15 Years...

On this day 15 years ago, the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in Accra, Ghana marking the end to approximately 14 years of civil unrest in Liberia West Africa. 

I still remember as a young child being ushered into a cousin's room for "the children to play" while the adults sat in disbelief in front of a VHS recording and what had become of their beloved country.  The infamous Budweiser swig...yes, that tape.  I remember as a young girl around '94 & '95, tagging along for the "Mothers of Liberia" marches in NYC near the UN where they pleaded for international intervention to end the senseless bloodshed.  I remember vividly sitting at my 1st summer job in June 2003 and watching the bodies stacked at the US embassy in Monrovia, Liberia flash across CNN. I wondered then, why the US remained so seemingly slow to act with the same zeal they had invaded Iraq just a few, short months ago in March of 2003.  This, after all was their pseudo-colony in Africa.  I remember the frantic phone calls my mother would make to family members in Liberia, some hiding in the bush, others trying to get to Ghana but too frightened to venture far, and the tales of warding off and begging rebels who tried to take their young boy children into combat.  I wondered if I'd ever get to see Liberia, the famed "Little America" on the continent that all Africans used to flock to.  The gift & The curse, those American ties.  Our tiny apartment in Brooklyn, conveniently 15 minutes away from JFK was often the 1st stop in the US for folks (friends, family, strangers) who had managed to escape what was described as "hell".  The tales they told forever scarred in my mind of babies being cut out of stomachs, waking up to gunshots, you name it! 

I consider it a blessing and a privilege to be here today and hopefully be a part of the solution to rebuilding our country.  It's not lost on me for a minute what happened on these streets though.  Adults, we are now, it's not lost on me that some of my age-mates didn't have the luxury of watching the war on CNN.  They were teenagers too busy living it, some unfortunately holding rifles and other weapons of war.  I'm told I walk past and interact with some of the worst perpetrators every day; some of them are lawmakers.  No one goes into further detail though.  I'm here now, still hearing the stories and living and working through some of the difficulties 14 years of civil war and over 150 years of imbalance and injustice have institutionalized.  Some of Africa's best infrastructure is now in need of major rehabilitation.  The only difference is now I pass bullet holes on light poles and building carcasses that were former war fortresses daily.  On the contrast, I interact with family members under 15 regularly who have luckily never experienced war.  

There's a bunch of international aid and NGOs and mineral extractors back on the ground and people recording the stories and the progress.  Others are living the story of redemption, of remembrance, of faith, of persistent mental anguish, mistrust, trying to forget, pretending to not see those who killed their mothers, their fathers, their siblings, their friends... Reconciliation only as an exercise but with no real ramifications. Sierra Leone supposedly handled the dirty work for us...kind of. May we never forget the over 250,000 people who perished in those years and may we continue to glean critical lessons for the sake of a better future and a better humanity in Liberia in spite of it all. 

#Grateful #LestWeForget #LiberianHistory #WorldHistory