Why We Must Not Commemorate Tubman

We are students of history. We have read and understood the exegesis of how to select and garnish our heroes. We have learned to identify those who have and will always place their lives in honor of the state and its people as heroes and heroines. We cast our lot with those who struggle for the upliftment of the peasant masses of our people. Those men and women that don't struggle with material grandiosity and opulence.

Those that cherish the cause of fighting for the dignity of their people and the attainment of decent human world. Those who single and most browny cause is to build an egalitarian society for all and not few. This has been the pedestal on which all the heroic people of Africa, Latin America, Asia etc have displayed over throughout history.

Unfortunately for our Liberian society, the case is obviously different. Our people have not still understood what is meant by consciousness. And this is why for over 172years now, they've not known dignity. The culture of material wealth has undermined the royalty of nobleness. No decent society will ever celebrate a jerk of a leader in William V. S. Tubman as a national hero. This conman of a president who led our country by 27years by subjugating our people into wretchedness and debauch is the one our people commemorate. This vermin in Tubman that oppressed our people and denied them- the basic social rights of obtaining education, decent healthcare, better living standards and political right of choosing their leaders- and their participation in determining the destiny of the homeland is the one our people hail as a hero. A man that imprisoned, brutalized and murdered his political rivals like David Coleman, Didhwo Twe, Edwin James Barclay, Nete Sieh Brownell etc. is the hero of our people. A Tubman that imprisoned and maltreated critical journalists against his reign like Albert Porte, Tuan Wreh etc. This cretin of a president that hounded student leaders like Quinga Harris, Kollie Tamba, T.R Bracewell who died in Belleh Yalah, Juan Nimely and you can go on naming, is the one that the whole country would stop normal activities to celebrate.

Tubman was a brutal dictator and a spinless fascist who machinated the ploy to kill David Coleman and his son in the so called 1955 failed coup. He was an intolerant rascal who instituted many perennial systems against our people like his famous rugged PRO intelligence which was a way of witch-hunting critics of his administration. The bigot was key puppet used by the imperialist forces to undermine many progressive leaderships in Africa. He is linked to the plot that flat-lined martyr Patrice Lumumba in D.R Congo in 1961. It said that he supported Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko against Lumumba on grounds that; Lumumba had communist inclination. This Tubman that undermines Nkrumah's idea of 'One Africa' is the a hero of our people.

The class enemies have in their naive understanding written to decorate this fink of a president by going further to called him the 'Father of Modern Liberia' in an effort to have our people attracted to this mafia who ruled our country as if, it was his family inheritance. They have narrow-mindedly argued that under Tubman, our economy was broadened by the introduction of his 'Open Door Policy' which was crafted by America. What they failed to understand is that some of us would be rational enough to question this so called economic growth impact on the lives of our people.

Now, let's analyse the economy of the country under Tubman which the remnants of the old order have characterized.

The 'Open Door Policy' which stimulated this economic growth was meant to support America imperialism for this was just at the end of the Second World War and the Cold War had just started. This policy by granting to foreign capitalists special tax incentives, preferential treatment with regard to import and export duties, unhindered freedom indulge in foreign exchange transactions- by these extremely free market methodologies, this policy put at the disposal of the foreign monopoly capital the resources of the country for pachydermatous and desensitized exploitations. This ruthless exploitation led to a sharp economic growth. The GDP of the country which was less than $50million in 1950, had risen to $662million by 1975. But paradoxically, due to the guise acquaint nature of this growth, it links to foreign trade and the imperialist domination of the entire country thus leaving the people in the abyss of improvisation. If we understand this, we will realize the all the principal means of production in our country were owned and controlled by foreign monopoly capital who International corporation were situated in the advanced capitalist country like Europe and America. It will interest you to note that Liberia had the dodgy honor of having the largest number of foreign owned business enterprises in Africa under Tubman. The principal ingridients that Liberia relied on most were Iron ore, Rubber, Trade and Forestry but ironically, all these sectors were dominated by foreign capital.

The iron industry was run by foreign based corporations in Europe and America like Liberia Mining Company (LAMCO), Bong mine, and the National Iron Ore Company (NIOC). The production of one of these corporations like LAMCO accounted for over 40percent of total iron ore production. This caused total investment exceeding

$200million(62.5percent) of the shares leaving in the hands of foreign capital.

The Rubber industry, like the case with the iron ore, was operated by foreign monopoly capital like Firestone, B. F. Goodrich, all internationally based. Firestone Rubber Company which was U.S based was the biggest and produced over 54percent of the annual rubber output of the country. These big firms put together monopolized the rubber industry, thus robbing the small Liberian farmers and determining at what price they would sell their rubbers. This was under the administration a man who our people have been blind in celebrating.

The Trade sector and the Forestry industry were dominated again by foreigners. As even up to today, the trade sector was gargantuan dominated by Indian and Lebanese nationals. Our people weren't empowered economically to compete in any of these sectors by the historical misfit in Tubman whom they celebrate today.

The foreign corporations rapaciously exploited our resources with no developing effects because of the kind of cruel and incessant hegemony that was in place and presided over by the Mexican trained cigar consumer and the commander-in-chief of bimbos of a Tubman.

With the cascadingly oozing objurgations of economic growth and building of fractures under Tubman, Liberia still had one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. Our people Labor was abused on the mines and plantations of the foreign monopoly capital. They didn't have better hospitals and medicare. In fact, they were not of the class to have access to medicare. Our people lived in bantustans and native reserves in a country that had one of the fastest growing economies next to Japan after the Second World War. They were not of the type to be empowered in as much they were not civilized(Established Churches, Name structure, Masonic craft etc) under a president that they commemorate today. With all the so called growth, where are the doctors, engineers, technocrats, and professionals Tubman trained during his 27years of misrule? We must know moving forward.

For us, we know our heroes and we celebrate them. We will never be accomplices of those who oppressed and subjugated our people into inhumane penury and excruciation. We can't! We will never reward people who deprived our fathers from being part of this country by denying them the opportunities to strive and develop a decent life to contribute to the building processes of the country. We will never celebrate a man that spent his time misusing our resources on Yacht while our wallowed in destitution.

The time will come when the falsified and partial history of the homeland will be rewritten and that's the time we will place the names of our heroes will be captured on the golden pages. Our heroes such as; Alexander Crummell, Thomas J. R. Faulkner, Edwin James Barclay, Raymond Horace, Albert Porte, Didhwo Twe, Dr. Morias, Juah Nimely and their latter generation of Amos Sawyer, Baccus Matthews, H. B. Fahnbulleh jr. Togba Na Tipoteh, Alaric Tokpa, John Stewart, the heroic brothers and sisters that perished on April 14, 1979 etc, etc, etc.

We will not allow those who were part of that which our fathers resisted with the bloods, sweats, and tears to determine who we must celebrate.

Mr. Tubman, ruthless dictator, killer of political rivals in gangland fashion, lover of wealth and bimbos, political ragamuffin par excellence, crude opportunistic without a scintilla of moral compunction, Mexican trained cigar consumer, can't and will never be a hero of us!

So the reactionaries can go ahead with their masquerade and arrogance. It is not for nothing that some people will have smoke enough cigarettes today to the extent Monrovia will be clouded, for they know it was Tubman's famous diet.

About the author. Jusu Kamara is a student radical of the University of Liberia reading Political Science with emphasis in international relations. He a militant of the Revolutionary Vanguard Student Unification Party(SUP). He can be reached via [email protected] .