Red White and You

Should freed slaves repatriated to Liberia get reparations from America?

In this episode, I talk about the case for reparations for free slaves. I also take a look at the famous essay written by renowned journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic. I raise the question about possible benefits for Liberians in the event America deems it necessary to compensate free slaves.

As Liberia celebrates the 174th Independence Day, I use this time to reflect on the rocky political issues that led to the repatriation of free slaves to Africa. I touch base on how the banning of slavery led to the American civil war.

Liberia typically has two sets of laws: the national formal constitution and customary laws of the indigenous peoples. What this means is that Liberia has a dualistic legal system and if you dig deeper you realize it is more like a multilateral legal system if you can differentiate amongst the sixteen tribes their individual implementation and interpretation of their customary processes and add on that the Muslims and sharia laws in the mix. This is a conundrum for the small country.

Poverty is a governance strategy in Liberia. Matthew Nyanplu, a Liberian journalist based in Europe breaks down how the Liberian plutocracy's lifeline is poverty of the masses.

Poverty has been decisively found as one the key contributing factors to the brutal 14-year long civil conflict that ravaged Liberia between 1989 to 2003. In June 2011, a research by the HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER of the University of California, Berkeley - School of Law, Poverty was found to be the third most prominent cause of the civil war. The war destroyed the country’s systems and infrastructures. It obliterated the access to already struggling public services making them non-existent. Recovery has been a slow gruesome process that might take several decades to achieve, if ever.

Liberia journalist Matthew Nyanplu provides insights in how poverty is a governance strategy.