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Liberian History

Excerpts from ~ globalsecurity.org, africawithin.com, bbc.com, PBS, CBS, and other sources cited in text.

After the struggle for liberty in the American Revolution, free and enslaved African Americans faced continued hardship and inequality. A number of white Americans, for a variety of reasons, joined them in their efforts to resolve this complex problem. One possible solution (advocated at a time when the assimilation of free blacks into American society seemed out of the question) was the complete separation of white and black Americans. Some slave owners offered to emancipate their slaves provided that they relocate to Liberia.

Some voices called for the return of all African Americans to the land of their fore bearers. Liberia, thus, became the convenient home of many African Americans. Some African American advocates voiced concern and objections to Liberia.

Liberia remains the only African country that has had a female Head of State (Ruth Perry), a democratically elected female president (Ellen Sirleaf) and 12 of Liberia's Presidents were born in the USA.

Liberia's uniqueness is reflected in Liberian culture and cuisine.

The assimilation of two cultures - the one brought by the settlers from the United States and that of the indigenous people they met on the soil - has often left many pondering the true and actual culture of the Liberian people. The two groups have, however, been able to portray the joint cultures, albeit difficult for others to adopt.

Traditional practices, like the Masonic Craft of the settlers or the Poro/Sande societies of the natives, remain yet somewhat exclusive to their kind alone.The Vai and Bassa tribes had developed their own alphabets and written languages before the arrival of the first settlers from the United States; however development of these written systems are only recently re-emerging.

Liberia was traditionally noted for its hospitality and academic institutions, iron mining and rubber industry booms, cultural skills and arts and craft works. But political upheavals beginning in the 1980s and the brutal civil war brought about a steep decline in the living standards of the country, including its education and infrastructure.

Liberia from 1200-1600

shells The inland rain forests of present day Liberia had been very sparsely populated until the first waves of peoples seeking refuge from the upheavals that affected the great Sudanic kingdoms on the upper Niger River began moving into the region, mainly from the north and east, between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. Although these kingdoms: Songhay, Ghana, and Mali extended their control into neighboring territories, none encompassed any part of present day Liberia. The arrival of new groups and their dispersal throughout the region continued into the early nineteenth century, when the first American settlers landed on the coast. In the competition for living space, the strong grew stronger and occupied the choice areas; the weak were either absorbed or driven into the deeper recesses of the rain forest.

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Liberia in the 1800s

1815- African-American Quaker and maritime entrepreneur Paul Cuffee (or Cuffe) financed and captained a successful voyage to Sierra Leone where he helped a small group of African-American immigrants establish themselves. Cuffee believed that African Americans could more easily "rise to be a people" in Africa than in America with its system of slavery and its legislated limits on black freedom. Cuffee also envisioned a black trade network organized by Westernized blacks who would return to Africa to develop its resources while educating its people in the skills they had gained during captivity. Cuffee died in 1817 without fully realizing his dream

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Transatlantic trade and the coastal area of pre-Liberia

cas9ij0x Transatlantic trade affected the coastal area of West Africa that became Liberia in 1822. The impact of that trade has confused historians of the region, particularly the social and economic effects the trade had on the Vai, Kru, Glebo, and other ethnic groups. Before the arrival of Europeans in the fifteenth century, coastal pre-Liberia had been affected by internal and external social dynamics. The Mande, Mel, and Kwa were the first linguistic groups to reside in the region. The earliest home of the Mande has been traced to the area north of the Niger River, but there is disagreement as to the origins of the Mel and Kwa. All three linguistic groups contributed to population growth. Indeed, such Mel-speaking ethnic groups as the Kissi and Gola, and such Kwa-speakers as the Dei, Bassa, Kran, Kru, and Glebo came to pre-Liberia in about 988 A.D. The Mande-speaking groups, including the Mende, Bandi, Loma, and Vai, settled long after the other two linguistic groups had moved there. The Vai, isolated from other Mande-speakers for over two thousand years, reached the coastal area. in the sixteenth century.(1)