‘Unprecedented’ Walkout: What Did Orator Dr. Robtel Pailey Say Statement That Annoyed The Americans? Considering Statement As “Provocative”
PHOTO: Inside the Centennial Memorial Pavillion during Friday’s Independence Day program
“Truth be told, the United States of America has taken more from us than we have received. Liberia is nobody’s stepchild.”
By Our Staff Writer
American diplomats in Monrovia are annoyed with lines in the speech of Liberia’s 177th Independence Day Orator, Dr. Robtel Pailey, as they are reported to have walked out of the Centennial Pavilion in Monrovia as the official ceremony was going on today, Friday, July 262024.
Why?
In her speech, Dr. Pailey, the Liberian born Professor at the London Schoold of Oriental and African studies said: “Truth be told, the United States of America has taken more from us than we have received. Liberia is nobody’s stepchild.”
The United States Embassy in Liberia described the Orator’s comment as “provocative”, thus prompting their storming out of the historic Pavilion on Ashmun Street in central Monrovia by uS Chargé D’Affaires Catherine Rodriguez.
A statement issued by the Americans shortly after said:
“Independence Day Celebrations should be a time for hope, unity and celebration. Introducing divisive rhetoric and unfounded accusations during such an event undermines its purpose. The CDA’s decision to walk out was a measured response to maintain the event’s decorum and spirit.”- US Embassy, Monrovia
In her 177th Independence Day Oration, Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey. said the United States has taken so much from Liberia than it has given.
“We must forge new strategic partnerships based on mutual benefit and disabuse ourselves of the notion that we have a ‘special relationship’ with America. Truth be told, this so-called ‘special relationship’ only exists in our imagination. Lest we forget that the United States was one of the last countries to recognize our independence. Lest we forget that the United States has taken more from us than it has given. Lest we forget, the United States will always serve its own interests above all else. Once we accept these truths, we will appreciate that a re-imagined Liberia can never be anyone’s ‘stepchild,’ Dr. Pailey argued.
From the tone of her remarks, Dr. Pailey appeared to differ with people who refer to Liberia as America’s “step child”, as the Liberian international academic criticized the U.S. for what she called interfering in Liberia’s transitional justice process.
The US government was blamed by many critics for backing the Charles Taylor-led National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebels who invaded Liberia from neighbouring Ivory Coast on the eve of Christmas in 1989, thus sparking 14 years of fratricidal civil war which left at least 250,00 people killed. Taylor had earlier escaped US prison in Boston to lead the war, trained in Libya and used Ivorian territory to prosecute his rebel onslaught.
For many years after the war which officially ended in 2003, the US had been ambivalent about post-war justice for perpetrator of the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed.
In her speech, the 177th Independence Day Oratto wants a re-imagined Liberia is not only free from colonial relations of power, but also from colonial artefacts that cripple Liberia, adding that in this vein.
In a reference to Liberian national symbols and images patterned after those of America, Dr. Pailey reechoed calls made in the past to adopt national symbols that represent the “cultural breadth and historical depth” of our shared experiences.
”I urge us to forge a new political identity by re-imagining and revising these symbols. Why is the national motto on our seal not ‘the love of liberty united us here,’ as suggested by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report? Why are we still calling our highest national honor the ‘Most Venerable Order of Knighthood of the Pioneers of the Republic of Liberia’ when the word ‘pioneers’ remains politically charged? How could renaming our capital, Monrovia, help us to decolonize” Dr. Pailey said
”By the time free and formerly enslaved blacks arrived on the coast of pre-settler Liberia in the mid-nineteenth century, 250 years of migration had preceded them. So, our shared historical narrative must be that we are all immigrants. None of us belongs here more than the other. Dignity must define us,” she added.
The Liberian government of President Joseph Boakai has been distancing itself from the remarks by the Orator.
Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah is quoted by a local daily, FrontpageAfrica as saying, “She doesn’t work for the government. She is a private citizen. She has her right to freedom of expression. I do know about the Charge Affairs walking out and if she does that she knows her reasons.”