Chairman 

Joseph Ben Kaifala, ESQ. is a Sierra Leonean writer and historian. He was appointed Chairman of the Monuments and Relics Commission in 2023. He founded the Jeneba Project and the Center for Memory and Reparations. He is a Ford Global Fellow and a recipient of the Projects for Peace Inaugural Alumni Award.

Joseph was born in Sierra Leone and spent his early childhood in Liberia and Guinea. He later moved to Norway where he studied for the International Baccalaureate (IB) at the Red Cross Nordic United World College before enrolling at Skidmore College in upstate New York. Joseph was an International Affairs & French Major, with a minor in Law & Society.  Senior Fellow; a Tom Lantos-HIA US Congressional Fellow; a Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Joseph is a Human Rights activist, a Rastafarian, and a votary of ahimsa. He speaks six languages. 

Joseph has served as a Davis United World College Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies; a Humanity In Action

He is recipient of the Skidmore College Palamountain Prose Award, Skidmore College Thoroughbred Award, Vermont Law School (SBA) Student Pro Bono Award, a 2013 American Society of International Law Helton fellow, and a member of “Who Is Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges” in recognition of

 Agricultural Development Initiative Intern, and an Intern at the Child and Adolescent Development Department of the World Health Organisation in Geneva.

He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University; a Diploma in Intercultural Encounters from the Helsinki Summer School; and a Certificate in Professional French administered by the French Chamber of Commerce.

Joseph was an Applied Human Rights fellow at Vermont Law School, where he completed his JD and Certificate in International & Comparative Law. 

 outstanding merit and accomplishments as a student at Vermont Law School. Joseph is a BBC World Service Outlook Inspirations Fifteen. As the programme described it, these are "people who show us a better side of being human.” He has received several other awards for his human rights work.

He has written many books, including Free Slaves, Freetown, and the Sierra Leonean Civil War (2017); Tutu’s Rainbow World: Selected Poems (2017); Adamalui: A Survivor’s Journey from Civil Wars in Africa to Life in America (2018); What I think: Maxims of an African Philosopher (2019); Brother of the Bride: Shopping for my Sister’s Wedding Dress (2022); A Civil War History of Sierra Leone (2023), etc.

Joseph served as Justice of the Arthur Chapter (Vermont Law School) of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International. He is a member of the Washington DC Bar.