SPECIAL Interview: Aaron Weah, historian, justice activist and host of new podcast Liberia: Remembering the Future

Now, y- you and your colleague, um, have launched a program titled Liberia Remembering the Future.

Why did you decide to launch this project or to undertake this initiative?

Uh, well, there are a couple of reasons.

One of the main reasons, uh, that led to this was, uh, Liberia last year has been elected to the UN Security Council.

Prior to that, uh, we all witnessed a famous interview with Donald Trump, and the conversation that ensued with the Liberian president being asked a question about, uh, his, his background, and President Trump expressing his surprise at President Weah being able to speak English so clearly and so well.

Uh, in that particular encounter, it reveals the peculiarity of Liberia.

Not much is known about Liberia past and present.

And so I have been also engaging with Jerry Knowlton.

He's a British journalist.

Uh, he and I have known each other for more than 30 years.

He came to work here as a humanitarian worker.

He know, he knows my wife and kids.

Uh, likewise, me, I, I know his family as well.

I know his, his spouse, uh, his brothers and sisters.

So we've known each other, and we've always had fascinating conversations about Liberia.

He wanted to know more about Liberia, and he brings all the perspective about how do people see Liberia outside, and me as a Liberian, what...

And some of the misconceptions about what Liberia is and, and how Liberia is misunderstood.

And so we thought about this podcast, Liberia Remembering the Future, provides a very unique opportunity to deal with some of the misconceptions, uh, that those outside, Europeans, Americans, and those of different nationality, how they, they see Liberia, they perceive Liberia, they misconceive Liberia, and what me as a Liberian think, uh, is Liberia from all local, uh, grounded, uh, grassroots perspective and as a perspective as a Liberian academic.

So in this podcast, we're trying to really, on the one hand, provide very accurate or, uh, authoritative academic knowledge about, about what I think Liberia is, also my own views as a kid growing up about, about Liberia.

So in all of this, uh, we're trying to accomplish, uh, basically, uh, provide some basic historical narrative, provide some clarification, uh, where necessary, and to help those who are not Liberians, Europeans like Jerry Knowlton, who is, uh, my co-producer on the podcast, uh, come close to understanding Liberia, especially now that Liberia is at the UN Security Council.

Why the name Liberia Remembering the Future?

So we intend this to be a dialogue between the past and present and eventually help give people a sense, a sense of the future.

So imagining the future is our way of conceiving, uh, tomorrow as we understand today and yesterday.

It's our way of conceiving tomorrow.

Yeah.