[SALUTATIONS; ALL PROTOCOLS OBSERVED]
As someone who loves this country with every fiber of my being, I feel very honored and privileged to address you today.
When I think of Liberia’s birth as a nation, I often picture fists of all shapes and sizes raised in the air [like this]. Because our declaration of independence on July 26, 1847 was a revolutionary act of defiance.
Back then, when blackness was synonymous with bondage, we Liberians dared to be free. Inspired by our Haitian sisters and brothers, who had led the first successful slave revolt in history, we dared to reclaim black personhood. Decades later, when our beloved continent was being carved up in the European ‘scramble for Africa’, swallowed whole by colonialism, we dared to be sovereign.
