Rehabilitation of a Nation: Liberia’s Path to National Recovery
By Kpangbala W. Sengbe
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
March 12, 2004
Historical Overview
As the war in Liberia has been declared over after fourteen years of
blood letting, the nation is now in a position to regroup and move forward
in a fashion that will lead to total resettlement of internally displaced
people (IDP) and refugees returning to the country, rehabilitation,
reintegration, reconstruction and above all, empowerment of the people
of the nation. The situation in the country for the past fourteen-year
has been very appalling and I do not know whether people in the United
States and other parts of the world are well informed about our plight
as a nation.
To elaborate further is only to give an insight to others who do not know the underlying facts about Liberia and the saga that plagued the “Land of Liberty” for fourteen years. The Republic of Liberia was founded, in part by emancipated slaves from the United States of America in the 1800s. The ex-slaves were repatriated to the Motherland and had to go through many life-threatening situations before the country would take form and eventually declare independence in 1847. While the ex-slaves were getting their “feet wet” on the continent, indigenous leadership was already in placed and the “brothers and sisters” on “the ground” could not be ruled out if the mission of establishing a viable nation where diversity would make people co-exist was to be achieved.
Brief History of Inter-relationships
In this vein, the leadership of the emancipated Americo-Liberians (Liberian
who came from America) had to make amends with the tribal leaders. Liberian
history, even though not properly coded and documented and filled with
many controversies, has mentioned that the relationship between the
two specters of the society, Congo (as the Americo-Liberian would later
come to be called) and the Country people (indigenous) soon changed
from co-equals to master-subordinate relationship. History is replete
with the events of how country people had to be used as “porters”
for their Americo-Liberian “bosses”.
The behavior of the Americo-Liberians toward the Indigenous Liberians
presented a resemblance of the relationship between the slave masters
and the slaves in the South of the Untied States. These ex-slaves, upon
reaching the shores of Africa, carried with them the mentality of their
ex-masters. Once in Africa, they (Americo-Liberians) became the “slave
masters” and the indigenous Liberians became “slaves”.
Liberians know the situations that occurred on the farms of the elite
Americo-Liberia. But this not a paper intended to attack a particular
group against another in the Liberian society. “Country boys”
who lived on these farms and wanted to get education had to forego their
names and take the surnames of their “papays”. That is why
you will see a “Yarkpawolo Howard” as a citizen of Zorzor,
Lofa County. This trend continued until the mid 1900s when young educated
indigenous Liberians, decided to challenge the status quo.
Between the late 1950s and 1979, indigenous people started making major
head ways on the political and socio-economic landscape of Liberia.
While the transformation was appreciated, in the mid 1970s radical young Liberian intellectuals, returning from abroad with Master’s Degrees and PhDs and been employed at the University of Liberia, decided to use their university classrooms as launching pads in declaring the injustices in the country and proclaimed that changes were not significant, realizing that the indigenous people made up of more than ninety percent of the population and that leadership should not have been in the hands of a minority group (Americo-Liberians) for more than one hundred years in the first place. Prior to their departure from Liberia for higher educations, most of these “progressives” had helped to develop student consciousness on the University of Liberia campus.
This aggressive approach culminated to many anti-government stands and demonstrations, paramount among them, the April 14, 1979 rice riot. This demonstration was the first major public altercation against the sitting government where more than one hundred people died (official account). From the April 1979 demonstration, the spiral of decency in Liberia took a downward trend. Every other stage in the Liberian political and socio-economic struggle has had some imprint of the “Rice Riot” on it. Needless to talk about the coup d’tat of 1980 and subsequent murder of the thirteen government officials of the dethroned government, the tyranny of the military regime and long running gun battles from Christmas Eve 1989 to the siege of Monrovia in mid 2003.
The Civil War
As this paper is not one that concentrates entirely on the history of
Liberia and the resulting cause of the negative relationship between
the “two sides of the divide”, the information above is
to lay the basis for the major problem that faces the country after
the guns have been silenced and removed from the fighters.
The world witnessed one of the bitterest civil strives of the industrial
age during the Liberian conflicts. Brothers were fighting against and
killing brothers {(NPFL v INPFL), (ULIMO-K v ULIMO-J), (LDF v ULIMO-K)},
fathers and children were divided on factional lines (father in NPFL
territory and their children in INGU’s Monrovia), and children
and wives were raped before their parents and husbands (all factions
to the Liberian conflict are guilty of this crime against humanity)
respectfully.
In so doing, Liberians breathe a sight of relief when the International
Community decided to get involved in ensuring that the conflict come
to an end. Like previous declaration, all Liberians joyfully accepted
the pronouncement at Accra, Ghana that indeed the war was over with
the signing of the Comprehensive Accra Agreement amongst the three warring
parties to the conflict in August 2003. While many Liberians expressed
optimism that the sad chapter in the history of Liberia was indeed over,
some Liberians, including this writer was cautious because of previous
negative behaviors on the parts of warlords in reneging on agreements
during the course of the civil conflict.
However, the cries of ordinary Liberians had been heard by God in Heaven and people of good will on Earth, including the Government of the United States and the United Nations Organization (Liberia is a founding member of the United Nations). There would be no turning back and the government had to be changed and replaced by a transitional government as the waves and tides were against any intransigence.
Other players to the conflict (white collar and bush warlords) and other well meaning Liberians, upon the dissolution of the previous government in 2003 took the opportunity to go back to Monrovia and contribute to the governing process of the nation in a transitional government. The motives of these individuals are all conflicting and history will be the best judge for their involvements in post-war Liberia.
Once again, the government was given to the warlords to form, like previous arrangements in the first half of the nineties before the 1997 special elections. Positions were divided to these groups and individuals either because of the “sizes of their guns” or their ability to “wheel and deal”.
The Transition
The transitional government was installed in October 2003. The mandate
of the transitional government, among other things, is to repatriate,
resettle, rehabilitate and reintegrate the people. The power sharing
government is to also lead the country to general and legislative elections
in October 2005. These are tumultuous responsibilities, especially with
cash stricken national coffers and an economy that is not functional.
With a country practically paralyzed, the transitional government has an enormous responsibility and the recent Donor Meeting co-hosted by the United Nations and the United States Government will go a long way in helping the country to “resurrect” and once again take its place amongst the Comity of Nations. Ours is an appeal to the nations and individuals that pledged to this cause to please make good their pledges. Moreover, the old practice of sending large “foreign expatriates” with monies sent to Third World countries should not be continued in Liberia, if positive results are to be realized. We all know that these “foreign expatriates” are paid exorbitantly and bulk of the funds are disbursed for administrative and management purposes and not the programs themselves. This writer is informed that sometimes as high as 70-80% of the grants are used to underwrite the cost of administrative and management expenses of these “foreign expatriates”.
While some donors use the “accountability phrase” as a means to concentrate on employment of “foreign expatriates” to do the work in Third World counties, this writer believes that projects in Liberia can ably be implemented by Liberian professionals, who are doing extraordinary jobs in the deliverance of human services, reconstruction, and micro-economic development in the United Sates and other parts of the world.
To encourage and give the opportunity to Liberian professionals, who can partner with international non-government organizations and people of good will go a long way in developing programs that, even though universally acceptable by the international community, are workable in the Liberian context and will also help in solving the problems in Liberia. These professional Liberians, once given these opportunities will be able to perform graciously for their Motherland.
The War Children Factor
Now that we have laid the foundation, let us get to the issue that will
negatively affect our country if we are not keen in dealing with this
potential epidemic. After the disarmament process, which is to cover
a period of two years, is over the children who have not seen any peace
in their lives need to be cared for with a very concerted effort by
all loving people around the world.
The message that this writer gets from interactions with Liberians in the Diaspora and from talking with fellow countrymen and women in our country is that the young people of Liberia were not only singled out to fight the wars of the various warlords but they are been left out in this process of national rehabilitation and healing. Listening to and reading reports from Liberia about the entire process, this writer has neither heard nor seen hard evidence that the parties to the conflict intend to utilize a programmatic approach in providing a comprehensive rehabilitation methodology in dealing with the mental health issues that affect these young people.
In fact, this writer thinks that politicizing of the plight of these children is new battleground that is been established. Let people not get me wrong, immediate relief is good but there is a need for a long-term program of psychotherapy for the whole citizenry, especially the children.
As a human service professional, this writer thinks that there needs to be an approach that will professionally treat the young people, just like the entire citizenry. The treatment approach has to be systematically developed through the use of therapeutically prudent methods. After a war in Liberia that has killed almost a tenth of the population (250,000 out 3 million), the young people are the one sector of the population that suffered greatly. Their sufferings can be categorized in the following manners: (1) young people formed bulk of the fighting forces of all of the warring factions, (2) young people were the highest hit victims of the crisis through rapes, unwilling prostitutions, gangterism, deaths, detachments and abandonment due to murders of their parents, drug and alcohol abuses and other manipulations of the older generations of the society, (3) young people have not had the opportunities of continuous education during the period of crisis, and (4) young people have not been privileged to participate in traditional/conventional family up bringing and positively learn from the older generation.
After the immediate relief and resettlement segments of this road to national recovery is over, the next issues will definitely be elections and state power but that is not the end of the struggle to bring Liberia back on the path of total national healing.
This writer is very appreciative of the international community’s efforts, especially the West African Sub-Regional Organization (ECOWAS), the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations, for a wonderful job done in the first phase of the road to national recovery through the provision of peace keepers, immediate relief and resettlement.
There is a need for the international community and not-for-profit organizations and philanthropists to continue active involvement in the provision of funds and resources as Liberian human service professionals take the lead in providing comprehensive mental health and other human services to the children and youths of Liberia. The treatment of children with drug and alcohol abuse and dependence, major depressive disorder, anti-social and anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorders, and other mental disorders need not be done through political maneuverings and pronouncements as is been done by the parties to the conflict. Rather, there is a need for the leaders of the various warring groups, politicians who will be seeking national electoral positions in the 2005 elections, the religious community and the entire population to use the services of professionals in rehabilitating the children and youths of the nation.
Some of these young people were conscripted and violently manipulated to commit crimes against a nation. Others were the victims of the actions of the “Small Boys Units, Wide Geese Units” and all the different units that fought the Liberian civil wars. Our young people were instruments of rapes and “masters in territories that they captured.”
Now that they can no longer hold on to their “prized possessions” because the people who gave the guns in the first place have rewarded themselves with government positions, it is imperative upon us to begin a new war and that is to clean our young people from all vices of mental health disorders, mood altering drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gansterism and create a positive mindset in the lives of these young people.
People may be wondering whether this path in our national recovery is easy as it appears on paper. This writer is the first person to state that it will take the support of every stakeholder in the Liberian socio-political specter to contribute in ensuring that the vision of this writer and others who believe in this philosophy become a reality. This writer is calling on those who preyed on the ignorance of our young people and intend to continue their agendas of wars, political suffocation of opponents, immorality and sexual slavery of children and young women to get the information that the “Hand has written a clear message on the wall;” The message is: IT IS OVER. You need to release the young people that you have held emotionally, psychologically, neurologically and physically hostage over the years. There is an old Liberian saying that “no Liberian is more Liberian than the other and your rights end where another man’s begins”. You need to let our young people go.
The road to national recovery begins with a totally rehabilitated people and for Liberia; we need to start with our young people. The use of psychotherapy and if need be, use of psychotropic medicine, is the best route to go in the process of mental health and drug and alcohol rehabilitation and recovery.
Liberian professionals who have proven track records of success in the profession can use professional human service delivery methods and blend those with traditionally and culturally acceptable Liberian norms and approaches in the provision of therapeutic and human service delivery to war wary Liberians. The United Nations, International Non-Governmental organizations, the United States Government, the European Union, The African Union, The West African Sub-Regional Organization (ECOWAS) need to concentrate their funding sources in dealing with rehabilitative issues to Liberian professionals with this vision.
Indeed the path to national recovery begins with the rehabilitation of our young people…
About the Author: Mr. Kpangbala W. Sengbe is a Liberian Psychotherapist and Child Care Professional based in Washington, DC, USA. Mr. Sengbe is a manager of a childcare agency that provides services to low income families and children, and immigrant families and children. He can be reached at: ksengbe@yahoo.com or 202-409-4836.
