The  Editor,

he stereotypical view that the Bassas sold their land for smoked fish is an illusion and a distortion of Liberian history.  The Bassas, along with the Vais, the Grebos, the Krus, the Golas and the Deys are Liberia’s coastal tribes.  All these tribes placed stiff resistance to the settling of the black immigrants from the United States on the West Coast of Africa in the 1800s. 

Oppositions were primarily based on the disruption in the slave trade caused by their arrivals, the differences in the concepts of land acquisition and their evangelical mindset to spread Christianity.  History states that the Bassas waged numerous battles against the immigrants but were the first coastal tribe to skillfully negotiate and reach understandings with their brothers and sisters returning from a life of degradation in the United States.

The settlers were taken aback to learn that the slave trade was striving on the West Coast of Africa after it had been outlawed by the United States and Great Britain.  Coastal tribes were selling inland tribes.  The slave traders took unkindly the arrivals of the immigrants because they opposed the slave trade.

The slave traders threatened the coastal tribes with economic losses if the trade ended and spread much of the misinformation that led to numerous clashes between immigrants and coastal tribes.  The rum, foodstuff, clothing, trinkets, tobacco and scents provided by the immigrants were lesser in quantity and value than that offered by the slave traders.  The slave traders also offered machetes and other instruments of war.  The coastal tribes found some satisfaction and victory in selling inland tribes due to internecine wars among them.

On the question of land, the coastal tribes took the concept of ownership in fee simple as introduced by the immigrants as fraud.  They had given the settlers land under the concept of communal ownership.  They opposed this new concept and attempted to get back land that they had willing given the settlers.

The immigrants’ evangelical mindset was one of the reasons for going to Africa.  They were determined to Christianize the “natives”.

The slave trade, land acquisition and religion were the main sources of confrontations between the returnees and their brothers and sisters who initially welcomed them.

With particular reference to the Bassas, Chief Bob Gray and King Joe Harris provided land that led to the establishment of Edina and Port Cresson in 1834.  Later, through the threats of the slave traders of economic losses to the chiefs and their differences with the immigrants on land tenure policies, Joe Harris tried to end his cooperation with the settlers.  William L. Weaver, a barber from Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A. and then Superintendent of Edina battled with Joe Harris and his men.  But on June 10, 1835, the Bassas, led by King Joe Harris, attacked Edina and set fire to the buildings and massacred twenty-two members of the immigrant party.

Nathaniel Brander was acting agent of the colony and chief administrator.  When news of the massacre reached him in Monrovia, he convened the colonial council and declared war on the Bassa people.  For six months the Bassas fought heroically.  In the end confronting the gunpowder was proving suicidal and King Joe Harris turned to negotiations and compromise.  It was agreed that all territorial disputes would be submitted to Monrovia. (An African Republic Black & White Virginians in the Making of Liberia by Marie Tyler-McGraw, The University of North Carolina Press Chapel 2007)

The military stance of the Bassas, the foresight of their leaders to seek a negotiated settlement, their negotiating skills, their acceptance of Christianity and their eventual rejection of the slave trade despite all is alluring considerations, were major contributing factors in the creation and survival of the Republic of Liberia.  It is to their credit and that of the United States navy that the interior of what is now Liberia was not decimated through the slave trade.

Nearly two hundred years later, land tenure, economics; traditional practices and misconceptions/misinformation continue to haunt the Liberian nation and people.  The LAC saga is not a Bassa issue; it is a national issue.  History is repeating itself with what appears to be an overbearing response from Monrovia. 

All sides need to drop the bullets and shake hands as General Brander and King Joe Harris choose in order to save the nation.  It does not matter whether smoked fish, cloth, trinkets, tobacco were exchanged then or are exchanged now.  We know it is the tradition of the African people to give white kola, a piece of cloth, an animal or even a bride to end a conflict and forge friendly alliances.  If smoked fish did it then, let all parties realize a sense of history, national pride, the need for development, the need for human rights and allow skillful negotiations and compromises to do it now.

What matters now is not to allow insensitivities, misinformation, half-truths, greed and poor governance to bred violence, deaths, destructions and economic setbacks to the Liberian nation and people.  Government has asserted that the people were involved through their lawmakers.  Indeed, this is a representation under our unitary form of government.  As much as it must be respected, it points to the need to overhaul our unitary form of government and give some teeth to local government where the chiefs and elders and commissioners and superintendents will have a meaningful say in matters that affect he local people.  I call for a revisit of all the processes that went into the LAC negotiations and to involve the leaders at the local levels.

The contributor to the Letter of the Day on 11/24/07, Cooper Kweme, gave some food for thought that should be soberly considered and acted upon by all the parties.

Sincerely yours,