honour of the American President. But only the
‘civilised’ had the vote, and that meant the
descendants of the American freed slaves known
as Americo-Liberians. The hinterland, where the
great majority of the population lived, was admin-
istered by indirect rule through chieftains. The
majority of the population was thus colonised as
in white settler colonies. In 1919 part of this hin-
terland, which the Americo-Liberians could not
control, was simply ceded to France. A worse
scandal came to light in the 1920s when a League
of Nations investigation uncovered forced labour
and the shipment of virtual slaves to the Spanish
plantations in Fernando Po. Greed for profit
knows no colour bars.
Liberia was ruled by one party, the True Whig
Party, which monopolised power and patronage
for more than 100 years. The majority living in
the hinterland only gradually became associated
as citizens of Liberia after the Second World
War. During the era when William Tubman was
president from 1944 to 1971 (he was always
re-elected!), a minority representation was achiev-
ed by the majority of the people. Tubman, con-
servative and always ready to welcome Western
economic penetration, died in office. His succes-
sor, Vice-President Tolbert, inaugurated a more
liberal regime and was sworn in wearing an open-
necked shirt. He followed a policy of moderate
reforms and closer integration with the peoples
of the hinterland.
The world economic problems of the mid-
1970s and the growth of opposition groups
undermined Tolbert. Corruption remained en-
demic. In 1980 Master-Sergeant Samuel Doe
organised a military revolt, and a new generation
of soldiers seized control from the political elite.
Former ministers were publicly executed by firing
squad, Doe ordering the executions to be filmed.
His bloody coup ended the reign of the True
Whig Party and the Americo-Liberians. The new
military People’s Reception Council confiscated
the assets of the former political leaders and raised
wages. But Liberia remained poor and under-
developed, and government deteriorated once
more into corruption.
Liberia’s ties with the US, and Western loans
and aid, failed to lift the population out of
poverty. To the outside world the Liberian
economy became synonymous with the Firestone
Rubber Company, which introduced rubber plan-
tations in the 1870s. Rubber became Liberia’s
most important export and was invaluable after
the fall of Malaya during the Second World War.
After the 1950s the mining of iron ore replaced
it as the principal export, and together iron and
rubber contributed 90 per cent in value to
Liberia’s export trade. Industry remained very
small, so that Liberia’s economy is typical of
Third World countries in depending on world
trade conditions and the prices of a few basic
commodities. But a description of Liberia would
not be complete without noting one more pecu-
liarity. It possesses, nominally, the largest mer-
chant fleet in the world. These are, of course, not
Liberian but foreign ships registered under the
Liberian flag, notorious for lax regulations and
low registration fees, and so widely favoured by
shipowners.
President Doe ruled the country tyrannically
for ten years. In 1989 Liberia erupted in civil war
between rival ethnic groups. The savagery of that
conflict, with ill-disciplined rebel forces shooting
and pillaging, has wrecked the country. Doe
grimly held on to dwindling power in his palace
in Monrovia, refusing American offers to escort
him to safety. In the summer of 1990 an African
peacekeeping force entered Liberia and in
September one of the rival forces captured Doe
and killed him. The state was bankrupt, and
administration collapsed as rival factions spread
terror throughout the country. Black African
intervention with troops and through mediation
succeeded in establishing a ceasefire and an agree-
ment on an interim president, but Liberia’s
uneasy settlement proved fragile. Civil war and
political chaos continued, despite the presence of
a peacekeeping force from neighbouring West
African states.
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and the
western region of the Côte D’Ivoire were all
enmeshed in internal civil wars supported by
marauding groups from across their frontiers in
struggles for power. Even by the lowest standards
of warfare, the savagery of the ill-disciplined mil-
itaries has shocked the world, child soldiers are