By Pastor Torli H. Krua
Have you ever wondered what is really wrong with Liberia? Why is it that Africa’s oldest republic is always stuck in underdevelopment, endemic corruption, ritualistic killings, impassable roads, excessive salaries of lawmakers and officials, skyrocketing unemployment, terrible economic mess and always relying on international partners for everything? Easy. Liberia’s disappointing state of affairs is not an accident.
Liberia was designed to be a place where the political leaders are empowered and enriched to the detriment of the people. Worse, the system of governance in Liberia was designed to keep Africans as slaves forever and trap Liberian Citizens in poverty and misery under the control of White American Slave Masters. To reverse Liberia’s two centuries of misery for citizens and prosperity for politicians, we need a new constitution designed by ordinary citizens, not by politicians.
A constitution that empowers the people, provides equal opportunities, justice and ends representative democracy, replacing it with participatory democracy.
Replacement of one politician with another while keeping the old corrupt system intact have yielded the same results for two hundred years; more corruption! Proof: Aftermath of changing political leaders in 1822, 1841, 1871, 1980, 1997, 2005, 2017…Without question, our system is broken and corrupt by design! But isn’t it incredible that not a single Liberian politician has suggested a complete overhaul or changing our system of governance which was clearly broken and corrupt by design two centuries ago?
Where is the source of corruption in Liberia? The United States of America is the undisputed source of corruption in Liberia. Most of the political leaders of Liberia are American Citizens or agents of the CIA. The United States of America, Liberia’s de facto colonial power has long held erroneously that Liberia is not an American Colony but a country founded by freed American Slaves. America lied because American Slaves could not have created Liberia in 1822 when the slaves were not freed until after the Civil War on January 1, 1863. In fact, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was founded in 1816 to remove and illegally colonize mixed race and Black Americans. And the American Settlers arrived in 1822 in what became Liberia! In fact, high ranking United States Government officials who were also white supremacists and slave owners specifically created Liberia to protect their property (African Slaves and the dehumanizing institution of American Slavery).
The purpose of the ACS was not to liberate slaves but to disenfranchise and oppress all Americans who were not white (mixed race and free Black Americans) aka ‘free men of color’ in subjugation and misery forever in a remote American Colony in Africa, never to return.
Misery in Liberia is an ongoing crime against humanity, two centuries in the making, thanks to America! That is why America must allow Liberians of American Descent to return home if they so desire without visa requirements and why the United States must also pay damages for the excesses of their dehumanizing racial colonization of Americans that still ravages lives in America and Liberia two hundred years after Congress paid the American Colonization Society $100,000.00 to colonize all mixed race and free Black American Citizens
According to documents from the Library of Congress of the United States, the idea of Liberia did not originate within the community of “free men of color” (mixed race and free Black Americans). America’s racial colonization was created by high ranking American Government Officials who were white supremacists and slave owners with the goal of protecting their property (African Slaves) and oppressing mixed race and free Black Americans forever in the American Colony they created in West Africa.
Evidenced by the records of the 2nd annual report of the American Colonization Society (ACS) filed at the Library of Congress, keeping African Slaves in America in bondage forever was one of the main objectives of the ACS: “If, as is most confidently believed, the colonization of the free people of colour, will render the slave who remains in America more obedient, more faithful, more honest, and, consequently, more useful to his master, is it proper to regard this happy consequence to both, as the sole object which the Society hope to attain…”
In the first 20 years, the colony of Liberia was not governed by free men of color or mixed race Americans but exclusively by white folks. The ACS itself was governed not by Black Americans or mixed race Americans but by white slave owners who never freed their slaves. Not only did Congress pay the ACS $100000 to colonize Americans based on their race, the American flag was proudly hoisted over the colony of Liberia, making all actions and excesses of the brutal colonization wholly owned by the United States of America. Liberia was a US Naval Base.
The system of representative democracy in Liberia is broken and corrupt not by accident but by design. It was designed by American Slave Masters to keep Africans enslaved in America and oppress free color people in the colony of Liberia subjugated under white leadership.
Decolonization and liberation of Liberia is the only way to give Liberia a fresh start. All the colonial names Europeans gave African countries and cities were changed after liberation. Why do we still have Monrovia, named after a slave owner and President of the United States who illegally colonized American Citizens because of their race? Why do we still have Bushrod Island, named after a white supremacists and Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court who sold 54 African Slaves because they wanted to escape slavery? Why do we still fly the American Flag when 22 million citizens from 38 countries enter the US yearly without a visa but the US Embassy illegally make millions of dollars from Liberians wrongly deny visa to visit the country built by the blood, sweat and tears of their ancestors?
Liberia’s founding fathers were white supremacists and slave masters. The United States of America is in partnership with current Liberian politicians who are running the business established by the American Colonization Society two hundred years ago because Congress invested $100000 to remove and colonize all mixed race and free Black Americans in order to prevent slave revolt and protect the property of political leaders. No wonder while Liberians are crying from excessive salaries and benefits of Liberian lawmakers and politicians, America doesn’t complain because its citizens and agents are working according to the grand old design of colonization of Americans based on race. Stay tuned for how to decolonize Liberia.
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A pastor and human rights activist, Torli was instrumental in lobbying with US congressmen and policymakers to increase the quota of refugees from Africa being allowed into the US. He has also worked tirelessly in the New England region and beyond to champion the rights of refugees and immigrants. His organization, Universal Human Rights International, worked with thousands of immigrants from 38 different countries over the span of 30 years. He has been honored by the National Peace Corps Association and the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.