US President Donald Trump on Wednesday complimented the president of Liberia on his English-speaking skills — despite English being the official language of the west African nation.
Trump was hosting a White House lunch with African leaders and — after brief remarks from Liberian President Joseph Boakai — asked the business graduate where he had picked up his linguistic know-how.
“Thank you, and such good English... Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated?” Trump asked.
Photo: AP
Boakai — who, like most Liberians, speaks English as a first language — indicated that he had been educated in his native country.
Trump, who was surrounded by French-speaking presidents from other west African nations, continued.
“It’s beautiful English. I have people at this table can’t speak nearly as well,” he said.
US engagement in Liberia began in the 1820s when the US Congress and the slaveholder-funded American Colonization Society began sending freed slaves to its shores.
Thousands of “Americo-Liberian” settlers followed, declaring themselves independent in 1847 and setting up a government to rule over a native African majority.
The country has a diverse array of indigenous languages and a number of creolized dialects, while Kpelle-speakers are the largest single linguistic group.
Boakai himself can read and write in Mendi and Kissi, but converses in Liberia’s official tongue and lingua franca — English.
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