The Monrovia of the Outsiders 🇱🇷

There are many countries which will not give you citizenship rights but many also do. (Pakistan thank fully does give you the right if you are born there and/or through parents!) Which lump of countries does Liberia want to belong to? 

I met up with one of my first-ever colleagues and friends I made in Liberia when I landed here in 2003 to work with UNJLC, a subsidiary of WFP, a small unit within one of the major UN agencies. I called my friend over for dinner and, we caught up after many years. He is a 1^st generation Lebanese young man, born in Monrovia, to parents who run a business in Monrovia. My friend has gone on to an international career with the UN in Africa, having worked for peacekeeping missions in DRC and Sierra Leone and, is currently working with the Special Court for Rwanda based in Arusha, Tanzania. He often comes home to Monrovia for holidays. I asked him, what is it like coming home to Monrovia? He said, he doesn’t enjoy it because nothing seems to be really improving. Moreover, from the moment he lands, he is hassled for money from airport staff to people he knew from before to the police.  He says he enjoyed being in all the other countries on the continent.

Of course I agreed with him because I don’t think anything has really improved either. It was a little depressing to think that someone who was born here and, has a family business to fall back on does not find Monrovia appealing anymore.

I imagine folks who belong to the Indian and Lebanese business communities in Liberia must have a complex and frustrating relationship with the country. I have met and befriended folks in both communities. I’m fascinated with peoples’ family stories on how they ended up on these shores and, what they think of this corner of West Africa. 

With my experience of running an IT company and, meeting fellow business owners, I have had a sense that the older generation is more cynical and, often wary of potential riots.  I think I’ve met more Lebanese business owners than Indian ones. Amongst my Lebanese friends and acquaintances, for those who stayed on during the war and, built up their businesses again, or went and came back, there’s a hardened cynicism about how bad things can go here. When I meet younger folks, I feel more happy-go-lucky sentiments and, see a vision of a Lebanese-Liberian identity that is not at odds with itself. I think there is more intermarriage between Lebanese and Liberians than amongst the Indians.

Unguarded, Indian friends and acquaintances reveal more racist views and comments. I’ve even heard Pakistanis say ‘uss kaale ko,’ or ‘apne kaale ko bhej do.’ There are hardly any Pakistani businesses here but there is now a small Pakistani community of job seekers and I believe there are 1 or 2 Pakistani businesses including a liquor factory.

Monrovia is a tough place to live and work, much less run a business! Having lion Randall Street for almost 10 years now, in central Monrovia, I feel nothing works! We still don’t have water or stable electricity. Everything seems to be running down and, I don’t see any signs of city management. I don’t see signs of renovation and revival that you would imagine a responsible city management would start doing after more than 15 years of the end of the war and international support for a new state and resources. 

How frustrated are the business communities, members of the Lebanese and Indian communities who have lived here for several generations, yet still have to renew their work and residency permits, every year? For me, the issue of residency stings me a lot and, frankly, I have lost most of my sense of excitement of putting in roots in Liberia. For those who have lived here for much longer, for those whose parents arrived here, I imagine there’s a compromise with that aspect of existence. It’s understood.

What about the relationship with the city of Monrovia and generally with Liberia? Again, I believe there’s a certain compromise, even a gung-ho, practical and entrepreneurial approach.  Just from my observations of living and working on Randall Street, business owners live above their shop fronts and, have back up generators for light and, other solutions for water and security.  They have steadily built up their businesses and, invest in property development. There are branches of their businesses in other parts of town. They have a team of expat (from their own communities) and local workers. They know how to manage government relations, the bribery system and, the rampant corruption. They have understood that importation is the key to making money in Liberia and, there should always be a plan B. I know folks go regularly back to India and Lebanon. Because education and healthcare is so poor here, children and wives are also sent to live back in the mother country.

I find the upper-class Liberian attitudes towards the Lebanese business community hypocritical. Ever since I’ve come to Liberia, I’ve encountered a hostile belief for the Lebanese (surprisingly not so much towards Indians) – that they don’t employ Liberians, they are racist, they are making too much money here, they send all the money back to Lebanon and so on. Frankly, these are lazy and racist ideas. Are they worth debunking? These prejudices are hypocritical and ironic given Liberian history of Open Door Policy for foreign investment and, that the Liberian civil war created a huge diaspora of Liberians abroad, most notably in the United States. Often when I walk down Randall Street, I think of these ideas and am struck by the stupidity of them. Most Lebanese business owners in Liberia are small size and, have not minted millions. Against all odds, they manage to survive in the stunted Liberian economy. Most of the business owners are simple traders who directly import goods or locally trade in imported goods. What skill set is required for this type of business? And, how many locals are they meant to hire to prove they are not exploitative foreigners?  What is it that the Lebanese and Indian business owners are doing that cannot be done by locals? And, if the Lebanese or Indians engage in corrupt practices it is because the system here is so. Moreover, can anyone do business in Liberia without participating in the corrupt system?

The other day, we went for a quick lunch at Monroe Chicken and, our friend, the one who owns and runs the best fried chicken place in Monrovia, joked with us: the Lebanese businessman is always crying about how bad business is. Even the richest one will complain, which means if a Lebanese businessman is complaining, they are making money.   To which I retorted that the Indian businessman is always bluffing, especially if business is not so good.

What accounts for the stiff resistance to changing the citizenship laws? As I said, I find the upper-class attitudes towards maintaining most problematic because the educated and privileged class should be able to see how racist these laws are.

Perhaps one has to consider the history of the violent creation of Liberia, a settler colony that went to war with indigenous peoples, took over their lands, and instituted a republic modeled on the mother country. A small elite ruled the country and plundered its resources. Many folks romanticise the ‘good old days’ before the war when the country was stable and growing economically. It was a free country with a modern capital boasting of glamorous hotels, direct flights to Europe and, and the good life. I even hear Lebanese and Indians reminiscing about the good old days when Monrovia was not overcrowded and clean. Moreover, business was good as ever and, corruption was rife as ever and profit margins were huge enough so that the government and the foreign business could share. Liberia was prosperous and stable. 

And part of Liberia’s complex identity is also this: the oldest African republic founded by black peoples. Liberia hosted Pan Africanists and African American intellectuals in its capital. Liberians are proud of their history as a stable and prosperous country that perhaps would have finally brought even development and progress to the majority of the population that lived on the margins of this prosperity. 

The romantic and whitewashed idea of the founding of Liberia as a noble and bright black republic in mother Africa reminds me of the way Pakistanis romanticise the creation of their country, to be a modern and democratic Islamic Republic. Pakistanis are still not ready to share the country with non-Muslims and the wrong kind of Muslims.

There are many countries which will not give you citizenship rights but many also do. (Pakistan thank fully does give you the right if you are born there and/or through parents!) Which lump of countries does Liberia want to belong to? 

Liberia’s identity is still somehow frozen in this time and, Liberia is still intended only for black people. Historically and until today, it’s the elites in power and privilege who benefit from the citizenship laws. The state collects rents from “foreign businesses” and, also creates and perpetuates the corruption. But why does the diaspora and even intellectuals support the racist laws? It could be argued that the diaspora aims to keep the exclusionary citizenship status in tact and, the diaspora also aspires to participate in the Liberian state and, there fore to maintain the rents and commissions. There is also an ideological romantic idea about a republic for only black people that some Liberians cling to.

Notions of colour and race permeate Liberian consciousness. I have lived in Monrovia for more than 15 years but hardly know Liberian middle and upper class folks in a deep and meaningful way despite my efforts to get close to my Liberian colleagues in my places of work. I have hardly ever been invited to a Liberian home despite my inviting the same folks to my home many times. Monrovia is a city where thousands of international aid workers have been working, living and socialising in the post war era. The aid workers mainly socialise amongst themselves and, there have been times I have been tired of the closed bubble. How do I access Liberian middle and upper class and, see and engage with them? I sometimes get tired of seeing things through an expat eye. My experience has led me to believe that not being black explains this exclusion to some degree.  

President Weah spoke about the need to reform Liberia’s outdated citizenship laws in his inaugural address in January 2018. Will he be able to do it?