The Fascinating Story Of Liberia: The African Country Founded By African-Americans
An interesting, but ultimately sad history.
On the 12th of April, 1980 a band of 17 men stormed Liberia’s presidential palace. Despite being only low-ranking soldiers in the army, they decided to take matters into their own hands. Finding the president sleeping in his bed, they killed him on the spot. After this bloody deed, the insurgents rounded up almost all the members of his cabinet, and put them on trial.
The leader of the coup was Samuel Doe, an indigenous master sergeant of the Liberian Army. Proclaiming himself general, he quickly implemented his own version of swift justice. All the members of his band of men were indigenous Africans. All the government officials he arrested were members of the Americo-Liberian ethnic group.
This group had ruled Liberia since its founding in 1847. Descendants of former slaves and free African-Americans who made their way back from the US to the African continent, they had kept a tight reign on power in the country. Back in America, they were citizens of second category. In Africa, they realized how American they really were. They differed from the native Africans they found themselves among. In language, culture, and education.
