Liberia Government (Monrovia)
27 June 2011
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf arrived in Columbia, South Carolina, on Saturday, June 25th, and commenced a series of activities that will culminate today, June 27th, in the Investiture of a Liberian, Bishop David R. Daniels, as President of the Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first African so elevated.
President Johnson Sirleaf attended a fund-raising benefit dinner on Saturday, in support of a project which aims to further link the people of South Carolina to the people of Liberia. Called the “Change for Children Now Market Place and School Project,” it raised over US$20,000, with contributions continuing to pour in, for a new marketplace and school in Liberia for underprivileged children. Honorariums collected at the two Sunday services the President attended will also go towards the Market Place and School Project.
According to its organizers, the project “offers the opportunity for mothers to be in close proximity to their children while they sell their wares in the same location as their children are attending classes.” When sufficient funds have been raised for the Liberia project, the school will be identified as “From the People of South Carolina to the People of Liberia.”
President Johnson Sirleaf offered greetings from Liberia, and thanked all those who were contributing to build more schools for Liberia’s children, and to improve the working conditions of their mothers and other women in the marketplace. Among the many participants were Bishop and Mrs. Daniels, and Dr. Jean Bell Manning, President of the African Methodist Episcopal University, in Liberia, the keynote speaker.
At the benefit dinner, held on the campus of Benedict College, that institution offered two full undergraduate scholarships, worth US$100,000 each over the four years, for Liberian students.
Bright and early Sunday morning, the President and her delegation were guests at Bible Way Church, which was celebrating its Men’s Day Program, with Bishop Daniels, the Guest Preacher, speaking about a “divine, hand-picked leader.”
In remarks to the congregation, President Sirleaf spoke of Liberia’s journey, as one of the first independent nations of Africa that helped to promote the emancipation of the continent, but which failed, on that journey, to integrate with the native population, thereby sowing the seeds of discord that led to the death and destruction caused by civil conflicts.
“But we want to thank God that he’s given us another opportunity to renew, to rebuild, to reconstruct, and to start our lives all over again,” the Liberian leader told the congregation, “and that today our kids are back in school, we’re building the roads, bringing water – all those things that make us a nation again.”
Next, the Liberian leader was Guest Speaker at Bethel A.M.E. Church, which was observing “Afrocentric Sunday.” Said President Sirleaf: “I’m glad to be here on this Afrocentric Sunday, to be a part, to see you in African clothing, reaching back to the Motherland. Your Bulletin has talked about the origins of Africa, the industry of Africa, the sophistication of Africa, the prosperity of Africa. We also know that the New World was built on the blood, sweat and toil of Africans.”
The President recalled that the partition of Africa in 1885 started the period of colonialism, the balkanization of Africa, the interruption in the evolution of its great empires – Songhai, Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe – in a way, the descent of our great continent. And in the next few decades – the liberation struggle, the rise of the “big men,” the exploitation of resources – Africa went into decline.
But, continued President Johnson Sirleaf, “I want to tell you that today there is a thriving Africa, that we’ve removed the shackles of despair; that today, Africa’s growth rates that of any region of the world. That’s because we’ve put in some sound economic policies, we’ve settled our debt issues, we’ve democratized. Two decades ago, there were three functioning democracies in Africa; today there are eighteen, and several of them have reached majority. And so we can say to you that your homeland, that your roots, and that your future is now on the move.”
About Liberia, “the place I love best in Africa,” the President spoke of the country’s triumph and tragedy, where the failure of emancipated slaves to assimilate and integrate with the native population created a cleavage that, over time, divided the people, leading to a coup d’état and two decades of civil war.
Today, she continued, we can say that Liberia is on the mend. We have rebuilt a new Army, and we’re now into our eighth year of peace; we’ve put our economic house in order; we’ve resolved our debt; we’ve taken care of our fiscal house, and today have a surplus equivalent to 2.5 percent of GDP; we’ve started to fix our institutions, our civil service, provide the freedoms, ensure that no longer will our country have political prisoners; we’re building the roads and the schools and the hospitals; we’ve mobilized $16 billion in direct foreign investment. Liberia is not a poor country, she observed, adding, it’s just been poorly managed. “The fundamentals are in place, the foundation has been laid to once again become a prosperous nation,” said President Johnson Sirleaf.
The President described for the congregation the plight of Liberian market women when she came into office, and her pledge to modernize their markets, to organize adult literacy programs for them, and to make sure that while they work in the markets, their children can go to school. These are the activities which occupy the Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund (SMWF).
The President concluded her remarks, thus: “We believe that Liberia, once a great nation, is still a great nation, and that our future is a future of hope, is a future of promise, is a future of prosperity. We’re on the road, and above it all, we can thank God, because by His mercy and His grace, by His will, he has brought us from where we were, to where we are, and to where we’re headed. I’m just an instrument of His will. We thank God that we’re able, by the will of the Liberian people, to continue to provide the leadership for them that will bring to us the prosperity we deserve.”
The Liberian President ended the day, Sunday, at a meet-and-greet event hosted by the South Carolina Congressional Delegation and business leaders, among them many prominent African-Americans. She was also introduced to the Bishops and Elders of the African Methodist Episcopalian Church.
The Investiture of Bishop David Daniels takes place Monday evening, and the President departs Tuesday, June 28th, for home.
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