Africa
By Anthony Isibor
AHEAD of the October 10 Liberian national elections, MacDella Mackie Cooper, a former presidential candidate of the Movement for One Liberia, has called for the establishment of a national agenda that will foster unity among the indigenous people of Liberia and the descendants of freed slaves in the country.
Cooper told Realnews in an exclusive interview that the absence of a well formulated national plan of action is one of the reasons Liberia has remained backward 176 years after its independence.
She described Liberia as a country whose ideology is driven by the historical backgrounds of two major groups; the Indigenous people and the Freed Slaves from the United States of America.
For her, this lack of unity and the question of identity, need to be quickly addressed if the nation has to move forward since it appears as though it is one of the colonies of the United States even though it was never colonized by the US.
Copper stated that her generation is set to find that identity; one that is different from America and from slavery “because our history starts at the end of slavery so we are crafting that new identity”.
According to her, Liberia can be likened to an “old fox running on one leg” due to lack of unity and direction.
“There’s a lot that we need to accomplish, there is a lot that we still have to do, but it can only be done if we can put our agenda together, which is being honest that we are one nation and not a divided nation.
“So with the division slowing us down, with the setback placed on women and youths’ participation, Liberia has been the case of an old fox running a race on one leg. And if Liberia can realize that it needs both legs to run that race, it will make a difference because we are the oldest independent nation on the continent, we shouldn’t be where we are today in terms of development, politics, economy. We should be much further ahead.
“Our National Agenda will be helpful, understanding who we are as a people; some people, folks that they rightfully own this country and then some folks feel like they came and they don’t know which part of Africa they came from when they went into slavery in the United States.
“Look at our flag, it looks like the United States flag.
“And every time I put this flag up, everybody says why do you carry the United States flag when you are running for office in Liberia, and I say, that is a Liberian flag, and they say, is that a Liberian flag, it looks like Texas flag. And that is a major problem. That doesn’t symbolize Africa that symbolizes our colonial powers although we are not officially colonized, but that symbolizes our colonial powers. And if we were to create our National Identity then we have to get rid of that. That symbolizes the United States of America, yes, as much as I am committed and grateful to the United States for what they have done for me, we need a flag that represents the American people and what they stand for.
“The United States dumped a lot of free slaves after the abolition of slavery here in Liberia, Liberia became the door of return for slaves from America. So you have two society of people; free slaves and indigenous Liberians. At times we build a country for the American-Liberian, and at times we build a country for the Indigenous-Liberians. But when we can build a Liberia together, I think that will set this nation way ahead of where we are today.
“One people, one agenda; just moving Liberia forward to be what it was intended to be. The oldest democracy in Africa, it comes with a lot of weight, meaning we should have it right by now, we should have our economy together, we should have our national agenda for our people, we should have jobs, national security and our educational system should be intact.
“But when you have a person who comes from the descendant of free slaves, they build our country for free slaves, and when we have a person who comes from the Indigenous people they build our nation to empower the Indigenous. Until we start to empower all Liberians, Liberia will still be limited.
“I hope that we can have a leadership who will come out and say this is who we are, even though we are not 100% sure of what it is, but we have to stand for our nation, we have to be patriotic to this nation,” she said.
Cooper also blamed the underdevelopment of the country on lack of leadership, lack of interest in the country.
She said that setting a national agenda starts with leadership because it is the leader who can inspire and power the people to follow his or her agenda.
A.
-September. 04, 2023 @ 13:03 GMT |
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