Taylor Trial Verdict Reactions

Reactions to the Charles Taylor trial verdict in Liberia were fascinating, but I'm not sure what we can make of them yet. There was a real sense of sorrow in Monrovia among some Liberians, and it is clear that Taylor still has significant support here. There were also people who were angered about what they saw as Taylor being singled out by the international community, while other's who were deeply involved in Liberia's war -- both in the violence and the business of it -- now hold powerful positions in government. Then there were his victims, many of whom felt that he got what he deserved. There was also a great deal of overlap, and some people held multiple and seemingly contradictory views. 


Monrovia was calm and there were no reports of violence in Nimba, or Gbanga, Bong County, Taylor's former stronghold, despite the fact the government, prior to the verdict, sent out a press release urging people to remain calm.  


I think it is too early to say how Liberians have 'responded' and reacted to the guilty verdict and what this response tells us about their complex relationship with their former president. It is unclear about what it portends for the future of Liberia. There is still an appeal and sentencing to come. But debate is fomenting about the issue of impunity for war crimes committed in Liberia -- editorials in the leading national newspapers have all taken a critical stance on the issue. 


I recently wrote a few pieces in the lead up to the trial verdict for Crikey, The Washington Times, Think Africa Press, and after the verdict for The Christian Science Monitor. I have also co-authored a piece with Emily Schmall on Liberia's fraught political history and its search for a national narrative and identity for Newsweek. 


More to come. 

April

I haven’t written for a while because I have had a bout of malaria (one of the less attractive aspects of living in West Africa). I am now sitting in a recliner with my computer rested on my lap in my apartment -- I feel like a geriatric. The service at the local church is winding up and so too will I have peace shortly. 

Judgment in the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone is just days away. While, the outcome will unlikely have direct consequences for Liberia, as I mentioned in my last post, it is a major topic of debate in Liberia at the moment, particularly given the fact that no one has been tried or held accountable for war crimes committed during the 14-year civil war that killed over 250,000 people. 

It is an interesting time to be in Liberia, in part because of the debate about the issue of impunity that has come to the fore (again), but also because it is difficult to know what the implications of the verdict will be -- for Liberia, Sierra Leone, the region at large and international justice as a whole.

April 

April is an important month historically for Liberia. The Rice Riot of April 14, 1979, triggered by the increasing rice in the cost of rice, was when Liberians gathered en masse to protest. This was the first time there had been a popular challenge to the government that had been dominated by settlers since the nation was founded. Scores of protestors were shot dead.

Just over a year later, on April 12 1980, a 28-year-old non-commissioned officer Samuel Kanyon Doe led a coup, slaughtering President William Tolbert in the Executive Mansion and most of his Cabinet on a beach behind the Army barracks.

In April 1985 General Thomas Quiwonkpa, a member of the Gio tribe from Nimba, and the founder of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (that was later led by Charles Taylor) attempted to stage a coup that failed.  Doe, a Krahn man, then launched a bloody campaign against the Gio and Mano people. 

Now in 2012, April will be the month in which former Liberian president Charles Taylor is found guilty or not guilty for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone. While the previous events let to Liberia’s civil crisis, it is difficult to know what significance Taylor’s trial will have for Liberia.  

I recently read a really interesting opinion piece titled ‘The Promise of April 12’ by New Narratives fellow Robtel Neajai Pailey. She writes: 

“Let’s memorialize April 12 as a day of remembrance and April as a month of meditation, so that we don’t forget what could happen when the vast majority of Liberians feel that they are second-class citizens, or no citizens at all. Let’s make the promise of April 12 a promise of 2012 and beyond.” 

The Intellectuals will be back after the Taylor verdict is handed down. 

The Intellectuals

Here is the first installation of The Intellectuals - the weekly post I will writing on the topics of debate within the atai societies. I wrote this piece for Crikey, an online Australian magazine that I write for regularly. 

Charles Taylor’s trial the talk of the town in Monrovia’s tea shops

As the judgment day nears in the trial of Liberia’s President Charles Taylor, who is accused of committing war crimes in Sierra Leone, Liberians are sitting in tea shops, sipping on hot ginger shots and eating roasted meat while talking about the heavy issue of justice for war crimes committed during the nation’s 14-year civil war. Taylor, the former rebel leader turned democratically elected president, best known for his bands of drugged-up child soldiers who terrorised Liberians, stands charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war from 1996 to 2002. The Special Court for Sierra Leone, a hybrid domestic and United Nations court was established in 2002 to try “those who bear the greatest responsibility” for war crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war that left scores of people maimed and with missing limbs. Yet no one has been held accountable for atrocities committed during the Liberian civil war that killed more than 250,000 people. In atai houses or small tea shops across Monrovia, where men meet to discuss politics, the Taylor trial verdict that will be handed down on April 26 is a topic of fierce debate among both the former president’s critics and supporters. Many Liberians argue that the trial is political and Taylor is being singled out by the international community, while faction leaders who played key roles in Liberia’s two civil wars walk around free and even occupy senior government positions. In one of the most established atai houses on Carey Street in downtown Monrovia, patronised by young professionals, students and unemployed men, opinion is divided on whether Taylor will and should be found guilty. Men debate in an atai shop in downtown Monrovia, Liberia (Pic: Clair MacDougall) Nathan F. Gull, a stocky 33-year-old businessman and public administration student, sits crouched on a wooden bench, dressed in pinstriped pants and a pressed checked shirt and holds a black folder in his right hand. We talk about the possible outcome of the trial over cups of tea served in tiny glass tumblers. “The case is more political than legal,” Gull says adding that he thinks there is not enough evidence to convict Taylor. While Taylor still enjoys a significant amount of support throughout the nation, many people in the atai shops in Monrovia say Taylor should be tried for war crimes in Liberia. “We would like for Charles Taylor to be indicted for war crimes in Liberia rather than Sierra Leone,” says Gull. “There were more atrocities that occurred in Liberia under the leadership of Charles Taylor as compared to that in Sierra Leone.” Like many of the men seated on the benches around him, Gull criticises the culture of impunity in Liberia, a country in which ex-faction leaders and people who were deeply involved in the war militarily and financially hold senior government positions. “The whole process is partial, Charles Taylor alone has been singled out by the international community,” Gull says. “But what has happened to the others like George Boley, Sekou Damate Conneh and Alhaji Kromah? All of these top rebel leaders are walking free. We see some of them in the Senate and the House of Representatives, so why only Taylor?” Like many Liberians, Gull is disappointed with the outcome of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated more than 20 years of civil conflict in the country reported on gross human rights violations that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003. Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report in 2009 recommending more than a hundred people for prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity and that 50 people be barred from politics for 30 years because of their alleged associations with warring factions, a recommendation deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Among those to be banned from politics was President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the current and sitting president at the time, who sent money to Taylor early on during the war claiming she did so “to challenge the brutality” of the late president Samuel Doe’s regime. Many analysts argue the indictment of powerful members of the political establishment, such as Sirleaf, has been the main reason the report appears to have been shelved and its more punitive recommendations ignored. But Gull argues that Liberia, a nation that emerged from one of the most devastating ethnic conflicts in Africa less than 10 years ago, was not ready for the more contentious recommendations to be implemented.“The TRC was a good thing, but given the current political climate that we find ourselves in I think that any attempt to fully implement the recommendations of the TRC process was going to bring about a chaotic situation,” says Gull who maintains the recommendations ought to be implemented at some stage. In the Modibu Tea Shop, further down Carey Street, university students sit and drink atai before class. Under a tin roof, wooden benches are lined up in front of tables covered with mouldy patterned plastic tablecloths. Al-Jazeera blares on a grubby television screen jammed into a high corner outside of the building. People watch the television as news about the Senegalese elections airs. The handful of university students at the tea shop openly express resentment towards Taylor, who they say is responsible for the war that delayed their education and almost robbed them of their future. Prince F. Gibson jnr, a 24-year-old student activist dressed in a lemon shirt and fashionable dark denim jeans, says that that Taylor will and should be found guilty. “Students were kidnapped and taken to the battlefront,” says Gibson. “I can see Taylor’s behaviour here and attribute it to Sierra Leone.” Gibson, who currently studies management and accounting and conflict resolution, speaks about Taylor with pointed bitterness. “The young people were used as a means of accomplishing and objective,” Gibson says. “I think that Taylor should be punished for what he did.” A 28-year-old, Chris Samukar, a small man dressed in jeans and a pale green shirt, is in no rush to get to class. He recently dropped out of an accounting degree because he could not afford the tuition. “The trial should be free and fair,” he says. “I would love for Taylor to be tried here in Liberia, not only him, but all the warlords. A lot of people who committed atrocities are still in government. If we keep on seeing them up there and enjoying, it will not be a good thing for us. It would not be a good thing for my son and daughter. If they see these people they will think they should do the same thing.” But not all of the students agree that prosecution of key players in the war is the way forward for Liberia. Abraham Dulleh, a 28-year-old sociology student, argues that Liberia must get beyond the past and focus on the nation’s current developmental challenges. “As a nation we have been through a lot,” says Dulleh. “We think that bygones should be bygones because we need to develop this country if we are to move forward. We need to get back the things that we lost during the war. Even if you arrest all of the warlords and put them in the chair it wouldn’t make me have my school fees; it will not provide me with food or anything.” Dulleh argues that the prosecution of former faction leaders could ignite ethnic tensions and create further division. Liberia’s former faction leaders continue to enjoy strong support in their tribal homelands in which they are often viewed as heroes rather than war criminals. While many of tea drinkers and members of the atai societies I spoke with said they would like to see Taylor prosecuted in Liberia, there are others who would rather see him return to Liberia and again ascend to the presidency. In West Point, Monrovia’s largest slum, made up of rusty zinc roofs and narrow lanes and edged by swampland, Taylor has a significant amount of support among the locals but is also a divisive figure. Romeo D. Johnson, 28, a tall, slim man wearing a faded T-shirt with the photograph of presidential candidate from last year’s election, carries a small grey beat up radio with earphones wrapped around it in his right hand. He has been following developments in the trial over the past three years and will be listening to the radio at 11am on April 26, when the verdict will be handed down. Johnson supports the TRC and thinks that war criminals should be prosecuted, but does not consider Taylor to be responsible for crimes in Sierra Leone or Liberia. Like many Liberians who support Taylor, he refers to the lower prices of basic commodities he enjoyed under Taylor’s regime. “I like Charles Taylor because he made things easier for the commoners when it came to basic commodities,” says Johnson. “Prices were down, but under this regime prices are skyrocketing on a daily basis.” For Johnson, Taylor wasn’t given a chance to prove himself as a good president when he was elected in a landslide victory in 1997 because new factions formed in neighbouring Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire continued the war. “Charles Taylor was a good president based on the constraints that we had,” Johnson says. “Charles Taylor wasn’t given the chance. He came to power in 1997 and in 1999 we started hearing about the rebel insurgency and his hands were tied.” Taylor is a figure who still looms large in Liberia’s political imaginary, but his trial is reigniting a debate in Liberia that stretches beyond his actions – who is responsible for a war that almost destroyed Liberia and how they should be held accountable?

LONDON - PARIS - MILAN - LIB

Last night I went to a fashion show called 'Couture on the Blue' at Golden Gate Hotel in Monrovia. The designers that featured in the event are hoping to create a high-end fashion culture in Liberia. 

The labels were the PISO Collection by Chara Itoka, Approved Wear Fashion House by Geneva Garr and Sorayah Laurice Designs by Laurice Saba Kante (in many of the photographs below). The event was well attended and some of the clothing was beautiful. 

The runway stretched across the pool at the Golden Gate Hotel and was lit by harsh floodlights. The contrast between the austerity of the concrete courtyard and the rich and colourful lapa was strange, as was the contrast between the glamarous people who attended the event and those who couldn't afford to buy a ticket who could be seen peering through the barbed wire that rolled over the high walls surrounding the hotel. 

Nevertheless, great to see the innovation and creativity in Liberia.

Liberia's Intellectuals

Over the past week I have been sitting on rickety wooden benches in tea shops in Monrovia soliciting opinions from people on the Charles Taylor trial. Throughout the city, men of all ages and classes, gather in tea shops or atai shops to debate political issues.

Political debate is limited in Liberia, partly due to a weak media institution, low literacy levels, and the limitations of the current political system in which power is still concentrated in the hands of a few. But atai societies provide informal political spaces in which people (usually only men) can meet as equals and discuss and debate issues.

As I sat in one atai shop in West Point, a slum area of Monrovia, a young man, who sold used clothing, explained to me the concept of the atai society:

“This is an intellectual forum and we are intellectuals and come here to talk about important political issues.”

Earlier this week I was listening to a podcast of an Australian academic speaking about the ideas of Hannah Arendt, a political thinker and philosopher whose work I studied during my honours year.

Arendt’s ideas are incredibly complex and some might argue esoteric. But underpinning Arendt’s political philosophy in the foundational idea of the Ancient Greek demos, that politics is essentially dialogue and speech. It is through debate and dialogue and a plurality of perspectives that we disclose a shared reality and introduce new things into the world. 

From the lofty ideas of Arendt, back to the gritty streets of Monrovia …. These intellectual forums are an incredibly important aspect of Liberia’s emerging democracy and are places in which everyday Liberians can have their say regardless of their social standing or academic credentials.

I plan to visit these atai societies and write about what people are discussing in a weekly post called The Intellectuals.

Atai Time

Nkrumah and Liberian National Identity

A painting of Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah in Sanniquellie City, Nimba County, the birthplace of the Organization of African Unity. 

I recently read Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy by David Rooney.  It was a really interesting biography, although notably anti-left and critical of Nkrumah’s socialist ideas and connections ties with the Soviet Union.

While reading about Nkrumah I realized how much I crave complex political ideas and debate here in Liberia. Nkrumah for all of his faults and dictatorial tendencies was a complex revolutionary thinker who articulated the challenges Africa and Africans faced as the continent was emerging from a past defined by slavery, oppression and colonial rule. He attempted to convince other leaders to establish an African country, comprised of African nations, and stressed the importance an African consciousness or way of thinking. While his attempt(s) failed, his ideas still resonate with Ghanaians and Africans across the continent. 

Politically, Ghana is a shadow of itself and its national vision is distinctly capitalist and focused infrastructural development and enterprise. Nkrumah’s critiques of colonialism or neo-colonialism and emphasis on projecting an African or Ghanaian cultural and political identity no longer seem to be part of the formal political landscape. Nevertheless, Nkrumah’s ideas still resonate with Ghanaians across generations and are a source of pride for many, despite the way things ended for Ghana’s first independent leader: overthrown in a coup and dying in exile. 

Liberia’s political landscape and history is less inspiring. While political ideas and theories can certainly be used to better understand and explain Liberia’s political history and conflicts, revolutionary political thought has been notably absent despite the fact Liberia was the first African republic. A democratic and inclusive Liberian national identity is also yet to be made.  

Almost ten years after the end of the civil war the Liberian nation and citizen is being (re)created. However, without strong political ideas and ideals and a somewhat coherent narrative of the nation it is difficult to imagine how this endeavour will succeed.

Patriotism was a major theme in President Sirleaf’s state of the nation address to the legislature earlier this year. The Liberia Vision 2030 ‘exercise’ is also an attempt at nation building.

It will be interesting to follow the evolution of this attempt at building a national identity and vision. What will a Liberian national identity that is inclusive and binding look like? Most importantly, will this national identity come from within, or will it be carved and crafted by international donors and partners to in keep with the technocratic idea of “good governance”? Will it have weight and substance or be another neatly typed document that bears little eight in the real world? It is clearly too early to tell.

Ghanaians, particularly of the older generation, have a complex relationship with the visionary turned despot, Kwame Nkrumah. But his legacy is a great one. Nkrumah, through his writings and political acts, illustrates the essential role political ideals, a historical narrative and vision for the future plays in building a nation.

This challenge for Liberia is a daunting one, but essential if it is to move forward.