Statement On Education at the Baltimore Brainstorming Session

Statement On Education at the Baltimore Brainstorming Session

By Syrulwa Somah, Ph.D.
Executive Director, LIHEDE
October 9, 2004

 My fellow Liberians:

 In my recent book, Nyanyan Gohn-mana: History, Migration, and Government of the Bassa, I said that the role I would like to play in Liberia is that of an educator. So it is no surprise that I find myself being assigned to the panel on education at this meeting, although I had thought that my role here was to see how this meeting would tie into the pending symposium on “Promoting Civil Liberties, Collective Security, and Development in Post-Conflict Liberia” “at NC A&T State University on October 29-30, 2004, organized by my organization, the Liberian History, Education, and Development, Inc. (LIHEDE), and the whole the idea of organizing an ALL-LIBERIAN DIASPORA CONFERENCE. Well, as the saying goes, “be careful about what you prayer for, as you might very well get it.” So here I am talking about the future of education in Liberia , and not about the North Carolina symposium.

 Fellow Liberians and friends, many educational scholars and psychologists have argued at length about the human faculty and concluded that what separates the family of man from beast is knowledge. In other words, knowledge is the oxidizers for the development, growth, and evolution of human beings worldwide. But knowledge, in most cases, comes through an organized national educational system and a curriculum that prepare the learner to adequately utilize his or her talents via the attainment of knowledge. Moreover, an organized system of education must train students to not only be statesmen and women, but also how to cultivate societal values such as selflessness, community involvement, nationalism, and spirituality.

 The Problem

However, the system of education in Liberia has a great problem. For one of the injustices we have done to ourselves and the system of education in Liberia is completely deprive ourselves about the full knowledge about who we are as a nation and people. The educational system in Liberia deprived Liberians of the richness of Liberian history and culture such that we lack the kind of commonality and togetherness that would challenge us to find solutions to our national problems. As a result, Liberia has been consumed by one conflict after another since its founding in 1822, but especially in the last 15 years. And it seems that we have no common rallying point at which we could resolve our differences because our educational system has not taught us who we are as people, and what we need to do to develop our homeland. Even as we gather here today, the whole future of Liberia is being mortgaged out to outsiders through deforestations and other activities harmful to our environment. But worst still, Liberians seemed so preoccupied with daily living and political power that they careless about who is exploiting the natural and forest resources of Liberia . Everywhere we turn in Liberia , we see corruption, injustice, oppression, and crippling poverty. These are major problems, which, if we want to be sincere about it, we confess without hesitation that most of these problems are western-made. And that is another way of saying that these problems are largely traceable, directly or indirectly, to the foreign-oriented system of education that continued to shape the thinking of people. For instance, we have a system of education that prepare our leaders to sellout to foreign nations and subjugate our people to unnecessary hardships. We have so-called liberators who enforce laws based on injustice; and we have educated men and women who encouraged businesses such as Firestone, LAMCO, LAC, and Bong Mines to exploit our natural resources with impunity. Then we have journalists who lie and promote yellow journalism, sensationalize events, and promote indecencies in society. And, of course, the politicians who never seemed to get their act together out of greed for power and prestige. But, interestingly, these are all “educated people;” and, in many cases "highly" educated Liberians. Wasn't their education designed to prepare them for the roles they are playing in Liberia today? I think so.

 For example, when I recently proposed the Liberian Studies Curriculum that LIHEDE is working on, I received many congratulations. However, to my surprise, I received some messages that asked where the graduates of the Liberian Studies Program would work. But the question is being asked because in the minds of many Liberians, the rest of the world has already mapped out for Liberians our understanding of what jobs should be, and so we have decided to follow in their footsteps to achieve their understanding of progress.

 And it is equally sad that due to this lack of our lack of knowledge of our culture and ourselves, we have destroyed our Poro and Sande universities, by killing our old people who have irreplaceable knowledge about our commonality. Moreover, we place high premium on other peoples' cultures such that we have not only plunged our nation into wanton death and destruction, but also we still questioning the essence of a pure Liberian studies curriculum at our highest institution of learning. Hence, without a common framework binding all of us, our society cannot continue to exist; it will disintegrate and be absorbed by other societies as we are seeing today in Liberia . If we hope to live together in peace as Liberians, isn't it time that we knew something about the cultures that make up this so-called Land of Liberty ?

 How have we helped ourselves by advancing the European agenda by teaching our children to read books like Don and Peggy and Snow White, Huckleberry, Romeo and Juliet, Canterbury Tales; Rip Van Winkle, King Arthur's Round Table and Jonathan Swift on the national level? We barely read about any tribal hero, folktales and legends of our culture? How have Beowulf and Hercules who became our heroes and stories about the Trojan War that saturated our thinking helped us? Make no mistake this kind of education have produced so many graduates, masters, PhD's, and so many professionals --- engineers, doctors, politicians, economists, teachers, priest, etc. in our nation based on the standards in developed countries. But how have knowing or learning more about the Presidents of United States, capital cities of the world, social studies and languages of Western countries rather than Liberian studies build a lasting peace for all of us?

 For the most part, the fundamental philosophies of Western-styled education are rooted in cultural supremacy, exploitation, capitalism and winner takes all because moral training is a casualty of such education. We need to redesign the educational system to produce kind of citizenry we need in Liberia who will love, respect and die for the survival of our nation.

 The End Results

Liberia is in turmoil today because Liberians do not know their own stories. The Liberian educational curriculum is totally devoid of indigenous culture. And while the western stories I listed earlier that are taught in Liberian schools might be compelling stories in their own rights, they are irrelevant to the Liberian culture and society. And it seems to me that our present predicament lies in the fact that we have proven to be totally unprepared to accept and implement a leadership system based on our own design.

 Are we better off now? If our answer is no, may I goad you that we must now be prepared to teach ourselves about ourselves, our history, our spirituality, our identity so that we can become masters of Liberia, not slaves in Liberia. For I am convinced that get to know ourselves better as Liberians, we would begin to have deeper appreciation for one another. But education is the key to unity and development in Liberia , as well as respect for each ethnicity of our nation if we desire a peaceful and productive society.

 And this is why a Liberian Studies Program at higher institutions of learning in Liberia ought to be a must in the redesign of the Liberian educational in this upcoming 4th republic of Liberia . I believe now is the time that others develop a respect for us by knowing our history and contributions to the world. The challenge before us, now, at this place in Baltimore , is to move away from the sole purpose of western education, which is the acquisition of wealth and material things rather than cultivation of our citizens.

 Ladies and Gentlemen, please permit me to close my brief remarks with the following Recommendations:

 • That the system of education in Liberia be redesigned to produce knowledgeable and productive citizens and leaders committed to the development of Liberian society beyond 2005

 • That a system of education be developed in Liberia that would empower our students to participate in national, regional, and international math and science fairs.

 I should also let you know that in order to sustain ourselves as a sovereign nation after 14 years of armed conflict, we must begin to seriously educate our people and our leaders that no one will develop Liberia but Liberians. For anyone with a sense of imagination can easily see from this civil war that learning about our common identity holds the past, the present, and the future of Liberia together because their ontology places more emphasis on the collective prosperity and survival of the Liberian nation and people.

 I thank you.

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