Liberia, the oldest independent post-colonial African country, on Tuesday, celebrated two major anniversaries, its 175th Independence and 200 years of the arrival of freed slaves to the nation from the United States.
Despite being the oldest African nation to have tasted self rule, the West African country has not fulfilled its potentials as over 80 percent of the population are still grappling with poverty, occasioned by what many call official corruption, unemployment and dwindling economy, as a result of years of war and tribal conflicts.
However, while expressing optimism for a better future, Information Minister Lederhood Rennie, said the celebrations of the anniversaries are necessary to build national pride and honor the work of those who established the nation.
Liberia has a long history with the United States as witnessed on its flag, constitution, form of government and many laws which are modeled on those of the US, thereby still being tied to the apron strings of the US.
Even the capital, Monrovia, is named in honor of America’s fifth president, James Monroe, who was in power when the freed slaves were repatriated to the tiny African country.
According to its history, the freed slaves went on to establish an oppressive regime that ruled the indigenous population with an iron fist from the time of their arrival until 1980, when indigenous soldiers led a military coup against President William Tolbert.
Tolbert, whose family migrated from South Carolina in the 1870s, was gruesomely murdered by the rebelling soldiers led by Samuel Doe, who himself was overthrown years later and killed by another rebel leader Charles Taylor.
The conflict was to later escalate into a full blown civil war which led to the killing of several hundreds of thousands which was only quelled with the emergence of Nobel Prize-winning President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Sirleaf was succeeded by former international soccer star-turned-politician, George Weah, who has been accused of not living up to key campaign promises of waging a war on corruption and ensuring justice for victims of the country’s brutal wars.