You are here

Home » Liberia

Liberia

, Protecting the 'Lungs of West Africa', Conversation with Alfred Brownell, Liberian environmental lawyers recorded by Veronique Mistiaen, New Internationalist, 2019, pp. 54-56

Brownell has been involved in a seven year campaign which succeeded in protecting half a million acres of Liberia's tropical rainforest from the Southeast Asia-based Golden Veroleum company, which had been granted t the right by the government to clear and use the land to grow palm oil. He took up the cause of the indigenous community in Sinoe County whose forests and cultural sites were being destroyed by the company. The article outlines how the campaign succeeded and Brownell's wider role in creating the Alliance for Rural Democracy throughout Liberia to work for environmental justice. He had been forced by death threats to move with his family to the USA.
Anyang' Nyong'o, Peter, Popular Struggles for Democracy, ed. Anyang' Nyong'o, Peter, London, Zed Books, 1987, pp. 288

Contributors provide case studies of Morocco, Uganda, People’s Republic of Congo, South Africa, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya and Swaziland.
Blain, Keisha, Set the World On Fire. Black Nationalist Women And The Global Struggle For Freedom, Philadelphia, Philadelphia University Press, 2019, pp. 264

Blain traces the vital role women played in shaping Black nationalist politics between the 1920s and 1960s. It is addressed to anyone wanting to better understand the history of race, empire, and imperialism in the twentieth century.

See also https://www.aaihs.org/feminism-gender-politics-and-black-nationalist-women/; https://africanarguments.org/2017/03/08/how-african-feminism-changed-the-world/;

https://iycoalition.org/what-is-african-feminism-an-introduction/; https://thedailyaztec.com/90741/opinion/african-feminism-is-on-the-rise/ and https://www.msafropolitan.com/2017/12/what-is-african-feminism-actually.html
Mama, Amina ; Okazawa-Reis, Margo, Militarism, Conflict and Women’s Activism in the Global Environment: Challenges and Prospects for Women in three West African Countries, Feminist Review, no. 101 (July), 2012, pp. 97-123

Focus on examples from Nigerian, Sierra Leone and Liberian civil wars over several decades.
Mistiaen, Veronique, Protecting the "Lungs of West Africa", New Internationalist, 2019, pp. 54-56

Brownell took up the case of indigenous people living in the rainforest against abusive violence and imprisonment for resisting the destruction of their environment and cultural monuments by the Southeast Asian agro-industrial company Golden Veroleum (GVL) planning to grow palm oil. Brownell's seven-year campaign invoked help from global NGOs to support a complaint to the Roundtable on sustainable Palm Oil, which froze GVL's expansion. He succeeded in saving over half a million acres of rainforest, but he had to flee to the US. He has also established a rural network - the Alliance for Rural Democracy - throughout Liberia to work form environmental justice.
Press, Robert, Peaceful Resistance in Contemporary Africa: Nonviolent Social Movements in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Liberia, ed. Chiba, Shin, Shoenbaum, Thomas, Paper presented at the September 2-5, 2010 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association,Washington, D.C., 2010

Press compares peaceful civil resistance in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Liberia to explore the impact of different levels of repression. In Kenya increasing open confrontation with the regime from the 1980s led to a 'culture of resistance' and the ousting of the ruling party in the election of 2002. In Sierra Leone activists faced both repression and the impact of the civil war. In Liberia, where repression was harshest, there was nevertheless resistance by journalists, women, students, the Catholic Church and others to both Samuel Doe and later Charles Taylor.

See also: ‘Civil Resistance of Ordinary People against Brutal Regimes in Africa: Cases of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Kenya’, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/civil-resistance-of-ordinary-people-against-brutal-regimes-in-africa-cases-of-sierra-leone-liberia-and-kenya/

This link offers a 56-minute video and transcript of the webinar led by Robert Press on the same topic.
Schweitzer, Christine ; Johansen, Jorgen, What Can Peace Movements Do?, Wahlenau, Irene Publishing, 2016, pp. 142

The authors examine how far peace movements can stop wars, summarizing a number of attempts to do so in the past – for example in the 1905 conflict between Norway and Sweden – as well as more recent better known movements: against the Vietnam War, and against the Iraq wars of both 1991 and 2003. Their case studies include the movement to resist US support for the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s, and the Women in White in Liberia 2002-2003.