MONROVIA – Pioneers of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA) and other progressive movements are not just icons of Liberia’s social, economic and political revolutions; they are also active allies in the Africa’s liberation and progress. As the continent celebrates its redemption for colonial domination May 15 this year, the MOJA stalwarts must have incurred the nostalgia, sniffed the dividends of the struggles, and therefore took off time to pay tributes to the forebears. They however proffered some recommendations, as The Analyst reports.
Yesterday, May 15, Africans who followed the continent liberation from the yoke of colonialism, reflected on the costly struggle for the continent’s redemption, and those who gave all it required, including dear life, to achieve the momentous feat.
The Movement of Justice in Africa (MOJA), perhaps the oldest surviving civil society organization in Liberia and Africa remembers the day all that Africans endured to achieve liberation, recalling with reverence the great men and women, famous and forgotten—whose courage still guides the people of the continent.
MOJA paid tributes to Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) and Sékou Touré (Guinea) whose Sanniquellie meeting with President William V. S. Tubman in 1959 laid the groundwork for the OAU.
Haile Selassie (Ethiopia) whose Addis Ababa diplomacy forged continental unity, was also recognized by MOJA, including Modibo Keita (Mali), Ahmed Ben Bella (Algeria), and Julius Nyerere (Tanzania).
Other that MOJA named as heroes of African redemption and celebrated are Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Sekou Touré, Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Amílcar Cabral (Guinea-Bissau/Cape Verde), Samora Machel (Mozambique), Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso), Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and countless unnamed foot-soldiers whose commitment to the liberation was clearly and purely based on conviction.
The organization also recognized former Liberian head of state, William R. Tolbert, who created the Liberation Fund that channeled material support to Southern African freedom movements.
MOJA further recalled that William V. S. Tubman, hosted Mandela, provided funds to the ANC, and offered refuge to Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela liberation musicians and Vose Makay of the PAC.
According to the MOJA icons, Albert Porte, Liberian journalist and conscience of a nation, whose fearless pen exposed abuse and demanded governance by rule-of-law, was a part of the liberation crusade in his own way.
MOJA name Africa’s women freedom fighters and paid tribute to them. They include: Sally Mugabe who died in the struggle for the independence of Zimbabwe to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela—whose resilience anchored every front of resistance.
“Through their sacrifices all of Africa—save the still-occupied Western Sahara—now flies the banner of national independence,” said MOJA.
MOJA Makes Recommendation for Progress
Many are asking, Africa Liberation, so what? It seems, in part, this resonates with the MOJA folks who proffered a number of recommendations for the continent’s progress.
MOJA called for what it called the defeat of corruption, the upholding rights, demanding of accountability, respect the rule of law and human rights.
According to the organization, “no leader is above the constitution; every citizen deserves equal protection and due process.”
MOJA calls on all African nations and people to trace every public dollar from allocation to outcome; publish budgets and contracts in real time; to strengthen independent institutions—courts, auditors-general, anti-graft commissions, investigative journalists—to expose and punish theft; and to protect whistle-blowers and activists who shine light in dark corners.
“Insist on people-centered leadership: modest living, full asset declarations, service before self; forge continental solidarity so no corrupt official finds refuge across borders,” the group also recommended.
Call to action
“On African Liberation Day 2025, MOJA calls on students, workers, farmers, faith communities, the diaspora and honest public servants to: Raise their voices for transparent, pro-poor budgets that prioritise classrooms, clinics and clean water over convoys of SUVs,” MOJA implore the people of the continent.
The group also want stakeholders to organise locally to monitor projects, salaries and service delivery; to vote with vigilance: reward integrity and competence; reject bribery and empty slogans, and to stand together across borders; corruption thrives where citizens are divided.
MOJA added: “Today, Africans everywhere commemorate African Liberation Day—born of sacrifice, vision, and collective struggle. From the 1959 Sanniquellie conference in Liberia to the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 and today’s African Union, this date honours women and men who refused foreign domination.”
The unfinished business of liberation
MOJA also warned that there is an unfinished business of liberation, stressing that independence was necessary, but never sufficient.
Six decades later, MOJA opines, Africa’s children still face preventable disease, crumbling schools, collapsing roads and chronic food insecurity, and the chief culprit is leadership that betrays the public trust through corruption and contempt for the rule of law and human rights.
“Corruption siphons billions into offshore havens while hospitals lack basic medicine. It diverts classroom funds to private mansions and turns farm-to-market roads into death traps,” MOJA emphasized. “It erodes hope, forces migration, foments conflict and ultimately kills.”
MOJA therefore declares corruption—together with systematic violations of the rule of law and human rights—a crime against humanity.
Economic injustice is legalized theft
The civil society organization said African peoples did not oust foreign exploiters merely to enthrone indigenous exploiters.
On the continent, MOJA said, there are yet in too many states, cabinet ministers, legislators and senior officials receive lavish salaries, duty-free perks and fleets of luxury vehicles, with monthly fuel allotments for operation of a petrol station and allocations for communication, while civil servants, law-enforcement officers, teachers and health-care workers struggle on starvation wages.
The group further contends that a budget that funnels 99 percent of national revenue to one percent of the population and condemns the remaining 99 percent to scarcity is legalized theft—a cynical betrayal of the dream that inspired the liberation struggle.
“The people of Africa did not fight to free themselves from foreign exploiters in order to pave the way for greedy and selfish leaders,” noted MOJA.
MOJA pledge
MOJA was founded on the principle that justice, respect for human rights and adherence to the rule of law are the lifeblood of genuine liberation. We extend solidarity to the people of Western Sahara in their unfinished decolonisation struggle and to all Africans resisting tyranny in any form.
Let the memory of Nkrumah, Lumumba, Cabral, Sankara, Tolbert, Keita, Kaunda, Selassie, Mandela, Porte and thousands of unnamed martyrs be our moral compass. Let their unfinished dream propel us into a second liberation—one that ends not at the lowering of a foreign flag, but at the rise of good governance, shared prosperity and human dignity for every African.
Africa must rise—not merely free, but just. Corruption must fall—not tomorrow, but now.
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