Robtel Neajai Pailey

Robtel Neejai Pailey is a Liberian scholar, author, and activist. After studying at Howard University, the University of Oxford and SOAS, University of London, she started teaching at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Quotes African Studies remains a colonised space. While the early writings about Africa are based on colonial expeditions, missionary exploits and anthropological ethnographies, contemporary scholarship is dominated by non-Africans who have positioned themselves as the authoritative voices in a 21st century scramble for influence, as if Africa has no intellectuals or knowledge production of its own. I thought I’d become immune to the indignities of travelling with an African passport, but an encounter last month proved me wrong. Despite the rhetoric about globalisation’s free flow of ideas, capital and technology, the world remains obsessed with restricting the movement of people who don’t fit into neat boxes of what is tolerable or even desirable. Post-conflict reconstruction in Liberia has primarily focused on building state structures at the expense of solidifying national cohesion. The author contends that in this context the proposed dual citizenship legislation should undergo national deliberations, beginning with the Liberia Rising 2030 consultations African youth have been the drivers of revolutions in the past two years. However, to be more effective in bringing about desired change in their nations and the continent, they must listen, learn and earn their right to make meaningful contributions. Reading unlocks the imagination, but it also unlocks the soul of a person. It has the potential to unlock the soul of a nation like Liberia struggling so desperately to find and define itself. She talks about the power of words Thousands of Liberian refugees will leave the Ghanaian camp they have lived in for years to an uncertain future back in their country. UNHCR is closing the camp on the grounds that Liberia is now a stable democracy. But is that so? On the eve of Sierra Leone’s Independence Day, former Liberian President Charles Taylor was found guilty of war crimes committed during that country’s civil war. But does the verdict represent a major victory for Sierra Leoneans beyond its symbolic value? 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. In an interview I actually coin the term political economy of belonging to illustrate how citizenship manifests in post-war polities like Liberia, but also more generally in countries that have not experienced crisis or rupture. In all contexts citizenship remains multi-layered and intensely socio-economic in nature. In an interview External links Category:Women politicians in Liberia Category:Women academics from Liberia Category:Women activists from Liberia Category:Human rights activists Category:Living people