IntroducitonLiberia is a English speaking country founded by freed American Slaves in 1822. It is the first and only country founded by Black Americans. Although there was no state sponsored movement forcing blacks to leave America, certain incentives were offered by the US government to relocate free blacks to Windward Coast, Africa—later to be named Liberia. The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America (known as American Colonization Society or ACS) was strongly supported by President James Monroe during his presidency from 1817 to 1825. The first large settlement and Capital of Liberia was named Monrovia after President Monroe.
|
HistoryThe founding of Liberia started with good intentions, but crumbles into a long history of violence and chaos. In 1822, newly freed blacks arrive in Windward Coast, Africa with intentions to form their own political identity and ethnic consciences based off of ideals of civil liberties, individualism, and freedom. The settlers were a small ethnic group in the country who spoke basilect/broken American English. In addition to tribal languages, the indigenous people also spoke forms of pidgin English and pidgin Portuguese due to European trading forces along Africa's west coast region. These two groups, however, did not get along well—the new settlers regarded themselves as more sophisticated and civilized than the indigenous West-African tribes and transformed Liberia into a one-party state under the Whig party (Tyler-McGraw, 2017, p. 151). The Whig party favored nationalism and conservative ideology.
In 1980, Samuel Doe overthrew the Whigs with his military coup, assassinating President William Tolbert and naming himself the first Liberian President of native decent. Samuel Doe ran a military dictatorship until 1989 when he was captured, tortured, and publicly killed by the National Patriotic Front of Liberia group. This event lead to continuation of two long and violent civil wars. The wars finally ended in 2003 when elected power Charles Taylor was driven out of the country. In 2005 what was considered the first open and free election was held in Liberia, electing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as their first women president. Throughout all the turmoil and conflict in Liberia, the two basilect dialects of Liberian settlers and Liberian natives combined into an English termed as Liberian Standard English (LSE). LSE is known as the prestige/elite language in Liberia, in comparison to all other native languages (Breitborde, 1988, p. 17). |
|
Liberia TodayPopulationAs of today (2018), Liberia's population estimates at 4.85 million. Around 25 percent of people live in Monrovia, the county's capital. Indigenous groups make up 95 percent of the population. These recognized ethnic groups include the Gio (or Dan), Mano, Bassa, Kpelle, Grebo, Vai, Gola, Kru, Krahn, Mandingo (or Mandinka), Fante, Dei (or Dewoin), Bella, Mende, Loma, and the Americo-Liberians (World Population Review, 2018).
LanguageOut of Liberia's 4.85 million people, only 20 percent of the population speak English—the official Liberian language. A majority of Liberia’s residents fall into three major linguistic categories: the Mande, Kwa and Mel, all of which belong to the Niger-Congo family of African languages. In addition to these three major linguistic groups, Liberia is home to approximately two dozen other languages (Accredited Language Services, 2018).
ReligionA majority of people are Christian. About 75 percent belong to various Christian denominations: Lutherans, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, United Methodists, African Methodist Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists. Around 20 percent follows the doctrines of Islam, and other religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Sikhs, account for about 5 percent of the population (EU Business School, 2018).
POLITICS
Although Liberia's politics have drastically change throughout its history depending on the ruler, Liberia has a presidential representative democratic republic framework modeled after the United States government (Tyler-McGraw, 2017, p. 151).
|
Created by Zack Spanier, Winter 2018, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo