The Chinese have discovered a massive deposit of lithium in Liberia. Yet to many of us that news is bittersweet.
Why? Because we’ve seen this story before. Foreign companies swoop in, dig up our land, carry off our wealth, destroy our ecosystems, then leave us with nothing but holes in the ground. A few politicians line their pockets while ordinary Liberians remain dirt poor. That’s business as usual.
But lithium is no ordinary mineral. It powers the future — electric cars, cell phones, robots. The world is hungry for it, and Liberia is sitting on billions of dollars’ worth. The question is simple: will we finally stand up and claim what is ours, or will we once again sell out our future?
We must mine our own lithium.
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If other countries can do it, so can we. Let’s study their methods, learn their systems, and build our own capacity. What we cannot do is hand it over to Europe, America, or China. When has Liberia ever benefitted from letting outsiders control our resources? Never. We always lose. They take billions, and we get crumbs. Enough is enough.
Africa is rising. Other African countries are hearing the call.
The President of Burkina Faso used gold mines to pay off debts to the World Bank and IMF and today they are manufacturing electric cars and buses. Ghana is putting out illegal miners and mining companies that are non-compliant. The president of Botswana has taken ownership of the diamonds that they have.
The president of Namibia is saying no to illegal mining in her country, and she too has put out foreign nationals who are illegally mining their gold. Angola recently decided they will polish their own diamonds instead of letting the Europeans do this; it will result in a huge boom to their economy.
So then, who says Liberia doesn’t deserve the jobs, the industries, the billions that lithium can bring? Why should we always give it away?
This system has never worked for us. Never. Now we have a chance to do something different. Will Liberia finally stand up for Liberians? Or will we once again let others steal our future? No, we can ill afford to close our ears to yet another clarion call, the time to change is now.
