By Geraldine Sibanda | 2024
Angie Brooks International Centre (ABIC)
Introduction
The Angie Brooks International Centre is named in honour of Liberian diplomat and jurist Angie Elizabeth Brooks. Angie Brooks was born on 4 August 1928 in Virginia, Montserrado County, Liberia.[1] She obtained her law degrees from the United States of America: a Bachelor of Arts from Shaw University (1949), a Bachelor of Law degree and a Master of Science degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin (1952), and a Doctor of Law degrees, from Shaw University and Howard University in 1962 and 1967 respectively. In 1964, she obtained her only Liberian higher education qualification, a Doctor of Civil Law degree from Liberia University.
In Liberia, Angie Brooks is remembered as an avid women’s rights activist who achieved many firsts. She was the first female Liberian lawyer appointed in 1953 by President William V.S. Tubman (1944-1971) as a counsellor at law in Liberia’s Supreme Court. She served as the country’s first female Assistant Attorney General from August 1953 to March 1958. Angie Brooks is also credited with establishing the Law Department at Liberia University, where she taught until 1958 before becoming Liberia’s first female Assistant Secretary of State. As a women’s rights activist, Brooks was the Vice President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers. She served as the Vice President of the organisation’s Africa chapter in 1959-60 and President from 1964-67. In 1977, she became the first female associate justice of the Liberian Supreme Court.
Notwithstanding her illustrious legal, political and academic career, this essay remembers Angie Brooks for her role at the United Nations (UN) and her contribution to international economic thinking. The contributions made by Angie Brooks and others like her, in what would ordinarily be viewed as the political arms of the UN, validates the assertion by Sabine Selchow and Glenda Sluga regarding the multilayered and complex nature of international economic thinking, which goes beyond the negotiations of understanding economic developments, instead, international economic thinking considers the “negotiation of imaginations of ‘the social’ versus ‘the economic’; imaginations of ‘the technical’ versus ‘the political’; [and] imaginations of ‘the public’ versus ‘the private’”.[2] Profiling the lives of UN diplomats alongside those of international civil servants[3], identified by Selchow and Sluga as “international economic thinkers”[4], demonstrates that international economic thinking was(is) not a linear process, neither was(is) the thinking uniform between diplomats and international civil servants, nor is it uniform amongst diplomats and international civil servants themselves, nor does uniformity of thinking exist within the UN system itself. Like International Organisations (IOs) which “are not ahistorical; they change and look different at different moments in time”, international economic thinking is not constant either; there are shifts in perspectives influenced by among other things, national and international issues.[5] What follows demonstrates that Angie Brooks and diplomats like her, representing Africa at the UN while most African countries were under colonial rule (1950s – 1980s), often displayed different thinking from many international civil servants deployed in Africa. Although the goal of economic development was shared, what differed was the reasons for "underdevelopment" in Africa and the avenue(s) to be pursued to achieve the desired economic development.
Angie Brooks’ Thinking at the United Nations
FIGURE ONE: SUMMARY OF BROOKS’ ASSIGNMENTS AT THE UN
Brooks’ career at the UN began in 1954 as a member of the Liberian delegation. Brooks stood out as one of the first women in her generation to permeate the then-male-dominated UN bodies, even more so in the case of African delegations. As a result, Angie Brooks was the only female African diplomat at the inaugural session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in 1959.[6] Brooks went on to play a leading role at the UN, where she championed the unconditional political and economic independence of African countries. Through her membership in important decolonisation committees at the UN, Brooks quickly became a key figure in Africa’s decolonisation from the late 1950s. Notably, Brooks was elected Chairperson of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)’s Fourth Committee on 20 September 1961, the first African and first woman to achieve this fit.[7] This appointment followed her service as the Vice Chairperson of the same Committee in 1956 and another assignment as Vice Chairperson of the 12th Session’s Committee on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories.[8] In 1966, UNGA unanimously elected Angie Brooks as the Vice-President of the 33rd Session of the Trusteeship Council while the United Kingdom’s Francis DW Brown was the President.[9] A year later, Brooks became the President of the Council’s 34th Session.[10] Her election to one of the most important UN Organs during the decolonisation period, the Trusteeship Council, told of her diplomatic prowess as she was entrusted with overseeing the Council, which assisted the Assembly in administering territories held “in trust” by the UN. The Trusteeship Council had political and governance mandates "to promote economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the Trust Territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence”. It was also the responsibility of the Trusteeship Council to “ensure equal treatment in social, economic and commercial matters for all Members of the United Nations and their nationals”.[11]
Using the UN as a platform, Brooks fiercely advocated for African political and economic independence. One of the notable UNGA draft resolutions Liberia co-sponsored in partnership with Nigeria was the "Assistance to Africa: A United Nations Programme for Independence", debated on 17 October 1961, a debate led by Brooks. The Draft Resolution lobbied for the immediate implementation of Resolution 1514 (XV) Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples also known as Declaration on Decolonisation, passed a year earlier yet to be implemented by 1961. The draft resolution called for, among other things, the end of colonial rule in Africa no later than 1 December 1970 and that “all nations and States refrain from acts or conduct that would interfere with the peaceful and independent progress of the new independent and would-be independent African territories, and thereby undertake to insulate Africa from the ideological, political and economic rivalries of great powers”.[12] However, the Resolution was not brought to a vote due to objections by the colonial territories bent on holding onto colonial rule.
At the top of her achievements as a female diplomat at the UN was Brooks’ election as President of UNGA’s 24thsession in 1969, a time of immense inequality between North and South.[13] Brooks was bent on ensuring that the UN became a platform for equality for all nations. Angie Brooks is one of four women to hold the post of President of UNGA. The other three are the President of the 73rd session, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés; the 61st session, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa; and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit made history by becoming the first female President at the eighth session in 1953 (See Figure Two).[14] Of the 79 UNGA Presidents to date, Brooks is one of the 13 African diplomats to have held this position (See Figure Two). To her credit, Brooks ran a vigorous campaign for the post as she needed the backing of 40 African countries to win. Brooks personally visited 23 of these countries and secured their votes. During her reign as President of the Assembly, she became a skilled and respectable diplomat who earned the respect and admiration of her peers. At the Commemorative Session of the 25th UN Anniversary Celebrations, President of the Central African Republic, Jean-Bedel Bokassa (1966-1979), commented that her election and reign “honoured the entire African continent…[and she] directed the work of the 24th session with immense talent”.[15]Chinese diplomat Yen Chia-kan commented that Brooks’ “masterly performance as President of the 24th session [had] has brought credit to her sex, to her country and to the continent of Africa”.[16]
FIGURE TWO: UNGA PRESIDENTS
During her UNGA Presidency, Brooks stirred debate that allowed for the passage of crucial Resolutions that sought to ensure political and economic independence in Africa.[17] Of note, Resolution 2548 (XXIV): Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of 11 December 1969. The Resolution built on and affirmed an earlier one; Resolution 2425 (XVIII) Activities of Foreign Economic and Other Interests which are Impeding the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in Southern Rhodesia, Namibia and Territories Under Portuguese Domination and in all Other Territories Under Colonial Domination and Efforts to Eliminate Colonialism, Apartheid and Discrimination in Southern Africa. In lobbying for the implementation of Resolution 1514, Resolution 2425 and 2548, for example, spoke vehemently against the North’s “continuation of colonialism and its manifestations, and activities of foreign economic and other interests which exploit colonial peoples”.[18] Arguing that they were safeguarding their economic interests at the expense of the colonised peoples in Africa. Resolutions such as these eventually resulted in, for example, the sanctioning of Southern Rhodesia and South Africa governments and ultimately contributed to the countries' liberation in 1980 and 1994, respectively.
Brooks’ quest for Africa's political and economic independence knew no region as she lobbied for the independence of West African countries as much as those in the South or any other region. Speaking at the First Meeting of the 2nd Committee of the UN-Organisation of African Unity (OAU) convening debating the independence of colonial Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), Brooks placed the continued atrocities of the armed liberation struggle squarely in the hands of Britain. She lobbied, among other things, that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) institute "within six months", a constitutional conference to terminate the reign of the Ian Smith regime, "leaving the way open to self-government and independence on a democratic basis for the entire population of Southern Rhodesia".[19] At the same meeting, Brooks called on members of the OAU to sever diplomatic and commercial ties with the UK should it fail to take decisive action in Southern Rhodesia.[20] She also lobbied the UN to recognise Southern Rhodesia’s government in exile and “give it the necessary support for future development towards national independence”. [21]
Brooks also spoke against the evils of the apartheid regime in South Africa and Namibia. Alongside other female African stalwarts who spoke against apartheid, like Jeanne Martin Cisse, Chairperson of the Special Committee against Apartheid (1972), Brooks saw the National Party’s atrocities against blacks as more horrific than those of Adolf Hitler.[22] Brooks saw the intricate link between continued colonisation and the economic interests of the global North and advocated for cutting economic ties between South Africa (SA) and the North.[23] She argued that “the racist and inhuman policies of SA are in fact encouraged by Western economic interests and those of other countries of the European Economic Community (EEC) who foster trade and preferential treatment for or with SA…the cessation of economic and military assistance or any other kind of aid that would tend to give support to the racist minority Government of SA”.[24]
Following the horrific massacres of the Soweto Uprisings in 1976, Brooks spoke on behalf of the Africa Group at an emergency UNSC meeting convened to discuss the massacres. She concluded her powerful and insightful speech detailing the atrocities of the apartheid regime by calling for UNSC intervention in SA. For Brooks, the apartheid regime was leading a country where “human rights are brutally violated and a heavily armed police force maliciously attacks[ed] defenceless high-school students, then it becomes very much the concern of the international community”, therefore, she compelled the UNSC to “take bold and positive action against the racist regime of South Africa, which for the past 30 years has flouted the resolutions of both the Council and the General Assembly”.[25]
Conclusion
Mrs. Famatta Rose Osode, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Liberia to the United Nations, pays tribute to Angie Elisabeth Brooks at UN Headquarters in New York.[26]
Upon Angie Brooks’ passing on 9 September 2007, fellow Liberian diplomat Mrs. Famatta Rose Osode, affirmed that Brooks “never lost faith in the usefulness and purposes of the United Nations”.[27] Although not an "expert" in the traditional sense of offering technical expertise in IOs, Brooks’ legal expertise often shined in the UN bodies/organs, which she led throughout her career at the UN, hence her undeniable influence in economic thinking on the continent. While many international economic thinkers shied away from linking colonialism and Africa's "underdevelopment", often under the guise of either neutrality as international civil servants or the imagined dichotomy between economics and politics, many diplomats, like Brooks, at various UN platforms were part of a school of thought that disclosed this intricate link and pushed for the end of colonial rule as the first step towards economic development. For Brooks and African diplomats like her, the UNGA of the 1960s-1980s was a “catalyst”[28] for international economic thinking, their ideas were instrumental in the long fight shaping decolonisation in various parts of the continent and the independence of many African countries.
[1] Brooks-Randolph, Angie Elizabeth (1928–2007), https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001/acref-9780195382075-e-0395, accessed, 13 August 2024. D. Elwood Dunn, “Angie Brooks: Pioneer Liberian Woman Diplomat Remembered”, The Perspective, 25 September 2007, https://www.liberiaitech.com/theperspective/2007/0924200701.html, accessed, 10 November 2024.
[2]Sabine Selchow and Glenda Sluga, "Development, International Organizations and International Economic Thinking: A Conceptual Contribution". In Nicholas Ferns and Angela Villani (eds), International Organizations and Global Development, (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2024), pp. 23-42. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111280356-002, p. 30.
[3] See, for example, Biscarello, Samuel (2024) 'International Economic Thinkers-Profile: Emmy Freundlich', ECOINT IET Profile #8, available at: https://www.ecoint.org/post/profile-of-emmy-freundlich-1878-1948. Gautier, Johanna (2023) 'International Economic Thinkers-Profile: Raul Prebisch, ECOINT IET Profile #5, available at: https://www.ecoint.org/post/profile-raul-prebisch-1901-1986.
[4]Sabine Selchow and Glenda Sluga, "Development, International Organizations and International Economic Thinking: A Conceptual Contribution", p. 29.
[5]Ibid, p.23.
[6] United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Knowledge Depository, Bib 31390, E/CN.14/18, Economic Commission for Africa Report of the First Session, 29 December 1958 – 6 January 1959, pp. 10-12.
[7] United Nations Digital Library (UNDL), BIO/105, United Nations (UN) Press Services Office of Public Information Press Release, 20 September 1961. The Fourth Committee was later restructured and renamed the UN Trusteeship Council as an organ of the UN. For more on the Trusteeship Council and Africa, see, among others, Meredith Terrett, “’We Had Been Fooled into Thinking that the UN Watches over the Entire World’: Human Rights, UN Trust Territories, and Africa's Decolonization”, Human Rights Quarterly 34 (2), 2012, pp. 329 – 360.
[8]Article 73e of the United Nations Charter created and provided the Terms of Reference for The Committee on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories. See, for example, UNDL, Yearbook of the United Nations 1951, pp. 10, 86.
[9] UNDL, SR.1271-EN, UN Trusteeship Council 33rd Session 1271st Meeting Official Records, 27 May 1966, New York, p. 2.
[10]UNDL, ST/LIB/SER.B/T.28, UN Index to the Proceedings of the Trusteeship Council 34th Session – 1967, New York, p. 1.
[11] UNDL, Yearbook of the United Nations 1961, p. 83.
[12] Ibid, p.51.
[13] UNDL, UNGA, Angie Elisabeth Brooks (Liberia) Elected President of the twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly, https://www.un.org/en/ga/president/bios/bio24.shtml, accessed 13 August 2024.
[14]UN, UNGA Past Presidents, https://www.un.org/pga/78/about/past-presidents/, accessed 19 November 2024.
[15] UNDL, UNGA, United Nations General Assembly 25th Session: Commemorative Session, 14-24 October 1970, p. 9.
[16] Ibid, p.12.
[17] For a full list of the Resolutions of the 24th Session, see UNDL, UN General Assembly Resolutions Tables: Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly at its 24th Session, https://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/24, accessed 19 August 2024.
[18] UNDL, A_RES_2548(XXIV), UNGA Resolution 2548 (XXIV): Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 11 December 1969, p. 5.
[19] Olav Stokke and Carl Widstrand (eds), Programme of Action and Proceedings of the Southern Africa UN-OAU Conference, Oslo, 9-14 April 1973, p. 135. For more on Southern Rhodesia's liberation struggle, see, among others, Timothy Scarnecchia, Race and Diplomacy in Zimbabwe: The Cold War and Decolonization,1960–1984, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021).
[20] Olav Stokke and Carl Widstrand (eds), Programme of Action and Proceedings of the Southern Africa UN-OAU Conference, p. 135.
[21] Ibid
[22]Like Brooks, Jeanne Martin Cisse was the first Guinean woman to be appointed a permanent representative to the United Nations in 1972. She was also the first woman to chair the UNSC and Special Committee against Apartheid. See, for example, https://www.thescandoreview.com/p/jeanne-martin-cisse-guinean-diplomat, accessed 19 November 2024.
[23]Scholars have gone on to validate Brooks’ arguments. See, for example, Patrick Bond, Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation, (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu Natal Press, 2006).
[24]Olav Stokke and Carl Widstrand (eds), Programme of Action and Proceedings of the Southern Africa UN-OAU Conference, pp. 153-154. For more on various UN debates and processes against apartheid SA, including the work of the Special Committee against Apartheid/Committee of 24, see, for example, Anna Konieczna and Rob Skinner (eds), A Global History of Anti-Apartheid: ‘Forward to Freedom’ in South Africa, (Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
[25] UNDL, S/PV.1929, UNSC, United Nations Security Council Official Records 1929th Meeting, New York, 18 June 1976, pp. 2-3. For more on the Soweto Uprisings, see, for example, Archie Mafeje, “Soweto and Its Aftermath”, Review of African Political Economy 11(1), 1978, pp. 17 – 30.
[26]UN, “Liberia's Representative Pays Tribute to Former GA Presidents”,https://dam.media.un.org/archive/-2AM9LO0KIW81.html, accessed 19 November 2024.
[27] UNDL, A/61/PV.107, UNGA 61ST Session 107th Plenary Meeting, New York, 13 September 2007, p. 4.
[28] Selchow and Sluga view IOs as “catalysts for international economic thinking”, which "trigger the production of international economic thinking by being spaces, in which international economic thinkers produce knowledge". Selchow and Sluga, "Development, International Organizations and International Economic Thinking: A Conceptual Contribution", pp. 24, 31, 38.
Reference anything from this site as:
Sibanda, Geraldine (2024) 'International Economic Thinkers-Profile: Angie Elizabeth Brooks Randolph', ECOINT IET Profile #9, available at: https://www.ecoint.org/post/profile-of-angie-elizabeth-brooks-randolph