Liberia : Introduction to basic facts, overview and history.

• Basic Facts
• Overview
• Overview
• History

Basic Facts

Official name: Republic of Liberia

Area: 43,000 miles², 111,370 km²

Type of government: Republic

Head of State: President

Population: 3,317,176 (July 2003)

Population growth rate: 2.4%

Capital and largest city: Monrovia (Population: 1,000,000, 2003)

Languages: English (Official), Gola, Kpelle, and Kru

Religious beliefs: Indigenous beliefs 40%, Christianity 40%, Islam 20%.

Ethnic groups: Kpelle, Bassa, Gio, Kru, Grebo, Mano, Krahn, Gola, Gbandi, Lorma, Kissi, Vai, Dei, Belle,  Mandingo, and Mende, Americo-Liberians (2.5%, descendants of former slaves from United States of America), Congo (2.5%, descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean who had  been slaves, and slaves re-captured en route from the Congo).

Independence: July 26, 1847

Literacy: 30%

Currency: Liberian Dollar

Administrative divisions: 15 counties: Bomi, Bong, Gparbolu, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, Lofa, Margibi, Maryland, Montserrado, Nimba, River Cess, River Gee, and Sinoe.

Legal system: Dual system of statutory law based on Anglo-American common law for the modern sector, and customary law based on unwritten tribal practices for the indigenous sector.

Land boundaries: Total: 1,585 km. Bordering countries: Guinea 563 km, Cote d'Ivoire 716 km, Sierra Leone 306 km.

Climate: Tropical; hot, humid; dry winters with hot days and cool to cold nights; wet, cloudy summers with frequent heavy showers.

Geography: Facing the Atlantic Ocean, the coastline is characterised by lagoons, mangrove swamps, and river-deposited sandbars. The inland grassy plateau supports limited agriculture.

Overview

Overview

Liberia is an independent republic, which lies on the bulge of Africa between Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire, forming part of the West African Region. The capital city and major port is Monrovia. Other major towns are Ganta, Harbel, Gbarnga, Sanniquelle, Voinjama, Tubmanburg, Robertsport, Zwedru and the ports of Greenville and Buchanan.

The official language of Liberia is English; but several local languages are more widely spoken. Owing to the continuing state of political instability in the country, it is difficult to get reliable economic indicators for the country. The local currency is the Liberian dollar (L$) which is officially at par with the US dollar. US dollar notes and coins are legal tender in Liberia.

The international time zone for Liberia is GMT and the international dialling code is + 231.

The airlines that fly to Liberia are SN Brussels, Ghana Airways, Belleview Airlines. Two local airlines WEASUA Air Transport and SATGUR Airline have regular flights to Abidjan and Freetown.

Cholera, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and malaria may be contracted while travelling in Liberia. Travellers should be aware that advance payment for medical services may be required. Prescription medicines should be carried in their original containers together with the prescription. Vaccinations should be obtained before entering Liberia.

History

Liberia’s tribal groups migrated to the area between the 12^th and the 16^th centuries. A large number of people arrived as refugees from the destruction of the Songhai Empire in the 15^th century.

Europeans began establishing trading posts in Liberia in the 15^th century. Portuguese explorers established contacts with the land later known as "Liberia" as early as 1461 and named the area the Grain Coast because of the abundance of grains and malegueta pepper. In 1663, the British installed trading posts on the Grain Coast, but the Dutch destroyed these posts a year later. No further known European settlements occurred along the Grain Coast until the arrival of freed American blacks in 1820.

The idea of resettling freed slaves in Africa was nurtured by the American Colonisation Society (ACS), an organisation that governed the Commonwealth of Liberia until independence. Thousands of freed blacks from America arrived, leading to the formation of  what was to soon be known as Liberia.

Liberia was founded in 1821, when officials of the American Colonisation Society were granted possession of Cape Mesurado by local Dei chiefs for the settlement of freed American slaves. African-American immigrants were landed in 1822, the first of some 15, 000 to settle in Liberia. The survival of the colony during its early years was due primarily to the work of Jehudi Ashmun, one of the society's agents. In 1847, primarily due to British pressures, the colony was declared an independent republic. The Americo-Liberian minority controlled the country's politics, and new immigration virtually came to an end with the American Civil War. Liberia was involved in efforts to end the West African slave trade. Attempts to modernise the economy led to a rising foreign debt in 1871, which the republic had serious difficulty repaying. The debt problem and constitutional issues led to the overthrow of the government in 1871. Conflicts over territorial claims resulted in the loss of large areas of land to Britain and France in 1885, 1892, and 1919. However, rivalries between the Europeans colonising West Africa and the interest of the United States helped preserve Liberian independence during this period. Nevertheless, the decline of Liberia's exports and its inability to pay its debts resulted in a large measure of foreign interference.

The formation of the Republic of Liberia did not occur without difficulty. Almost from the beginning, the settlers periodically encountered stiff opposition from local tribesmen, usually resulting in bloody battles. On the other hand, colonial expansionists encroached on the newly-independent Liberia and took over much of the original territory of independent Liberia by force. Most world powers quickly recognized the new nation’s independence, but the United States withheld recognition until 1862.

In the early 1900s, Liberia was faced with the financial crisis when the world market price for its coffee dropped. Liberia sought the aid of foreign countries. In 1926, the Firestone Rubber Company leased a large land area from Liberia, providing an important source of revenue. In the 1930s, a League of Nations study of Labor conditions uncovered widespread forced labor. This resulted in the resignation of Liberia’s President Charles D. B. King and his Vice President Allen Yancy.

In 1909, the government was bankrupt, and a series of international loans were floated. In 1930, scandals broke out over the exportation of forced labour from Liberia, and a League of Nations investigation upheld the charges that slave trading had gone on with the connivance of the government. President C. B. D. King and his associates resigned, and international control of the republic was proposed. Under the leadership of Presidents Edwin Barclay (1930–44) and William V. S. Tubman (1944–71), Liberia avoided such control.

Under Tubman, new policies to open the country to international investment and to allow the indigenous peoples a greater say in Liberian affairs were undertaken.

During World War II, U.S soldiers built the first roads into the interior, and in 1948 a modern port was built with U.S money and opened at Monrovia. The country's mineral wealth, particularly iron ore, began to be exploited. There was a gradual improvement of roads, schools, and health standards. Upon Tubman's death in 1971, Vice President W. R. Tolbert took charge of the country. In 1972, he was elected to the presidency. Although Tolbert cultivated a democratic climate and favourable relations abroad, an organised opposition emerged early in his regime, some of it from Liberian students living in the United States, and ultimately in 1979, a government proposal to increase the price of rice produced widespread violence.

Regional disputes; continued government corruption; and, widespread human rights abuses erupted into civil war in 1989.  The Libyan-backed followers of Charles Taylor, the leader of the National Patriotic Front, invaded Liberia from Cote d’Ivoire. Doe was killed in 1990 by rebel forces. Before the first cease-fire was declared in 1990, over 20,000 Liberians had been killed and 500,000 had been uprooted. Fighting continued, with periodic cease-fires, until July, 1996, when the warring faction, including a third armed group, some of whose members were associated with the army of former President Doe, signed an ECOWAS sponsored peace accord.

Multiparty presidential and legislative elections held in July, 1997, brought Charles Taylor to power. In the late 1990s, Liberia was accused of supplying troops to support rebel forces in Sierra Leone's civil war. Taylor, a long-time ally of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, supplied the rebels with arms in exchange for diamonds. In 2000, the United Nations placed an 18-month ban on the international sale of the diamonds in an attempt to undermine the RUF, and in May of the following year it also imposed sanctions on Liberia. In 1999, fighting erupted in Northern Liberia between anti-Taylor rebels and government forces. The fighting intensified in 2002. In 2002, the UN imposed sanctions on Liberian diamonds, and maintained an arms embargo along with a travel ban on government officials for Liberia's support of the rebel insurgency in Sierra Leone. Renewed rebel activity further eroded stability and economic activity. A regional peace initiative commenced in the spring of 2003 but was disrupted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) indictment of President Taylor on war crimes charges. Charles Taylor resigned on August 11, 2003, after he was pressurised by the two warring factions - Liberians United for Reconciliation of Democracy (LURD) and Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL).

A peace agreement which ended the fighting in Liberia was signed in Acrra on August 18, 2003. Signatories to this agreement were LURD, MODEL and remnants of Charles Taylor’s government.   That agreement brought in a Transitional Government headed by Charles Gyude Bryant for a two-year period. The transitional government’s main task is to disarm thousands of combatants, who, for the last 13 years, have roamed Liberia killing, raping, looting and maiming the population.  Under the auspices of the United Nations, Liberia now has the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world. Numbering 15,000 along with more than a thousand civilian administrators and technicians, the UN force is expected to assist Liberia in its reconstruction efforts.