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History's ironic role in Liberia's journey to peace

By Cameron Duodu
THE OBSERVER, LONDON
Tuesday, Sep 09, 2003, Page 9

`Using a combination of bribery of local chiefs and US naval firepower, the newcomers were able to colonize the coast and occupy the best land.'

Liberia holds several "records" in African politics. It is the only African country ever to have been colonized by a group based in the US -- the American Colonization Society.

Liberia was also the first to gain its independence from such foreign rule. And it has just added two more "records" to its collection: the first African country to have its sitting president (Charles Taylor) indicted for war crimes and the first to ease its president out of power through negotiation.

Some of the reasons for Liberia being unique lie in its genesis. In early nineteenth century America, black people emancipated by the efforts of abolitionist groups posed a problem for southern slaveholders long before then-president Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in 1865 during the US Civil War.

Plantation owners feared they would would inspire slave revolts and wanted them expelled. Even some of the abolitionists feared social disruption could follow allowing black people full equality with whites.

In 1816, people from these diverse political and social backgrounds converged in a curious alliance to form the American Colonization Society with the aim of "repatriating" to Africa both free-born black people and freed slaves. In 1821, the society purchased a part of the British colony of Sierre Leone in West Africa and founded a city named Monrovia, after US president James Monroe.

After initial setbacks, black families were being settled there regularly from 1822 onwards and a total of about 20,000 were resettled. With their alien language and religion they were distrusted and resented by the majority native population. But using a combination of bribery of local chiefs and US naval firepower, the newcomers were able to colonize the coast and occupy the best land.

In 1841, the US government approved a Constitution for the African territory, written by Harvard academics who called it Liberia and in 1847, a Liberian Congress, representing only the US repatriates, declared Liberia an independent republic.

From then on, the American expatriates embarked upon one of the most ironical political ventures in history: the freed slaves enslaved the indigenous population of Liberia in everything but name.

In 1930, a League of Nations investigation discovered that the Liberian government was actually exporting indigenous Liberians to the neighboring Spanish colony of Fernando Po, to be used as slaves by European planters. The Liberian president and his vice-president had to resign.

The country's principal export, rubber, was controlled by the US firms Firestone and Goodrich under 99-year concessions granted in 1926. The discovery of extensive mineral deposits and the use of the Liberian flag by international shipping brought some prosperity to one of the world's poorest countries in the 1960s and 1970s, but it was mainly to the benefit of the American-Liberian sector of the population.

The hegemony of the Afro-Americans and their descendants, representing less than 2.5 percent of the 3.3 million population, endured for more than 100 years before an indigenous master-sergeant in the Liberian army, Samuel Doe, ended it in April 1980 with a coup against then-president William Tolbert following food price riots.

But Doe soon alienated his allies by concentrating power in the hands of his own ethnic group, the Krahn and by 1985 armed insurrection had broken out against him. Doe was murdered in 1990 and instability, economic collapse and civil war continued.

Charles Taylor, one of 15 children of an American-Liberian father and a native Liberian mother who studied for an economics degree in the US where he became involved in radical Liberian and Pan-African politics, emerged as the most powerful warlord after Doe's murder and in 1997, he was elected president after a peace agreement was signed by warring groups. But not only did Taylor, a former Baptist preacher, fail to unite Liberians in support of his government but also, he began to export armed insurrections to neighboring countries, including Sierra Leone -- where Taylor was in alliance with the limb-amputating Revolutionary United Front (RUF) -- Guinea and the Ivory Coast.

These countries, in their turn, supported armed factions that sought to overthrow Taylor. In the end, Taylor hoist by his own petard, had to fly to asylum in Nigeria. He is currently ensconced in a bungalow in the town of Calabar in Cross River State.

But the international tribunal trying war criminals in Sierra Leone has indicted Taylor for criminal activities that he allegedly carried out in collaboration with the RUF, and his preoccupation will be how to avoid being captured and sent to face trial.

Meanwhile, former vice-president Moses Blah is scheduled to hand over power to a power-sharing government on Oct. 14. The new government will rule for two years, after which elections will be held for a new president. The main warring groups that recently brought ruination and starvation to Liberia -- the remnants of Taylor's government, LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) and MODEL (Movement for Democracy in Liberia) -- will contribute personnel to the new government.

The objective is power-sharing: Taylor's supporters will control defense and internal affairs, the national security agency and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation; LURD will run the National Ports Authority; and MODEL will run the Bureau of Maritime Affairs, the Forestry Development Authority and Roberts International Airport.

The hope is that this will satisfy the factions and enable them to work together to reconstruct Liberia and bring it peace and stability. But much the same hope was expressed in 1990 after Doe's death, only to end in total disaster 13 years later.

This time, however, there is one difference, however. The West African countries that have sent troops to Liberia (through the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have the backing -- on and off though it is -- of the US.

If American financial support is substantial and constant, ECOWAS will stay to provide the military pressure that will force the Liberian factions to behave.

But Liberians will have to cross their fingers, for that is quite a big "if."
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