WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reverend Emmet Dunn, Chairman of the Liberia Diaspora Conference Committee and Liberia’s 178th Independence Day Orator, has called on Liberians everywhere to harness their shared history and collective energy to build a more united and forward-looking nation.
Speaking at the close of the two-day Liberia Diaspora Conference, Rev. Dunn thanked participants from across the world — including attendees from Australia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, 47 U.S. states, and Liberia itself — describing them as “the stars” of the gathering.
“This has been a labor of love,” Dunn told the audience, acknowledging the sacrifices of organizers and volunteers whose names may never be known. “There is a certain synergy that we experienced in this room over these days that speaks to unity, to purpose, to moving forward.”
Rev. Dunn, who delivered Liberia’s 178th Independence Day Oration on July 26, 2025, wove into his remarks echoes of that earlier address, where he had urged Liberians to reflect on the sacrifices of their forebears and to work tirelessly for a nation free of division.
Drawing on that same spirit, he said at the conference: “From the top of Mount Wologisi to Mount Nimba, from the depths of Soniwein to the shanty towns of West Point, we must first step right and say, the Lone Star today and in the years to come. Those who died senselessly must realize and say to us, we did not die in vain. And those yet unborn who will walk the streets of Monrovia, of Buchanan, or in the little town of Fortsville, may they say that those who went before us set in motion a land where there will be no more segregation, no more division — for indeed, united we stand.”
The recent past Independence Day Orator stressed that the gathering was not just about dialogue but about setting a standard for collective responsibility and national renewal. “Let us say that together we came under the leadership of His Excellency, moving this country forward with politics set aside. Because indeed, with God above, our rights to prove, we will over all prevail,” Dunn declared.
He expressed gratitude to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and First Lady Kartumu Boakai for their support of the conference, as well as to Erasmus Williams, Head of the Office of Diaspora Affairs, for entrusting him and his committee with the responsibility to organize the event.
Rev. Dunn closed his remarks with a rallying call to Liberians at home and abroad: “Together we will push boundaries, together we will move our nation forward. Let this be the guiding principle we leave this place with.”
