KIGALI, RWANDA — Liberia has concluded the Rwanda phase of a high-level study mission designed to gather practical lessons for the establishment of the proposed Liberia Peace, Reconciliation and Memorial Museum.
The initiative is intended to preserve Liberia’s history, promote national healing and ensure that lessons from the country’s civil conflict are passed on to future generations.
The delegation, headed by Minister of State without Portfolio, Hon. Hadja Mamaka Bility, engaged with Rwandan institutions involved in reconciliation, historical preservation, archives, education and post-conflict recovery.
Supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the mission forms part of efforts to translate President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s vision for reconciliation and historical preservation into a lasting national institution.
Minister Bility said Liberia’s objective is to move reconciliation beyond speeches and discussions by establishing institutions capable of preserving the country’s experiences and helping future generations understand its past.
“This study tour is part of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s vision for national reconciliation, with the support of UNDP. We want to move Liberia beyond simply talking about reconciliation to building strong institutions that can preserve our experiences, tell our story, and pass the lessons of our past on to future generations,” Minister Bility said.
The initiative comes amid President Boakai’s broader reconciliation efforts, including his July 2025 public apology on behalf of the Liberian State to victims and families affected by the country’s civil conflict.
During the Rwanda phase, the Liberian delegation studied the country’s approaches to unity, reconciliation, citizenship education, community resilience and the preservation of historical memory.
The team visited and examined the Gacaca archives and their digitization, Rwanda’s National Archives, the Campaign Against Genocide Museum, the University of Rwanda’s Centre for Conflict Management, the Rwanda Peace Academy and the Mutobo Demobilisation and Reintegration Centre.
The engagements provided lessons on how Liberia could collect, authenticate, digitize and preserve photographs, films, documents, testimonies and other historical materials currently scattered across government institutions, private collections and archives within and outside the country.
The mission also underscored the need for a credible memorial institution to go beyond the construction of a museum building, with education, research, documentation, reconciliation and community engagement forming key components of its mandate.
UNDP Liberia Resident Representative, Amb. Aliou Mamadou Dia, said the initiative forms part of a broader effort to strengthen peacebuilding, reconciliation and national unity.
“UNDP is working with the Government of Liberia to support the establishment of a Peace and Reconciliation Museum as part of the President’s broader reconciliation agenda.
“This study mission gives us an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other countries, document lessons that can be adapted to Liberia, and engage partners who can support the Government in moving this vision forward,” Amb. Dia said.
Amb. Dia stressed that lasting peace requires Liberia to confront difficult issues from its past, pursue genuine reconciliation and strengthen accountability, while building an institution that preserves history, promotes healing and educates future generations.
As the Rwanda phase concluded, the leadership of Rwanda Cooperation emphasized experience-sharing and the prospects for continued technical partnership with Liberia.
The discussions identified potential areas of cooperation, including museum development and management, training for Liberian heritage professionals, preservation and digitization of historical records and testimonies, peace education and technical exchanges, including potential collaboration with Aegis Trust Rwanda.
The Liberian delegation will now proceed to South Africa to continue studying African experiences in national healing, peacebuilding, reconciliation and memorialization.
A central lesson emerging from the Rwanda experience is that Liberia cannot simply replicate another country’s model. Instead, it must develop an institution rooted in its own history and informed by the voices, photographs, documents and experiences of Liberians.
Such an institution, the mission emphasized, would help acknowledge the country’s past, educate new generations and contribute to preventing Liberia from returning to conflict.
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