Liberia is a country in West Africa which was founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of African Americans both free and recently emancipated, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society (ACS). The mortality rate of these settlers were the highest in accurately recorded human history. Of the 4,571 emigrants who arrived in Liberia between 1820 and 1843, only 1,819 survived.
The Politics of Liberia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic modeled on the government of the United States, whereby the President is the head of state and head of government; unlike the United States, however, Liberia is a unitary state as opposed to a federation and has a pluriform multi-party system rather than the two-party system that characterizes US politics. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the legislature.
The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) are the armed forces of the Republic of Liberia. Tracing its origins to a militia that was formed by the first black colonists in what is now Liberia, it was founded as the Liberian Frontier Force in 1908, and retitled in 1956. For almost all of its history, the AFL has received considerable materiel and training assistance from the United States. For most of the 1941–89 period, training was largely provided by U.S. advisers, though this assistance has not prevented the same generally low levels of effectiveness common to most of the armed forces in the developing world.
Samuel Kanyon Doe was a Liberian politician who served as the Liberian leader from 1980 to 1990, first as a military leader and later as a civilian. While a master sergeant in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), Doe staged a violent coup d'etat in April 1980 that left him de facto head of state. During the coup, then president William Tolbert, and much of the True Whig Party leadership were executed. Doe then established the People's Redemption Council, assuming the rank of general.
Prince Yormie Johnson is a Liberian politician and the current Senior Senator from Nimba County. A former rebel leader, Johnson played a prominent role in the First Liberian Civil War in which he captured, tortured, mutilated and executed President Samuel Doe, who had himself overthrown and murdered the previous president William R. Tolbert Jr.
Foday Saybana Sankoh was the founder of the Sierra Leone rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which was supported by Charles Taylor-led NPFL in the 11-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. An estimated 50,000 people were killed during the war, and over 500,000 people were displaced in neighboring countries.
The First Liberian Civil War was an internal conflict in Liberia from 1989 until 1997. The conflict killed about 250,000 people and eventually led to the involvement of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and of the United Nations. The peace did not last long, and in 1999 the Second Liberian Civil War broke out.
The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) was a West African multilateral armed force established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOMOG was a formal arrangement for separate armies to work together. It was largely supported by personnel and resources of the Nigerian Armed Forces, with sub-battalion strength units contributed by other ECOWAS members — Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and others.
The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) was a rebel group that participated in the First Liberian Civil War (1989-1996).
The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) was a rebel group that initiated and participated in the First Liberian Civil War from 1989 to 1996.
The National Patriotic Front of Liberia-Central Revolutionary Council (NPFL-CRC) was a rebel group that participated in the First Liberian Civil War. The group emerged in mid-1994 and was a breakaway faction of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), which was led by Charles Taylor.
The Liberia Peace Council (LPC) was a rebel group that participated in the Liberian Civil War under the leadership of George Boley.
David Roosevelt Johnson was a Liberian who led a rebel group during the country's civil war. He was a member of the Krahn ethnic group.
The Liberian-American-Swedish Mining Company (LAMCO) is a defunct Liberian corporation that mined for iron ore in the Nimba range in Liberia during the second half of the twentieth century. Founded in 1955 by American and Swedish investors, the company established the first large-scale mining operation in Liberia following the discovery in the 1950s of the Nimba ore body by geologist Sandy Clarke.
John Hezekiah Bowen was an officer of the Armed Forces of Liberia.
Cestos is a settlement in Rivercess County in central Liberia. Located along the Cestos River, it lay at the heart of a heavily contested region during the First Liberian Civil War: the National Patriotic Front of Liberia derived vast amounts of resources from Cestos and other parts of Rivercess County. A small battle was fought between the NPFL and ECOMOG peacekeepers in early May 1993: after peacekeepers captured Buchanan, NPFL strength in Rivercess County was weakened because its fighters feared going near the county due to its convenient riverine and marine transportation. Therefore, when ECOMOG approached Cestos, it faced little fighting and reported no resistance within the city itself. Since the end of the Second Liberian Civil War, transportation in the region has been improved by private concerns: in the early 2010s, reports of possible gold mines prompted a mining company to construct a road from Cestos to the Central RiverCess District town of Zammi.
The Iron Ladies of Liberia (2007) is an independently produced documentary film that gives behind-the-scenes access to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's first year in government. Johnson-Sirleaf is Africa's first female president.
Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu, also known as Tom Woewiyu or Thomas Smith, was the former leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), with Charles Taylor. Woewiyu served as Defense Minister and Spokesman for the NPFL a rebel faction deemed responsible for over 60,000 violations, consisting of war crimes such as rape, slavery, conscription of child soldiers, and massacres, during Liberia's First Civil War. Woewiyu has held legal permanent resident status in the United States since 1972. There, he founded the Association for Constitutional Democracy in Liberia (ACDL) among the Liberian expatriate community in the U.S., an organization that advocated against the regime of the Samuel Doe, then President of Liberia. Woewiyu is also known for, at times, speaking out publicly against two former Liberian presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Charles Taylor.
Dorothy Harriet Eugenia Musuleng Cooper was a Liberian educator, politician and the first woman to serve as Foreign Minister in Liberia. She was born at Arthington, Liberia and obtained her B.S. and M.S. from College of West Africa and San Francisco State University respectively. She worked as a school teacher between graduation and high school and matriculation in 1964 in San Francisco in 1964, curriculum development in the Ministry of Education, and principal of Cuttington University College. She was an education minister in Charles Taylor's shadow government from 1990–93 in the National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly Government
Hassan Bility is a Liberian journalist, and the founder and Director of the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), a non-governmental organization dedicated to the documentation of war time atrocities in Liberia and to assisting victims in their pursuit of justice for these crimes.
