Editorial: The Importance Of The Bicentennial–Commemorating 200 Years Of Freedom And Pan-African Leadership
ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2021, the Steering Committee set up by President George M. Weah to inaugurate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Liberia formally launched the celebrations, which begin this December and run through the whole of 2022, though it is said that February next year will host the nucleus of the activities. Members of the National Steering Committee and its sub-committees converged on Capitol Hill, Monrovia at the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, to broadcast the importance of the event and its planned activities. The Committee used the occasion to accentuate the importance of the Bicentennial and also revealed its motto and theme.
ACCORDING TO THE Steering Committee, the theme is “Liberia: The Land of Return – Commemorating 200 Years of Freedom and Pan-African Leadership”, while the slogan is “The Lone Star Forever, Stronger Together”. The Steering Committee says this theme signifies three important historical milestones achieved by the country since it was founded in 1822 by freed people of African descent and their patrons from the United States.
FIRSTLY, THE THEME celebrates Liberia, in West Africa, as the land chosen as refuge by free people of African descent who endured many years of servitude in the United States, to settle as their home country. Consequently, under the auspices of the American Colonization Society (ACS), many of the free people of color emigrated from the United States and disembarked on Providence Island in Liberia on January 7, 1822 as their home country.
SECONDLY, THE THEME seeks to memorialize black freedom and nationhood and the determination for self-governance that began 200 years ago when Liberia was established in 1822. In an era when people of African descent were seeking freedom and self-determination, the founding of Liberia, “the Black Republic”, which gained independence in 1847, stood as the clear indication that Africans were capable of self-rule.
THIRDLY, THE THEME acknowledges the pivotal Pan-Africanist leadership role that Liberia played, crusading for Africa’s decolonization and independence, including its uncompromising stance against the racial segregation in South Africa known then as Apartheid. Liberia would later champion the establishment of multinational unions on the African Continent and the global stage. Foremost, was its Pan-Africanist leadership role in organizing the historic 1959 “Sanniquellie Conference” involving Liberia, Guinea, and Ghana, which ultimately resulted into the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. Liberia assumed similar Pan-Africanist leadership in the formation of the African Union (AU), successor to the OAU. It likewise joined the call on the Continent for creation of regional economic organizations, such as, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Mano River Union.