By Moco McCaulay
On April 26, 2012, the former leader of a small African nation and a feared ex-rebel leader who spread terror in his country and across West Africa—but seemed above-the-law—was finally cut to size by the swashbuckling sword of Lady Justice. It was a day that international news media heralded as: “the end of impunity!”
A fairy tale-like ending you could say, especially for the people of Sierra Leone, to the atrocious story of death and destruction that had plagued West Africa during the 1990s. And the concluding narrative of the verdict that was told to the world paralleled a Mosaic redemption: a people, long subjugated to the appalling brutalities of war, had finally found respite at the Oasis of Justice after a brutal trek through the Wilderness of Injustice.
Who could therefore be sacrilegious enough as to want to sour such a narrative?
Well, one man is trying to ruin that happy ending. And, if you were Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, who was found guilty on that day for “aiding and abetting” the commission of war crimes in Sierra Leone and later sentenced to 50 years in prison, you too would probably be doing everything within your power to ruin the fairy tale-like ending of this narrative.
So Taylor and his team of lawyers, headed by Morris Anyah, have appealed the verdict, calling it “a miscarriage of justice.” The appeal judges are now deliberating the case and are expected to make a decision whether to uphold the verdict or overturn it at some point before the year’s end.
By Moco McCaulay
As the debate over nepotism rages in Liberia regarding President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s appointment of her 3 sons to key posts in the Liberian government, fermenting simmering disaffection with her leadership, not only has Africa’s first woman president’s commitment to reconciliation in her post-war nation come into question, but her recent utterances in praise of nepotism must certainly leave readers of her memoir, This Child Will Be Great, rather befuddled whether she is one and the same person who authored that book.
Granted, there is a book out there called In Praise of Nepotism: A Natural History by Adam Bellow, which from the look of things, President Sirleaf, a 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate, would now not only gushingly endorse, but with her unabashed display of nepotism in her war-addled nation despite her people’s outcry, she may probably also want to consider authoring a book extolling nepotism.
But, until such a time, to have read President Sirleaf’s book and now hear her defend nepotism, one has to be flabbergasted at the disturbing contradictions in the voice of the author of This Child Will Be Great who, on the one hand, cast aspersions on past leaders for nepotism, now using her voice to staunchly defend nepotism on the other.
By Moco McCaulay
When Liberia’s youthful Nobel Peace Laureate, Leymah Gbowee, publicly criticized her co-Nobel Peace Laureate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the septuagenarian President of Liberia, over corruption and nepotism, President Sirleaf responded by derisively dismissing Ms. Gbowee as “too young to know…”
Described by one writer as a “verbal slapping down,” President Sirleaf’s condescending rebuke of Ms. Gbowee, her 40-year-old co-Nobel laureate, was not unlike an adult chastising a child for inappropriately interjecting in an adult conversation.
“My fellow Nobel laureate is too young to know what we’ve gone through to achieve peace and security in my country, to reach the level of democracy that we all are experiencing today,” Pres. Sirleaf reportedly said of Ms. Gbowee.
By Moco McCaulay
In most African countries, there always seems to come along that rare national star who, buoyed by a transcendental musical genius, shines ever so brightly from the obscurity of his/her village, town or city, to illuminate the world with the vibrant sounds of the country’s rich cultural heritage.
Think Yousou N’Dour, from Senegal; Miriam Makeba, South Africa; Fela Kuti, Nigeria; Alpha Blondy, Ivory Coast; Angelique Kidjo, Benin; Salif Keita, Mali; Koffi Olomide, Democratic Republic of Congo; to name a few.
In Liberia, there was just such a star getting ready to woo the world with his transcendental musical genius, but he was tragically cut down at the prime of his life and musical evolution, accused of being gay.
His name is Tecumsay Roberts.
The story of Tecumsay’s murder at the hands of a ruthless rebel general during Liberia’s barbaric civil war in 1990 is not a new one. But, following a recent article I wrote about how Liberian musicians have “fallen under the global music radar,” I began to wonder why that was so, and that led me to look into the pre-war Liberian musical scene.
By Moco McCaulay
After years of struggle as an unwavering activist for democracy in Liberia, during which time she vehemently castigated past Liberian leaders for human rights abuses, corruption and nepotism, today, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has also become a nepotistic leader, appointing her sons to key posts in the government.
One son is head of the National Oil Company, another is deputy governor of the Central Bank and yet another is head of the National Security Agency.
Liberians, including her co-Nobel Peace Laureate, Leymah Gbowee, has urged President Sirleaf to fire her sons and end this troubling spectacle of nepotism in Liberia, especially in light of the dire need to foster reconciliation in her post-war nation of Liberia.
But President Sirleaf has forthrightly dismissed calls for her to fire her sons, inflaming simmering dissension among Liberians, which is certainly not what Liberians need as they work to consolidate the nation’s fragile peace after 14-years of a bloody civil war.
Therefore, in the interest of peace, reconciliation and good governance, President Sirleaf, Africa’s first woman president and a winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, must heed the voices of her people and end the crass display of nepotism in her government.
Go here to sign petition urging President Sirleaf to fire her sons immediately.
By Moco McCaulay
As a 21-year-old journalist working for the Daily Observer Newspaper in the Gambia, I experienced one of the most defining moments of my life when I went through a month-long ordeal of off and on detention, during which time I was put on a show trial only to have the case later dropped, before being extra-judicially arrested, locked up for several days and finally deported to my country, Liberia.
And, I vividly remember one night, as I sat on the hard concrete slab that ran along the wall of the dingy mosquito-infested cell, being overcome with a debilitating feeling despondency and powerlessness at the injustice I was enduring, all because I chose to be use my writing to speak truth to power.
But, even in that “darkest of the night” experience, I pledged to myself that I would always seek to stand up for what I believe to be right even if it was unpopular and there was a high price to pay. That was more than a decade ago and now, I feel it’s time for me to live up to the pledge I made to myself.
By Moco McCaulay
After so many years as an unflinching advocate for democracy, risking life and limp, courageously standing up to past Liberian despots and calling them out for appointing their relatives to key positions in government, now it seems Liberia’s President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has gone through some kind of Transfiguration and has now become a “prophetess” for nepotism.
Talk about flip flopping!
Click on link below to read Radio Netherlands Worldwide interview with President Sirleaf where she justifies the appointment of her 3 sons to key posts in the government:
Liberia’s president defends ‘nepotism’
By Moco McCaulay
When the account of the beginning of Liberia’s notoriously cannibalistic civil war is told, it starts with how a small band of Libyan-trained guerrillas attacked the Liberian border outpost of Butuo on December 24, 1989, plunging the country into a 14-year internecine war.
But the stage for Liberia’s descent into a fratricidal civil conflict, fueled in large measure by festering tribal animosity, was almost certainly set on this day twenty-seven years ago. If December 24, 1989 is the day that Liberia’s civil war began, then November 12, 1985 is the day the battle lines were indelibly etched in blood, catapulting Liberia on an inexorably path to war.
On November 12, 1985, General Thomas Quiwonkpa, a former Commander in Chief of the Liberian Army, staged a coup against President Samuel Doe, which initially appeared to be successful, but was crushed only a few hours later during the day.
Quiwonkpa, who was from Nimba County, was killed that day and President Doe would go on to exact brutal retribution on Quiwonkpa’s tribesmen. Thousands were killed, inflaming tribal animosity and igniting the flames of war that would consume the whole nation some 4 years later.
The story of that day could be told in so many ways, but the most poignant are the personal stories of those whose lives were impacted by the violent events of that day. One such person is Liberia’s President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.
A US journalist, Pat Parkinson, who visited Liberia recently, said that he was “blown away” by Liberia, and that the Liberian media “does not know what to do” to raise awareness about the dire plight of the Liberian people.
Parkinson, who made the trip to Liberia with Shabu, an organization set up by a US entrepreneur to provide educational scholarships for underprivileged Liberian children, said that “there are many many Africans that are better off than Liberians.”
Deploring the squalor and poverty he saw in Liberia, Parkinson said that Liberians needed to demand more from their government and that the media needed to also do more to bring attention to the plight of the Liberian people.
“My biggest frustration is that Liberians don’t seem to realize that they live in a free country. Even the reporters don’t know how free they are.
“Never before had I realized how important the media is, not just the national reporters, but local reporters. The Liberian press does not know what to do. They don’t know where to start to protect the people. There is an old saying in journalism: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Liberian journalists don’t understand this. The Liberians are free to speak out, but they don’t do it,” Parkinson said, according to an interview on Shabu’s blog.
Go to Shabu’s blog to read full interview here…
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The five women were from small town America but chose to live in the midst of one of West Africa’s most brutal civil wars. Each belonged to the Adorer’s of the Blood of Christ, a St. Louis-based Catholic order; each had volunteered to live in Liberia, not only as missionaries, but as desperately needed relief workers.
Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/10/31/why-the-murder-of-five-american-nuns-will-go-unavenged/#ixzz2Ay447f4m
Liberia’s president and Nobel Peace laureate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 74, has reportedly referred to her co-laureate, Leymah Gbowee, 40, as “too young” for calling her out on corruption and nepotism. (click heading to read story from BloombergBusinessWeek)
Leymah Gbowee (Photo credit: aktivioslo)
President Sirleaf has appointed one son as deputy governor of the central bank, another as head of the national oil company, and a third as head of the national security agency which provoked Gbowee to criticize her for nepotism.
Pray tell me, how old does one have to be to recognize crass nepotism and call a spade a spade?
Rather than being too young, Gbowee has displayed a tremendous maturity far-beyond her age by standing up as a “moral voice” in a country where far too many have taken to sycophancy than risk ruffling the feathers of the powers that be.
And for that, Gbowee deserves much praise!
By Moco McCaulay
Only a few days after Liberia’s Nobel Peace Laureate, Leymah Gbowee, publicly lashed out at her co-laureate, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia for corruption, nepotism and failure to do enough to reconcile their war-addled nation, President Sirleaf has responded with an uncannily picture perfect “Yeah, Now What!” retort for Gbowee and her other critics who have dared to lampoon her for displaying crass nepotism by appointing her sons and other relatives to high positions in the government.
A good read from the Daily Beast on the “Nobel Lashing” by 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate, Leymah Gbowee against her co-recipient, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, for nepotism and corruption.
By Moco McCaulay
Almost a year to the day when two Liberian women, Leymah Gbowee, 40, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 73, made history, along with Tawakkol Karman, a female peace activist from Yemen, as they were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for their “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”, Ms. Gbowee has in one scathingly surprising swoop taken potshots at Madam Sirleaf, the president of Liberia, for blatant nepotism and failure to fight corruption in their poverty-beleaguered nation.
According to a story in the British newspaper, the Telegraph, Ms. Gbowee lashed out at Pres. Sirleaf for corruption and nepotism, and not doing enough to reconcile their war-ravaged nation.
