Mrs. Julia K. Sandiman-Gbeyai, Executive Director of the Center of Excellence, for Curriculum Development and Textbooks at the Ministry of Education spearheads a launching ceremony today of a well-researched Liberian history book entitled: Liberty Hijacked- A History of How the Loss of Liberty Divides Liberia here in Monrovia.
The book is written by award-winning Journalist Kai G. Wleh, Editor-in Chief /Chairman Editorial Board of the African Star Newspaper and Managing Director of the Diligent Consultants Group.
Scores of educators including Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs, Secretariats of Schools, Chief Education Officers, the Superintendent of the Monrovia Consolidated Schools System (MSS), school administrators, high level officials of the Ministry of Education, Legislators, Senior Government Officials, policy-makers, lawyers and youth groups and an array of United Nations functionaries are expected to attend the book lunching program.
According to a release issued; today, the program takes place at the Interior and Printing House, adjacent to the Liberian Ministry of Finance on Broad Street at 1:00 P.M.
The book is a result of two decades of research during Kai’s 20 years of public service in the Liberian Government that provided him the opportunity to obtain first-hand information and knowledge and analyze the suppressive laws and policies that help divide the Liberian state. It also helps increase access to the inner workings of the Liberian Government and leading political actors. It also centered on Kai’s 22 years of acclaimed journalism and the authority captured in the book.
In November 2022, the Ministry of Education in response to an application from Author Kai G. Wleh, approved Liberty Hijacked – The History of How the Loss of Liberity Divides Liberia as an academic work of Liberian history that is designed to “enriching skills and reading comprehension of Researchers and Students at the Senior High School Level and shall form part of the National Textbook Listing.
The Ministry of Education also added that the “Author is at liberty to print, distribute the book to the schools and reading public.
Liberty Hijacked stands to correct the unfortunate portrayal of tragedies that underpin the brutal measures that the American Colonization and subsequent leaders of the Liberian Government implemented against the natives. These include enacting discriminatory policies, suppressive laws, regulations, and practices that negatively impact the Indigenous population. This book highlights some of the fundamental issues that formed the basis of the divide in the Liberian state.
Liberty Hijacked is centered on two decades of research into the American Colonization Society and the contradictions embedded in the formation of the repatriation movements that excluded ex-Black enslaved people from the Americas. The analysis contained in this book unmasked the American Colonization Society as one of the critical forces that misled the American public about the migration to Africa’s movement.
In Liberty Hijacked, Kai comprehensively, systematically, and analytically takes on the origin and history of the divisions between the settlers’ ruling class and the indigenous people of Liberia. He unveils the tragedy of the slave trade and the hidden intent of the American Colonization Society, the repatriation movement, and the role of some Christian Churches in keeping Liberia divided. He provides numerous examples and craftily utilizes a broader methodology that uncovers most of Liberia’s hidden and forgotten history from the settlement to the Tubman rule.
One of the questions that the Liberty hijacked strives to answer in a more profane way is how the loss of Liberty continues to divide Liberia, and the answer stands as the crux of this book. Indeed, the book discusses how thousands of formerly enslaved people who decried the sufferings imposed on them in southern American plantations dramatically negated and abandoned the freedom for all, including the natives but to themselves.
Kai observed that ultimately, the only logical way that the Liberian nation can effectively resolve the settlers-natives’ conflicts is to research deeper into the critical issues. The Liberty Hijacked represents that approach to dismantle the tendencies that continue to suppress knowledge regarding what happened at the inception of the Liberian state that hijacked the establishment of an inclusive free land that the settlers once envisaged.
The book also discussed and analyzed the 1955 Presidential and Legislative Elections in Liberia, the “Attempted Assassination of President William V. S. Tubman,” the circumstances that resulted in the death of William David Coleman, Independent TWP, the Henry B. Fahnbulleh’s trial, League of Nations Investigation, and the C.D.B. King Resignation.
It further highlights and details the Tubman Regime and the emergence of the William R. Tolbert Presidency.
Liberty Hijacked is a must-read for anyone who cares about understanding an independent perspective of Liberian History, especially regarding misrule and the settlers-natives divide, and a prescription that revolves around a country that enhances and actualizes the “Love of Liberia and Liberty” for all. Kai is well situated to discuss, analyze, and present the settlers-natives divide because he lived in both households and has an in-depth understanding of the impacts of the ridge on the country.
A copy of this book can be purchased at USD10 or its equivalent in Liberian dollars.
