Liberia: We Must Give Boakai the Credit

President Boakai’s decision to personally preside over both Senator Prince Johnson’s funeral in Ganta and, months later, the reburial rites for President Samuel Kanyon Doe and First Lady Nancy Doe in Zwedru carries enormous symbolic weight.

By honoring Prince Johnson–a former warlord whose actions exacerbated Liberia’s civil conflict–Boakai underscored a narrative of transformation: that even those who once fueled violence can seek redemption, support transitional justice (Johnson had backed…