Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey delivered Liberia's 177th Independence Day National Oration and received the Order of the Star of Africa, one of the country's highest national honours.
The speech, entitled 'A Radical Agenda for Re-imagining Liberia', stirred a much-needed conversation amongst Liberians at home and abroad about their past, present, and future.
Robtel Neajai Pailey is Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy. She is author of the award-winning monograph Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia and a member of the advisory board of the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa.
All photo credits: The Government of Liberia.
Photo 1: Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey poses for a candid photo immediately before her oration.
Photo 2: Liberian President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr, and Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti prepare to gown Dr Pailey with the Order of the Star of Africa, one of Liberia's highest national honours.
Photo 3: President Boakai hands Dr Pailey the Order of the Star of Africa citation and scroll before shaking her hand.