LIBERIA : THE FIRST AFRICAN REPUBLIC ©

By: Saffa J. Kemokai

PREVIEW

Liberia is divided into perhaps three separate social factions; the primary one being the indigenous ethnic people mainly residing in the rural areas and forming 80% of the population. The second most vibrant faction consists of the settler group commonly referred to as the Americo-Liberians. This group comprises of the so-called freed slaves repatriated back to Africa at the end of the slave-trade according to western propaganda. This group forms about 2% of the entire population and its members are the major urban dwellers. The third and the final social faction consists of other African nationals who travel to Monrovia in search of employments and individual socioeconomic development. This intermediate group are largely urban dwellers as well. These three groups together form the setting-stage of further break down between the people of Liberia as is the case in the dependent economies, the haves and have-nots.

Since the settlement was declared a Democratic Republic by the settlers in 1847 and up to April 1980, both the political and economic powers remained in the hands of the settlers. The administration of the political system and national wealth in the country, created and reaffirmed a strong social bifurcation through extreme exclusionary measures. Until the 1980 military intervention, the social bifurcation was contained by the dominant ruling True Whig Party and the social under current organized by the rural masses largely remained latent.

On the monetary front, the national currency is in parity with the US Dollar. The only locally mint money are the Liberian coins using dollar denomination as its base. Several developmental policies have been proposed and pursued in the past including the Tubman's Open Door and Unification Policies. The Tolbert administration in conjunction with existing development policies, operated on what was known as Humanistic Capitalism (total involvement of the masses). Each of these policies one way or another sought to promote national as well as individual social advancement. From 1847 to 1975 however, no visible national policy was developed to address or to promote the political awareness among the masses.

During the later parts of Tolbert's ruling, there appeared movement to accommodate political awareness in Liberia. And although Liberia was never a colonial colony as in the case of other neighboring African states, Tolbert never had the chance to see the people of Liberia participating in a true democratic process. Thus political and economic development of Liberia quickly took the footsteps of other African states that have gained independence from colonial regimes. There is a commonality between Liberia and other African states that have gained independence but fell short of development., and that is, democracy was never practiced in any colonial African countries. They were all totalitarian regimes and so also was Liberia to a lesser degree. As a result, the road to democratic process has become quite muddy in all of them and; once Tolbert attempted to introduce peoples involvement into politics, the urgency for quick achievement quickly outweighed rational calculations. Liberia then lost the battle between rational calculations and irrational calculations brutally.

Between 1980 and 1990, Liberia enjoined other military regimes. Led by the Armed Forces of Liberia " Peoples Redemption Council of Liberia" in its position statement in 1980 proclaimed to wipe out corruption in the civil service. Prior to the military intervention, the Tolbert administration was quietly but largely viewed as corrupt within the country. The military rulers under Sgt. Doe with the determination to move the country to a better society and to install social justice appeared quite inept to do so and generally considered inefficient, nepotist and arrogant. This military regime may have set the clock back on Liberia more than imagination can tolerate. In December of 1990, approximately 10 ten years after taking over power, the South Beach massacre was reiterated in a larger form and Doe himself was killed in the process.

Darker days have fallen on Liberia. Charles Taylor's rebel group and a run-a-away group led by Prince Johnson caught the world attention as each tried to capture the nation of Liberia. Monrovia was then evacuated and thousands of people became homeless in neighboring countries. The Liberian history had undergone a radical transformation. The mere callousness of the groups involved in the struggle - the defunct Liberian army, and those of the rebel groups led by Charles Taylor and Prince Johnson respectively, remains to be a puzzle.

.LOOKING BACK ON LIBERIA

What became known as 'Liberia' by the international communities dates back to 1820 when proposals were made by the British Philanthropic Society to return people taken as slaves from the African soil back to Africa. These proposals were quickly echoed by others referred as the 'Abolitionist', and the 'American Colonization Society'. After several aborted attempts to land the so-called freed slaves at the Sherbro Island in Sierra Leone, agreement was finally reached between the local chiefs and the slave settlers at the mount of Ducor river where the capital - Monrovia, is now situated and in January 1822, the new settlers landed at the estuary of what is now Mesurado river.

I. Physical Structure Liberia has a land area of 43,700 square miles (112,820 sq. km). It is located on the west coast of Africa directly facing the Atlantic ocean on the south. It contains 350 miles of coastline extending from Sierra Leone on the north-west to Ivory Coast on the east. It is bounded on the north by La Guinee. Liberia has a population of about 2 million (2.5 million?) with a density averaging 39 per square mile. The population is unevenly distributed. For instance, large sections of the high forests in the south-western regions and the Loffa county in the west are practically uninhabited. Large density exceeding 170 per square mile occurs in Monrovia and the surrounding areas. Also, greater than average density (as high as 50 per square mile) exists in broad band extending from the Monserado county north-east to the Guinea border and along the north and east of Loffa county.

The climate is tropical with average temperatures ranging between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Only two seasons occur. Namely, the Rainy season (May through October), and the Dry season (November through April). Heavy rain is experienced between June and September. The country has approximately 13,800,000 acres of forest land almost all of which is suitable for farming of various sorts.

Principal natural resources of exportable production include iron ore, bauxite, crude rubber, timber, fish, coffee, palm kernel, and palm oil. Other locally consumed products include rice, citrus fruits, bananas, cassava, beans, sweet potatoes, and a variety of vegetables.

There are sixteen ethnic groups with a little over twenty dialects (languages) all of which are part of the Niger-Congo language group including Mande, West Atlantic, and the Kru branch of Kwa subgroup. The settler-group forming about 2% of the population is not represented in the sixteen ethnic groups.

II. The first Independent Republic. According the new settlers with government, the American Colonization Society quickly drafted an Eight-point constitution closely patterned after that of the United States of America. The right to administer the settlement was reserved for the same colonization society. By June 1847, the settlement was declared independent Republic by the settlers themselves thus making Liberia the first Independent Republic in the continent of Africa. A close link between Liberia and the United States of America was developed and maintained up till the Samue Doe Military coup d'etat. Relationship between Liberia and the United States had began to deteriorate during William Tolbert's administration over what most people in the public policy arena see as differing perspectives on foreign diplomacy. Over the United States objection of the former Soviet Union and The Peoples Republic of Libya, Tolbert admitted diplomat missions from these two into Liberia for the first time in Liberia's histroy. Doe's coup has been reported among diplomat mssioms in Liberia at the time as, a pay-back.

As the first independent republic in Africa, there were probable expectation from the leaders of independent movement in colonial Africa for Liberia to play a vital role. As the oldest independent republic, these expectations could have been capitalized upon by Liberia to exalt itself as a leader in African Affairs. After all, Liberia was quite comfortable in dealing with Europe and western countries with whom it had conducted direct business starting with the transformation of League of Nations to United Nations. However, Liberia remained largely uncommitted to the calls of these movements particularly in the mid 1950s at which time most African countries were vigorously involved in struggles for independence. The neutral posture embarked upon by Liberia at this time became a point of discontent among the newly emerged leaders of independent African states. Until he became ousted in 1966, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was the leading critique of the Liberian politics.

On the eve of the Saniqueille Convention in 1961, president Tubman attempted to defend and to clarify the position of the government of Liberia. The Saniqueille Convention it must be remembered, established the ground rules that were to govern the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). In his well focused statement opening speech, president Tubman contended that as a result of the dependency nature of the Liberian economy on Europe and other western countries, it would result into real economic hard-ships for the people of Liberia if Liberia played a focal role in the African independent movements. President Tubman's speech and the extent to which it appeased his listeners quickly became a premise on which other critiques were built.

By the time Kwame Nkrumah took the microphone, most leaders in the meeting were not able to hide their feelings any more but to conclude that economic strangulation in their thinking is a weak reason and that they were in no better economic position since their economies were equally dependent upon Europe and other western countries. Thus the theory developed that Liberia was not only concerned with its relationship with industrialized nations to safe-guard its internal economy but rather, it was concerned with the future of its political structure which was likely to be altered should its neighbours become popularly elected governments. This fear was rooted in the belief that in Black Africa, only Liberia maintains a political system that accounts for less than three percent of the population.

III. Policy-Making Legend From 1847 when the settlement was declared a democratic republic to the time of the first successful military coup in 1980, the True Whig Party (TWP) remained to be the only surviving political party in the country. Although the True Whig Party provided the ground rules for policy making procedures, it was widely held that its leadership essentially discouraged extending party membership beyond the elite settlement group. Efforts by the natives to form opposition in the political arena so as to participate in national policy making apparatus were met with strong disapproval from the True Whig Party elite.

Although monumental changes occurred at some points to allow certain natives (mostly sectional chiefs who lacked formal trainings) into the True Whig Party, one of the gravest problems of the TWP over some 140 years was that it failed to sponsor local chapters in rural Liberia. As a result, there was never a popular election by which members of the House of Representatives and the Senate could be voted for by the people. Instead, members of these two law-making institutions (the house and the senate) were usually recommended to the president by the party elite. This then, among that tranquility and calm or stability for which Liberia's one party system was well known for, largely led to the mismanagement of the country as noted by observers (Clower ed., 1966 chp.3).

From 1944 on, number of national policies evolved to address economic development on one hand to attempt to consolidate the divisions within Liberia's artificially bifurcated society. None is known so notable for these changes as the late president William V.S.Tubman.

(To be continued)