PHOTO: The Author
Rev. Torli H. Krua
Founder, Universal Human Rights International (UHRI)
Founder, The Free Liberia Movement
Boston, Massachusetts
Reports of lawmakers in one of the poorest countries on Earth resisting salary reductions are often treated as local scandals. But in Liberia, this is not merely a failure of governance—it is evidence of a deeper constitutional fraud that has never been repaired. Corruption in Liberia is not the result of bad leadership alone; it is the predictable outcome of a system designed under American colonization, sustained by legal deception, and frozen in place by a false claim of independence.
To understand this reality, compare Liberia’s political economy with that of the United States.
In many U.S. states, legislators earn modest salaries. In places such as New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Texas, lawmakers serve part-time or receive minimal stipends—conditions made possible by strong institutions, equal citizenship, and enforceable constitutional accountability. Even in states where salaries are higher—such as California or New York—those salaries exist within systems where citizenship is equal, sovereignty is real, and corruption is at least structurally contestable.
Liberia has none of these safeguards. It imitates the outward form of a republic while preserving a colonial caste system—first-class and second-class citizenship—that guarantees corruption regardless of who wins elections.
A Timeline of Deception, Not Democracy
The roots of Liberia’s crisis begin long before 1847.
In 1641, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties legalized slavery—the birth of legal deception, embedding racial hierarchy into law. In 1670, it was amended to deepen crimes against humanity by enslaving the unborn children of enslaved people. Yet this injustice began to collapse from within.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence articulated a universal principle grounded in jus soli—that rights are endowed by the Creator, not granted by man-made law.
That principle was enforced in Massachusetts, not merely proclaimed. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 affirmed equality before the law. In 1781, freedom and citizenship were secured through the courage of Mum Bett—an illiterate Black woman—whose lawsuit, Brom and Bett v. Ashley, affirmed that slavery was incompatible with the constitution. In 1783, slavery was abolished by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. African Americans born in Massachusetts were citizens before the United States itself existed.
This truth threatened a racial property regime. The reaction by American politicians and hypocritical Founding Fathers was the first apartheid law in U.S. history: the Naturalization Act of 1790, which limited national citizenship to “white persons.” This law has never been fully mitigated—morally, legally, or economically—even in 2025. It later inspired Jim Crow laws in the United States after the Civil War, the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany in 1935, and apartheid in South Africa beginning in 1948.
America’s original blueprint of justice and equality was hijacked by white supremacists and slave masters.
To “solve” the problem of Black citizenship—citizenship that predated the nation itself—Congress turned to forced removal under the guise of benevolence. The Slave Trade Act of 1819 authorized the deportation of U.S. citizens to Africa, launching the first organized racial exile in history. This policy remained locked in secrecy and denial for over two centuries—and remains officially unacknowledged in 2025.
Liberia as an American Jurisdiction
In 1821, under the presidency of James Monroe, a so-called treaty was forced at gunpoint between the U.S. government and King Zoda of the West African coast. On April 25, 1822, the U.S. flag was hoisted, gun salutes were fired, and Liberia was made a jurisdiction of the United States for the settlement of “citizens of the United States of America forever.”
This was not the action of a private charity. It was executed through the United States Agency for Liberated Africans, using American naval power and American tax dollars. The American Colonization Society (ACS) was not even properly registered when the U.S. flag was raised.
In 1824, a Liberian Constitution was approved in Washington, D.C. Article I declared that all persons born in Liberia and Americans settling in Liberia were entitled to the rights and privileges of U.S. citizens. That promise was never honored.
In 1844, a congressional Foreign Affairs Committee declared the ACS null and void. Under pressure, settlers declared “independence” in 1847—not in rebellion, but under the American flag, protected by the U.S. Navy, and exclusively for Americans. Indigenous people and persons born in Liberia were unconstitutionally excluded from citizenship within what remained an American jurisdiction.
This was not democracy. It was racial engineering.
Why Elections Cannot Fix Liberia
A state founded to “keep the slaves faithful, obedient, and loyal to their masters” cannot be reformed by recycling politicians. A country built on legally stratified citizenship cannot produce ethical governance. Salary disputes among lawmakers are symptoms—not causes.
Liberia is not sovereign in 2025. A republic with first- and second-class citizens is not independent. It is a colonial administration wearing a national costume. Without contrition, confession, reparations, and reconciliation, political independence is fake—because the politicians of former colonies remain financially and structurally dependent on their colonizers.
The Only Path Forward: A Total Rebirth — You Must Be Born Again
Liberia requires:
- A sovereign citizens’ convention to draft a new constitution based on equal citizenship.
- A formal public apology from the United States for two centuries of colonization and racial exile—along with U.S. responsibility for transitional governance until true independence is achieved.
- Reparations for colonization and unjust enrichment.
- U.S. birthright citizenship for all persons born in Liberia, just as Congress finally recognized Native Americans through the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
- A full refund of all U.S. visa fees collected from Liberians by the U.S. Embassy.
- And until true independence exists, international recognition of Liberia for what it is in law and history: an American jurisdiction—a de facto 51st State of the United States.
Pretending Liberia is independent sustains corruption.
Ending the pretense is the first step toward justice.
Liberia does not need another election.
It needs truth.
It needs repair.
It needs rebirth.