Did You Know About Liberia?
Liberal Liberia
The name Liberia means liberty. Do you know that Liberia was the first African state to become an independent Republic? This name was given because the nation was created as a homeland for freed American slaves.
In 1822, a group of elite Americans formed American Colonization Society (ACS) whose aim was to help free African American slaves by immigrating them to West Africa. Not everyone sided with them, though. Some people were opposed to this notion saying it was not possible to have an African American colony in Africa. This did not deter the ACS; their agenda gained momentum. This resulted in over twelve thousand slaves being voluntarily relocated to the then Cape Mesuredo, now modern day Monrovia over a forty year period.
The American emigrants were excited to go back to Africa to start a new life of freedom but unfortunately the natives were not very welcoming. They insisted on calling the new comers ‘black white men’ and would often attack the new settlers. This forced the settlers to build fortifications around them for protection against the hostile local tribes. As if that was not enough, the new comers came face to face with diseases such as Ebola, Malaria, Yellow Fever to name a few. More than a third of the first three thousand settlers died of the tropical plagues around the 1830’s.
The settlers, also known as Americo-Liberians formed an elite group in Liberian society and in 1847 they helped found the Republic of Liberia. They named the capital city of Monrovia after James Munroe, the fifth president of the United States of America.
Today, about five percent of the population of Liberia is descended from the first settlers.
References
Infoplease-Liberia, www.infoplease.com/country/liberia.htmlAmerica in Africa,JamesCiment,www.slate.com/articles/news&politics/history/
US State department –Office of the Historian, Founding Liberia 1847 https://histroystate.gov/milestones/1830-1860 liberia
