Living Our Ancestors Dreams: A Juneteenth Call to Action
Juneteenth— also known as Jubilee Day— commemorates the emancipation of the enslaved African Americans in the United States. It is celebrated this day because though the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on 22 September 1862 and made effective the following January, 19 June 1865 was when General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX and freed the final slaves in Texas.
My great-great-grandfather, Daniel Frank Tolbert was born in Ninety Six, Greenwood County, South Carolina, U.S.A in 1849. He fought for the Union during the American Civil War. He was given land in Ninety Six for his service, but due to the terrorism of the KKK, he was forced to flee with his wife, Sarah Ann Watson and their four children to Liberia, West Africa
Liberia was established by the American Colonization Society in 1821. The Western mythos around Liberia is that we were one of two of the only countries to avoid European colonization in Africa, but this is misleading. White Americans— abolitionists and slavers alike— created the ACS to return freed slaves to Africa for myriad reasons.
Southerners were afraid of retaliation from the slaves and an uprising the likes of Haiti. Northerners did not want them because contrary to popular American mythos, the North was largely racist and there was a fair amount of lynching that happened throughout the centuries after emancipation. Both felt that it was highly unlikely that Black Americans would be able to integrate into society easily, and many didn’t want them to bother. For this reason, they felt it was only fair (and convenient) to simply take land from indigenous Africans and settle them upon it.
In 1878, Daniel F. Tolbert and his family arrived in Liberia. They settled in Bensonville, where we still are today. Daniel Tolbert’s oldest son was William Richard Tolbert, who became the head of the family in 1889. Contrary to popular belief, our family actually did integrate into the an indigenous African tribe— the Kpelle tribe. William R. Tolbert I’s first wife, Kortu Gormah was Kpelle. My great-grandfather spoke Kpelle fluently and became a member of the traditional Poro society — a spiritual secret society in Green Coast tribes.
My grandfather, William R. Tolbert, Jr. (and adopted grandfather, Stephen Allen Tolbert) was born to my great-grandfather and his third wife, Charlotte Hoff. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1943. He became the Vice President to President William V. S. Tubman in 1952. He became the president of the Baptist World Alliance in 1965. He was also a member of Phi Beta Sigma and the Grand Master of the Masonic Order of Liberia. In 1971, he became the President of Liberia.
My grandfather was assassinated in April of 1980, along with many of my family members. Liberia descended into chaos for over 30 years until a group of phenomenal women brought peace to our country. We have been free of war since 2005, which does not mean free of issues.
I say this all to say that, despite the fact that the founders of Liberia as a nation were freed slaves, they took it upon themselves to subjugate and oppress the indigenous people of that land. From 1877 to 1980, Americo-Liberians held political and economic power, despite the fact that we only make up 5% of the population.
My grandfather knew that this was wrong, and so do I. While his presidency was not perfect, liberal ideologies and progressive political acts in favor of the indigenous and poor were the framework for his presidency. During his presidency, he…
promoted a program to bring more indigenous persons into the government
successfully worked for a constitutional amendment to bar the president from serving more than eight years in office, and in 1976 he vowed fierce opposition to members of the Legislature who sought to repeal the amendment and again permit what Tolbert called an "evil tradition"
focused on political independence, establishing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and several other Eastern Bloc countries, thus adopting a more nonaligned posture
disavowed Israeli colonization and spoke in favor of recognizing the national rights of the Palestinian people
was chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
played an integral role in developing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Let me be very, very clear. There is an overarching narrative in the Western media that perpetuates a disgusting image of Liberia, which seeks to perpetuate divisive attitudes and the idea that we are barbarian cannibals. There is also the issue of Americo-Liberian elitism as well as Western governmental corruption that wreaks havoc upon the national ability for us to maintain peace and unity. It is not a narrative I will corroborate.
I denounce the hierarchy of oppression created in 1821 when the first freed Black Americans came to Liberia under the leadership of the ACS. I denounce the political and economic disenfranchisement of indigenous Africans in the nation of Liberia. I denounce the heinous acts taken by the Americo-Liberians to maintain power.
I do not labor under the impression that my grandfather was perfect or that he did not suffer from the very human traits of materialism. I do not deny that he didn’t fall prey to his power.
I probably would never have known him, as he was born in 1913 and I was born in 1994. However, I know him through his legacy and as an Ancestor who Protects and Guides me. I do know that he was a God-fearing man who loved his people. He loved Liberia.
I share all of this today, on Juneteenth to speak to what the descendants of freed slaves are capable of. As all humans do, yes, we perpetuated the cycle of abuse that we faced in the United States. The repatriated slaves have reckoning to do, and I believe we have literally paid our pounds of flesh. As a descendant of colonizers, I say that our payment is still pending. I say we must pay back our privilege to the indigenous Liberians. We owe it to not just the indigenous ethnic groups, nor Liberia herself, but also to one another and to our future generations to remake our home in not solely an image but a reality of blessed harmony.
On this day that commemorates freedom for our Ancestors, I implore all those of the African diaspora— not just Black Americans but Black Europeans, Caribbeans, and Africans abroad— to make a commitment to reconciling the trauma of the abduction and enslavement of our Ancestors, forced removal from our land, and violent colonization by the Western world by coming together.
Let us build a new history in which people of African descent are sovereign over ourselves; in which we tell a narrative not of past abuses but of present remedies, of future innovations. Let us not just dream it, but let us live it in the here and now.
I share this today because I am very much the literal dream of what a freed slave has the potential to create, and so are you, my Black family across the globe.
Though I grew up working class in the suburbs of Maryland due to the ravages of the 1980 coup and subsequent civil wars in Liberia, I still got more than many of the people back home and more than our Family who never left America. I am the dream of freed slaves, and so are you.
Though I had my home robbed of me prior to my conception and have felt adrift in this sick and suffering paradigm called colonialism, I am the dream of freed slaves, and so are you.
My grandfather was an Afro-futurist before Sun Ra and Octavia Butler were even born. And I take up his mantle and walk in his footsteps to carry out his vision for a politically, economically, spiritually, and environmentally self-sovereign Black state. And because I do not believe peace will ever be had until we can accept integration as the inevitability of the human race, a state where all people with their hearts & minds set on loving the Earth and each other can peacefully do so.
I believe it is time to make our Ancestors proud. I believe it is time to turn our swords into plough-shares, and spears into pruning hooks. I believe it is time for freedom from spiritual bondage and ideological warfare. I believe it is time for freedom from the drudgery of these doldrums we call this colonial life. I believe it is time to turn from the learning of war to the learning and lived practice of love. That, I believe, is the dream of my repatriated patriarch, Daniel F. Tolbert and his slave parents and grandparents. I believe they dreamt of the day that their progeny could make that choice. I believe that day has come.
And I hope you will join me.