What does Patrice Lumumba's tooth returned 60 years after his assassination by colonisers, Pope's empty handed apology and Academy Awards apologising to Ms. Littlefeather 50 years later have in common? Too little, too late. That the colonisers, that white systems of power exert their neo colonial power and violence through lapsed performances of apologies that accomplish nothing but show of power. These so-called apologetic displays of power come so late without any substance, without any material compensation. They are enacted with such pomp and show that the power of the white masters , white systems remains in tact.
The headlines are "Belgium returned tooth", "Pope made apology", "Academy Awards made apology" but they tell us nothing of how the empty apologies are received and, what reparations would look like. These apologies are , I suppose, enabled by states or indigenous peoples held captive in their own lands. We don't know what outright rejection of these apologies would look like because states and, leaders of captive peoples are still beholden to these white systems in economic and military relationships.
We know there are detractors but of course, they hardly dominate headlines. News cycles run on activities of the global order of states.
So, these headlines do nothing beyond than celebrating the greatness of the colonial apologisers. There is such little critical interrogation of all that we are subjected to on a daily basis and, this often filters down to conversations we have amongst each other. In fact, conversations are landscapes of these very crimes of history.
How many times is one privy to disparaging remarks about Liberian English? Apparently, expats can't understand it because it is not spoken the right way. What is the right way? If these very expats had to work in a country where the national language was the lingua franca the conversation would be entirely different. If Liberian English itself were the official language, they might still disparage it, but would be forced to contend with it.
It's amusing how expats drop these comments in front of you, not wondering to think whether you would find it appropriate or not. In a way, I guess, it is more interesting to hear these comments and have the chance to talk about language and exchange ideas. One has a chance to teach expats from the Global North that we are not subjects of colonial languages and, although we still speak them, they no longer belong to the masters only. English doesn't belong to the English anymore!
But then, what belongs to to who anyway? You can live and work all your life in Liberia yet the elites have made owning of property a political racial issue. So, is citizenship. After almost 20 years after the end of the civil war, parts of Monrovia look no different than they do in 2003. Electrification, water, basic infrastructure, and security are rare. If you want to have anything, pay for it privately, at a premium. Build your water harvesting system. Make deals with field LEC technicians to hook you up and then invest more in back up power. Reinforce your fence with barbed wire and put dogs in the yard.
Nothing works around here and, I wonder about the relationship between the elites and upper middle class with the Liberian state. Typically, the system at least works for the well to do but is it working for anyone here in Monrovia?
It's as if the state is eating itself, plundering of state funds, sheer incompetence where basic commodities are not available or priced too high, and, a direction-less future or same historical extraction of natural resources by foreign powers.
Depressingly, the role of the pre-war and post-war Liberian elites is the same - they are plundering resources and, developing their own pockets instead of roads, industry, schools, hospitals, etc.
I am now staying in an apartment building owned by one of the well known pre war elites, the so-called Congo. I know this building has been rented out to UN expats over the years and, by now it should be a well-maintained structure. Is it? No. It's a run down building and apartments are not even connected to the LEC. Everything has to be done by tenants themselves. The landlord is busy extorting us funds so he can first build a penthouse first. Renovating and maintaining the building is not the priority.
Even for the sake of PR exercises, it seems the pre-war elites have nothing to show or prove in the post war Liberia. Do you see them offering or building anything that the public can benefit from? Is everyone settled in America and comes back only to collect rent?
One sees the typical elites at social events, not hosted by them, inebriated and, I often ask myself what influence do they have left ?
One of my Indian-Liberian community friends remarked that the Congo elite are very good at holding on to their properties. I think the Lebanese community too has copied this economic model, they have sub leased properties and are very good at holding on and extracting rents.
What do Liberian elite - old new and non Liberian - have in common? Extract rents.
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