Liberia's History and Emergence as a Nation

The American settlers that arrived in 1822 tremendously affected the national and cultural identity of Liberia.  In fact, the word “Liberia” actually comes from the word “Liberty” and refers to the nation’s origin as a colony of free blacks who were relocated to Africa from the United States in the early nineteenth century.  Even though these Americo-Liberians made up Liberia’s elite ruling class they only constituted about five percent of the population.  The rest of Liberia’s population belonged to sixteen different ethno linguistic groups of the Niger-Congo family.  Due to this, most citizens did not feel “apart” of the new nation-state because most government institutions were concentrated in the coastal cities.  As a result most inhabitants of the interior of Liberia had little sense of “being Liberian” until the second half of the twentieth century.[1] 


Liberia's culture, like their flag, is modeled after that of the United States

 

The land of modern-day Liberia was once made up of sixteen identified ethno linguistic groups.  These groups, or tribes, had their own political entities headed by chiefdoms.  There were no pre-colonial states.  But when Liberia first emerged the administration was led by white administrators appointed by the American Colonization Society.  However, by 1847 the Americo-Liberians declared themselves independent of American colonial.[2] 

This caused even more instability between the Americo-Liberians and the indigenous Liberians.  The Americo-Liberians were “westernized” holding American-styled cultural and social values.  To the indigenous people they were alien.  They were Christian, spoke English, and lived an “Americanized” way of life by building churches and houses that resembled those in America.  In addition, the Americo-Liberians adopted the American system of racial segregation by recreating a cultural and racial caste system in which they were superior to the indigenous Liberians.  It was not until World War II when there was no other choice but for social change.  Despite the small changes then there has been continued instability resulting in civil wars in which the country is still trying to recover from.[3]

Hope for Liberia

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[1] “Liberia”, Countries and Their Cultures, http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Liberia.html.

[2] “Liberia”, Countries and Their Cultures, http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Liberia.html.

[3] “History of Liberia”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Liberia.