Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Liberia
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
Liberia Today
Author: American Warlord
Author: Johnny DwyerPublisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307273482
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
Tells the story of "Chucky" Taylor, a young American who lost his soul in Liberia, the country where his African father was a ruthless warlord and dictator.
Liberia
Author: Gabriel I. H. WilliamsPublisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1553692942
Category : Liberia
Languages : en
Pages : 458
Book Description
On December 24, 1989, a group of Libyan-trained armed dissidents, which styled itself the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), attacked Liberian territory from neighboring Ivory Coast. The band of outlaws was led by Charles Taylor, an ex-Liberia government official who escaped from prison in the United States while facing extradition to Liberia for allegedly embezzling nearly one million dollars of public funds. After he fled the U.S. Taylor returned to West Africa, from where he connected with Libya. Sustained by Libyan support, Taylor went to Liberia to spearhead his murderous brand of civil war. Liberia's dictatorial leader Samuel Doe responded to the NPFL invasion by deploying troops in the conflict area, whose senior ranks were dominated by the military strongman's own ethnic group. The government forces carried out collective punishment against local villagers, killing, looting, and raping, while singling out people from certain ethnic groups whom they regarded as supporters of the invasion by reason of their ethnic identity. The NPFL also targeted members of Doe's ethnic group and other ethnic groups that were seen to be supportive of the government, as well as its officials and sympathizers. As the war spread from the interior toward the Liberian capital of Monrovia amid widespread death and destruction, the United States responded to the deteriorating situation by dispatching four warships with 2,300 marines to evacuate Americans and other foreigners who were in the country. The U.S. decided not to intervene to contain the unfolding catastrophe. Officials of the George Bush administration maintained that Liberia, which was then America's closest traditional ally in Africa, was no longer of strategic importance to the U.S. Coincidentally, the Liberian civil war started at the time the Cold War was ending. Located on the West Coast of Africa, Liberia was founded in 1822 by freed black American slaves who were returned to the continent. Their passage was paid by the American Colonization Society, a philanthropic organization, whose members included Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. The Liberian capital Monrovia is named after Monroe, who was president of the United States at the time Liberia was founded. The country's national flag of red, white and blue stripes with a star, bears close resemblance to the American flag. The systems of government and education, architecture and other aspects of Liberian life reflect American taste. Names of places in the country include Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana and Buchanan. More than anywhere in Africa, spoken English in Liberia echoes the rhythms of Black American speech. Liberia served as the regional headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and hosted a Voice of America relay station that beamed American propaganda, as well as other major U.S. security installations during the Cold War. The Americans also operated the Omega Navigation Tower, which was intended to track the movement of ships and planes in the region and beyond. Once one of Africa's most stable and prosperous countries, Liberia was regarded as a haven for international trade and commerce because of the use of the American dollar as a legal tender. Major U.S. investments in the country included the Firestone Rubber Plantation, the world's largest plantation, which produce rubber for Firestone tires, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Citibank. Pan American Airlines (PAN AM) once operated Liberia's Roberts International Airport, where U.S. fighter jets have landing rights. During part of the 1970s, Liberia's per capita income was equivalent to that of Japan. Independent since 1847 as Africa's first republic, Liberia's plunge into anarchy began after a bloody military coup that ended the rule of descendants of the freed slaves, who monopolized political and economic power for over a century. During the 1980 coup, President William Tolbert, who tried to institute some meaningful po
Head, Body, Legs
Author: Won-Ldy PayePublisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805078909
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36
Book Description
A creation story originating from Liberia.
Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa
Author: Robtel Neajai PaileyPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108836542
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Book Description
Based on rich oral histories, this is an engaging study of citizenship construction and practice in Liberia, Africa's first black republic.
Charles Taylor and Liberia
Author: Colin M. WaughPublisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848138504
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 479
Book Description
Campaigner, insurgent, fugitive, rebel commander, commodity kingpin, elected president, exile and finally prisoner, Charles Taylor sought to lead his country to change but instead ignited a conflict which destroyed Liberia in over a decade of violence, greed and personal ambition. Taylor's takeover threw much of the neigbouring region into turmoil, until he was finally brought to face justice in The Hague for his role in Sierra Leone's civil war. In this remarkable and eye-opening book, Colin Waugh draws on a variety of sources, testimonies and original interviews - including with Taylor himself - to recount the story of what really happened during these turbulent years. In doing so, he examines both the life of Charles Taylor, as well as the often self-interested efforts of the international community to first save Liberia from disaster, then, having failed to do so, to bring to justice the man it deems most to blame for its disintegration.
Mississippi in Africa
Author: Alan HuffmanPublisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1604737549
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
When wealthy Mississippi cotton planter Isaac Ross died in 1836, his will decreed that his plantation, Prospect Hill, should be liquidated and the proceeds from the sale be used to pay for his slaves' passage to the newly established colony of Liberia in western Africa. Ross's heirs contested the will for more than a decade, prompting a deadly revolt in which a group of slaves burned Ross's mansion to the ground. But the will was ultimately upheld. The slaves then emigrated to their new home, where they battled the local tribes and built vast plantations with Greek Revival-style mansions in a region the Americo-Africans renamed “Mississippi in Africa.” In the late twentieth century, the seeds of resentment sown over a century of cultural conflict between the colonists and tribal people exploded, begetting a civil war that rages in Liberia to this day. Tracking down Prospect Hill's living descendants, deciphering a history ruled by rumor, and delivering the complete chronicle in riveting prose, journalist Alan Huffman has rescued a lost chapter of American history whose aftermath is far from over.
Liberia
Author: J. Gus LiebenowPublisher: Ithaca : Cornell University Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
Study of the politico-social structure of Liberia - covers historical aspects, political parties, political leadership, political problems, economic growth problems, tradition, family and intergroup relations with tribal peoples and interest groups, foreign policy, the role of USA and economic aid, social implications, discrimination, etc. Annotated bibliography pp. 224 to 239 and maps.
Crisis in Liberia
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on AfricaPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
This Our Dark Country
Author: Catherine ReefPublisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618147854
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
Explores the history of the colony, later the independent nation of Liberia, which was established on the west coast of Africa in 1822 as a haven for free African-Americans.