Cerue’s August Meet-up
How can we manage tension between citizens returning to post conflict countries and citizens who remain in country during conflict period?
This was the topic of discussion when seven development practitioners met on October 15 in Monrovia. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss setting up a task force to respond to emergency calls from victims of sexual and gender based violence. But it was dominated by a look at how Liberians returning home in this post conflict era relate to other Liberians – those who stayed and lived through several stages of the civil war.
One international expert staff from South Africa working in Liberia said this is a common problem that happens when some people go into exile or leave the country during a war or conflict and return after the danger has passed. They come back more highly educated, with a lot of western exposure, and for some a very superior attitude. They are bitterly resented by the people who stayed and endured suffering, some of whom put their lives on the line fighting for freedom or for an end to the danger/oppression/war.
The returnees are often the ones who walk straight into high paying jobs in the government and the others feel cheated and excluded. The participants agreed and stated several examples of Liberians who have returned and now work in government, earning high salaries as compared to Liberians who stayed home and are performing similar tasks, but are paid relatively low salaries. The women feel that those returning are form the elite and some really look down on the ones that remained as being backward or so traumatized that they cannot perform well. The ones that stayed can also become arrogant, claiming that they suffered alone during the war/conflict. In their view, the returnees had it easy and cannot ever understand what it means to live through such a conflict.
All the participants at the meeting agreed that this topic is highly controversial and there is no easy answer to this problem. They agreed that the returnees are mostly better educated and not so traumatized if at all. However, the people who remained have an experience of what happened that those coming in do not have, and that has to be valued as well. What has to happen is that a dialogue needs to be opened where the two can talk about how it was for them to stay or leave, so that some understanding can develop. There needs to an understanding that those who left (now the returnees) went through their own suffering, having to reorient themselves away from everything that was familiar and comfortable, and it may not have been easy for everyone who left. Some really suffered in refugee camps, away from families, lost families etc. So suffering was on both sides and this has to be understood by both sides. Both sides need to talk to acknowledge that they all have a role to play in rebuilding the country and some roles are better played by the ones who left, while others are best performed by the ones who stayed. It requires that both sides are facilitated to move beyond the us vs. them mentality and look at themselves as Liberians who had different experiences, but who are all here now for one reason – to contribute to a better Liberia and to move away from the past to a brighter future for their children and grandchildren.
