia, in my mind has caused more harm than good for the oldest African Republic.
One could attribute the colony’s quest for early Independence to higher expectations, thinking that her colonial masters (the ACS) could use her influence to help reclaim her lost territories, or compelled those European and French merchants to stop taking advantage of the weak nation and pay her tariff or taxes, unfortunately, that was never the case.
In fact, Liberia’s independence was never recognized by the government and people of the United States of America until fifteen (15) years after. America refused to recognize Liberia’s independence because she (America) thought Liberia was not mature enough to be on her own as a Nation-state.
They saw those advocates who championed early independence of Liberia as inexperienced and had lesser knowledge about governance. The Americans had thought that Liberia could have allowed growth, training in state craft before seeking independence. Great Britain was the first to recognize Liberia independence.
Mental empowerment and technical supports were what America expected Liberia to have agitated. They thought Liberia would call for tangible assistance that would help her manage her affairs adequately. That was their concern and therefore refused to support the first independence African nation.
The harm therefore caused Liberia for the early Independence is disadvantage attributed to the underdevelopment of the country. When Liberia gained her independence, instead of the new government under President Joseph Jenkins Roberts fighting to Allying the new nation with developed countries, in order to allow them help with technical support for the new nation, he was all over the place in the world soliciting material supports.
It is how he was offered a gunboat by to protect her coastal terrain from the intrusive merchants.
It is important to note that vices, such as hasty independence, no colonial sovereign power to guide and restrain intruders and the lack of knowledge and foresight to govern adequately as well as unpatriotic mind-set are the causes for Liberia’s persistent underdevelopment.
These ugly and unbearable situations are still hunting the brighter future of our younger generations of Liberia.
177 years of a nation-state is sufficient to put Liberia far above countries that were not in existence.
177 years, Liberians are still fighting for roads connectivity. 178 years, the provision of basic social services have become a taboo or a privilege, and not a right for Liberians. Safe drinking water, electricity, health care delivery system, security and provision of quality education still hanging in oblivion.
Breaking away from the ugly past for the social advancement of Liberia has become an uphill challenge.
We (Liberians) claimed to be practicing democracy when we in fact practicing dishonesty.
How can you truck voters from one district to the other in a search for votes, and you claim that it is democracy you are practicing? How?
How can we take bribe to vote for a particular candidate and claimed to be practicing democracy?
From the look of how Liberia gained her independence, even though history carried that Liberia was built on a Christian foundation, in my mind, from the behavior of our leaders and the perception of our citizens, it is a blatant lie and unfounded truth been told by historians that this nation is built on Christian foundation.
Until we recognize the importance of rewriting our history, teaching our youth the hard facts about history, these lies will always be told to brainwash our future generations. We need to put system in place that will train young Liberians develop the culture of patriotism.
We should never use the ghost of the past to hunt us by repeating the blunder of our forefathers. When we look around us in the region comparatively, you will have every reason to believe that our early Independence was useless and unwarranted, and built on greed.
The Liberian government was fighting for record and history making, rather forgotten about putting system into place that would lay the ground work for development.
Today, Liberia is like a trash when it comes to economic potential and infrastructural development.
