Two hundred years after the first Africans were transported to America
against their will, their descendants sailed back to the land of their
ancestors. Soon, thousands of freeborn Blacks and former slaves settled on
Africa's west coast, in the land that would become Liberia, named for the
liberty they so dearly sought. Liberia's growth from a "colony" with a
coastline barely 600 miles long to a modern state was not without
challenges, but nothing prepared Liberians for the country's devastating
civil war that began on Christmas Eve, 1989, and lasted 14 long years.
 The untold story of America's African progeny is presented in
Liberia:
America's Stepchild. This dramatic documentary follows the parallel stories
of America's relationship with the African republic of Liberia -- founded
and backed by the American Colonization Society (ACS) and the U.S.
government as a home for freeborn Blacks and former slaves -- and the
settlers' relationship with the indigenous people. As seen through the eyes
of Liberian filmmaker Nancee Oku Bright, the film also explores the causes
of the turmoil that has ravaged Liberia since 1980.
"Today people generally think of Liberia as a disaster, but it was not
always so," says producer Nancee Oku Bright. "Liberia was a founding member
of the United Nations and one of the key initiators of the Organization of
African Unity. It was the only Black republic in the sea of colonial Africa,
and it made the colonizers very uncomfortable and the Africans very proud.
"Many of the events that occur in Liberia happen partly because people
simply don't know their own history, and, in that vacuum, history can be
terribly manipulated," Bright explains. "I would still like to believe that
human beings can, if they understand the nuances of their own histories,
learn not to repeat the destructive lessons of the past. I also hope that
this film can show us how tragedies unfold when there is no political will
to do the right thing, either from leaders or from those who they believe to
be their allies."
The Liberian story begins in the early 1820s, when the Washington,
D.C.-based American Colonization Society endeavored to send free Blacks to
Africa. The society's purpose was twofold: to reduce the possibility that
free Blacks might induce slaves to revolt against their oppressors, and to
spread Christianity and "civilization" to the "Black Continent." Liberia:
America's Stepchild retells the early story of Liberia -- of its early
struggles with disease; of the eradication of slavery on its own shores; of
conflicts between warring indigenous tribes; of its evolution as Africa's
first independent republic; and of the nurturing of its international
diplomatic relations, particularly with the United States.
One hundred fifty years later, Liberians were divided into two distinct
groups: the often privileged American descendants, known as
Americo-Liberians, and the indigenous population. It was a division that
would lead to political unrest and, ultimately, sow the seeds of war.
|
