Alfred Brownell is an honorary and distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Northeastern University, studying law. He was first forcefully driven out of Liberia when he was fighting to protect the forestland. The issue was the Liberian government and palm oil companies planning on deforesting the lands for their establishment, which led to Brownell working hard to protect critical land rights globally. “They made a big mistake when they drove me out of Liberia,” said Brownell. “They thought it would be business as usual, that I would be finished, but what they did was empower someone in the United States.”
What Professor Brownell has been working on is to create a land security index that puts out a list of governments’ efforts of land protection. He has received an award for his exceptional work. He knows it’s a huge honour, as he is the first one to hold the Beau Biden Chair of the Institute of International Education Scholar Rescue Fund. “Alfred Brownell honours Beau’s legacy through his scholarship and activism in the fields of human rights, environmental law, and indigenous land rights—courageous work that put Alfred’s life, family, colleagues, and career in danger in Liberia,” said Mark Angelson, who is the chairperson of the Scholar Rescue Fund.
Brownell has decidedly given all his life to support land protection rights. He has also helped to create a proper framework environmental policy that would specifically help conserve and protect what he says as ‘the lungs of West and North Africa’. “You cannot address these larger issues without addressing land rights,” he said.
Brownell was seen then facing down his country’s government, which led Brownell being attacked in 2014. A statewide hunt was instated for him, thus forcing him to leave the place with his family with the help of an intricate and global network of lawyers and human rights advocates. Since then, he has been a part of the Northeastern as a professor. All this while, he has been protesting by helping his colleagues in Liberia and it seems that he will not rest till enough land protection is in place.
“This work is for all of humanity,” he said. “Who else is going to pick up the struggle? We don’t have a choice.”
Pranjali Wakde
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