A Legal Loophole Allows Liberians to Be Dual Citizens (TRT World)→

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In 2005, Sarah moved from Liberia to America with her parents. By 2010, she naturalised as an American. However, at her naturalisation, the Liberian Aliens and Nationality Law automatically revoked her Liberian citizenship and made her illegible for a Liberian passport. This law is in line with a constitutional provision that bars dual citizenship for adults.

Sarah's case isn’t uncommon. After he was denied a Liberian passport by the Liberian embassy in Washington because he was American, Alvin Jalloh - a Liberian who naturalised as an American - sued the Liberian government.

In a 2019 judgement, the Liberian supreme court held that despite naturalising, Alvin could not be denied a Liberian citizenship and passport till he was tried in court. The court opined that citizenship was a right that could not be revoked without trial. 

Pursuant to this 2019 ruling, in September of this year, the Liberian ministry of foreign affairs was instructed to issue passports to Liberians who naturalised to other nationalities…

According to Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey, a Liberian scholar and author of Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa, "The December 2019 Supreme Court ruling does not automatically authorize dual citizenship. It only states that a jus soli Liberian who naturalises abroad cannot be stripped of his/her Liberian citizenship without due process.”

She says further that while she believes dual citizenship is "inevitable for Liberia given national and continental trends, the country must address the many historical and contemporary inequalities that fuel backlash against dual citizenship as evidenced in a failed referendum proposition of December 2020…”

"Not a Panacea to Reconstruction": Liberia's Dual Citizenship Dilemma (LSE Research for the World)→

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In her new book Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia, Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey tells the story of two Liberians by birth. One a warlord-turned-president and one an army pilot, they allegedly stole money from the Liberian government nearly 30 years apart, before absconding to the US, their adopted home.

Given these stories – which are examples of how those with connections abroad can evade the law - it’s not hard to see why dual citizenship is a contentious issue for Liberians. Just one of seven countries in Africa to currently prohibit dual citizenship, Liberia has wrestled for more than a decade over whether to extend citizenship rights to those who hold nationality elsewhere…

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Can You Be a Citizen of More than One Country? Here’s What to Learn from Liberia (The Washington Post)→

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Politicians and policymakers used to view dual citizenship as an anomaly that raised questions of divided loyalties to the nations involved. But both destination and origin countries are increasingly allowing their citizens to hold dual citizenship, and African countries are no exception to this trend.

Seven African countries — Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Liberia — still prohibit dual citizenship. What explains why and how these countries remain holdouts? A new book by Robtel Neajai Pailey, “Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa,” explores in depth the Liberian case to show how Liberians at home and abroad have redefined and reconstructed Liberian citizenship and belonging — and, ultimately, the Liberian state…

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Liberia’s Political Economy of Belonging: An Interview with Robtel Neajai Pailey (ROAPE.net)→

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In this interview with Robtel Neajai Pailey, ROAPE asks her about her new book Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia. She argues that Liberia today must address historical and contemporary inequalities that have fuelled armed conflict and currently underpin claims against dual citizenship.

ROAPE: Can you please tell us a few things about your work and background?

Robtel Neajai Pailey: I have taken a rather circuitous route to academia. With over 15 years of combined personal and professional experiences in Africa, Europe and North America, I’ve worked across a broad range of fields while supporting governments, media institutions, multilateral, regional, non-governmental and community-based organisations. For example, in my mid-twenties, I served as special assistant for communications to Liberia’s (and Africa’s) first democratically elected female president followed ten years later by a stint in the executive office of the African Development Bank Group as an Ibrahim Leadership Fellow. I am currently Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where I research race, citizenship, ‘South-South’ migration and development cooperation. Much of my life’s work sits at the intersection of scholarship, policy and practice, and is propelled by a deep commitment to social justice and radical storytelling…

Liberians’ Pleas for War and Economic Crimes Court Increase (The Washington Informer)→

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For years after the end of both the first and second Liberian civil wars, there’ve been ruminations about how, or if, the Liberian government would assemble a war and economic crimes court to hold accountable those who committed and continue to commit atrocities against the nation’s men, women and children.

Recently, grassroots activists and government officials have reignited calls for the judicial body. These demands come amidst both the rise of a former warlord to a top senatorial position and ongoing allegations of corruption and violence within the administration of Liberian President George Weah.

While the rallying cry has reached a fever pitch within a matter of weeks, some Liberians across the globe, including Robtel Neajai Pailey, have long used their platforms to espouse support of the court along with other measures that would allow Liberians to confront the deep-seated problems plaguing their small West African nation.

“It’s almost like the elephant in the room. People have to pay for those crimes,” said Pailey, the author of “Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa” in which she challenges the popular notion that dual citizenship would improve Liberia’s socioeconomic situation. Additionally, she makes the case for Liberians to establish an identity outside of what the American Colonization Society manufactured in the early 19th century.

In her book, Pailey posits that since the country’s founding, Liberia has struggled to formulate citizenship norms under which each and every Liberian, regardless of ethnic identity or economic standing, feels included.

She said the relevance of this perspective comes at a time when those responsible for human rights abuses during the war continue to walk among the people and hold positions of power.

“People are still very supportive of the war crimes court [because] the level of impunity doesn’t bode well for the future. It sends a message that anyone can do anything,” Pailey said…


#IWD21: Four Women Inspiring Change in Liberia (Daily Observer)→

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International Women’s Day is set aside to celebrate women globally. Each year an annual International Women’s Day campaign theme is celebrated and continues all year long to unify direction and galvanize activity by providing a meaningful framework to connect and amplify the action, according to the International Women’s Day website. 

With this year’s theme, “Choose to challenge,” we look at four Liberian women who are challenging the status-quo and transforming the narrative on Liberian women. We would be remiss to acknowledge that Liberian women have been trailblazers in their own right, predating the Republic of Liberia itself. We are talking about giants such as (in no apparent order) the famous Madam Suakoko, Judge Emma Shannon Walser, Mae Antoinette Brown Sherman, Angie Brooks Randall, Dr. Thelma Awori, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Olubanke King Akerele and Cllr. Yvette Chesson-Wureh, to name a few — Liberian women with global significance. Below, we bring you the next generation of such outstanding women…

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Q&A with Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey (LSE Review of Books/Africa at LSE)→

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In this author interview, we speak to Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey about her new book, Development, (Dual) Citizenship and its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia, which draws on life histories from over 200 interviews in West Africa, Europe and North America to examine socio-economic change in Liberia, Africa’s first black republic, through the prism of citizenship.

The virtual London launch of Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa will be held at LSE on 25 February 2021 at 17:00 GMT. You can register to join the conversation. You can also download a free copy of the book’s Introduction.

Q&A with Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey, author of Development, (Dual) Citizenship and its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia. Cambridge University Press. 2021.

Q: Can you explain what you mean by the ‘political economy of belonging’ and what this signifies for a post-war country like Liberia?

In the aftermath of violent armed conflict, identities, practices and relations between people transform, as was the case when Liberia’s protracted, fourteen-year armed conflict ended in 2003. I conceptualise this reconfiguration process as a ‘Liberian citizenship triad’ which involves a complex web of interactions amongst identities, practices and sets of relationships. I describe the triad further as a ‘political economy of belonging’: a transactional system in which socio-economic transformation depends on the provision of privileges/protections (‘rights’) in exchange for the fulfilment of duties/obligations (‘responsibilities’), and vice versa…

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Daybreak Africa (Voice of America)

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FULL SHOW: Listen from 23:19 to 26:25 for interview segment BELOW.

EXCLUSIVE interview segment BELOW.

Visit https://bit.ly/30RsW3u for more information about Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia (Cambridge University Press, 2021). To order copies here with a 20% discount, enter the promo code PAILEY20 at checkout.

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What Americans across the Political Spectrum Got Wrong about the Attempted Insurrection (The Washington Post)→

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As they struggled to make sense of the attempted insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, observers embraced two strands of history to help contextualize them: the deep and enduring history of racism in the United States and the alarming parallels to the rise of Nazism in Germany. But to understand white supremacy among the pro-Trump mob, we need to look at America’s historical connections to global anti-Black racism…

While offering technical assistance, the Peace Corps also became an avenue for this racialized civilizing mission. More than 240,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps, the majority of whom have been young and White. American gifts of laptops, Monsanto seeds or English classes to African nations presume that Africans aspire to be like Americans. This “white gaze of development,” Liberian political economist Robtel Neajai Pailey argues, has perpetuated the notion that non-White people cannot measure up to the living standards of White people.

Does Development Have a Problem with Racism? (Oxfam blogs)→

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Given recent events in the United States that have sparked mass protests around the banner of #BlackLivesMatter not only there, but across the world, we ought to talk about this right here. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed us to rethink solidarity, and these protests calling for racial justice force us to ask questions also of the aid and development sectors…

De-centring the ‘white gaze’ of development

To center this important discussion, we released this special episode of Power in the Pandemic from an interview I did last year with Robtel Neajai Pailey, a Liberian academic, activist and author, based at the University of Oxford. I spoke with her after hearing her deliver a powerful keynote at the Development Studies Association conference last June 2019, titled De‐centring the ‘White Gaze’ of Development, which laid out the ways in which development thinking and praxis is fundamentally raced.

Here it is – have a listen and check out the highlights below…

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This Is My Country (Africa Is a Country)→

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In early 2007, three things were ubiquitous in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital: almost every other car had “UN” printed in big black letters on its sides, all-female police units from India served as a part of the peacekeeping force, and faded war graffiti was everywhere. The war ruins existed alongside a construction boom and the rise of upscale-gated compounds that coincided with the arrival of a massive United Nations (UN) Mission in Liberia…

First deployed in 2003, the UN presence was omnipresent for over 15 years as the country dragged itself from a brutal civil war and elected Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as the 24th President of Liberia and first elected female head of state in Africa. In 2018, after twelve years in power, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf left her office with an inconsistent and disappointing record, a number of unkept promises and a nation struggling with poverty, poor health care, education, and public infrastructure. There were charges of corruption, and acts of nepotism where she appointed three of her children and her sister to key government posts. Despite the many disappointments, even seething anger from her people, she left office and made it possible for a peaceful transfer of power to another democratically elected leader, George Weah, a former professional footballer; something that hadn’t happened in Liberia in seven decades.

But the ghosts of Liberia’s troubled past linger.

Questions about citizenship, belonging and what unites a fragmented people remain. These questions keep re-emerging and threatening the loosely held country with its various factions and claims of belonging, ownership, and nationality. How does one take stock of those years?

Born in Monrovia, Liberian scholar and writer, Robtel Neajai Pailey tries to grapple with many of these questions in her memoir essay, “This Is Our Country” published by Warscapes magazine in February 2020. Pailey is an academic with expertise in international development and African decolonization. She has also written two anti-corruption children’s books. Despite being forced to live away from her country of birth for long periods, it seems that Liberia and its history remains at the core of her scholarship and writing…