The Indecisive Future of America’s only ever African Colony

The Indecisive Future of America’s only ever African Colony

The first image that comes to mind when thinking of slavery is a white man forcing a captured African to work on a cotton plantation. In Liberia’s history, slavery existed as freed American slaves enslaving native Africans. (Lerner) Despite being stated as a home for the black people to return to by the American Colonization Society, in an ironic repetition of history the African-American immigrants mirrored the American society they knew and took the role of the oppressors they had freed themselves of. (Gordon) This very atypical past is what has led to Liberia having an uncertain future.

The oppression of the native Liberians by the freed slave-colonizers would not persist, however. In 1990, Liberia erupted in a series of conflicts between the native and Americo-Liberians later known as the Liberian civil wars. After a bloody struggle which devastated the country, Liberians now need to consider how to rebuild. Moving forwards, Liberia needs to recover from the civil war by repairing race relations and rebuilding the country economically.

Race conflicts in Liberia are at the top of Liberia’s social issues. Many native liberians remember the mistreatment of the Americo-Liberians while they were still under their rule. Despite only making up 150 000 of Liberia’s 3.2 million population, the Americo-Liberians dominated over the indigenous population for over a century as the ruling class. (Roth) The civil war caused by the epitome of this conflict led to the deaths around 200 000 Liberians. (Nmoma) Many Americo Liberians feel the same way, some reminiscing of when they were the ruling class. This divisiveness has prevented Liberia from fully healing the scars that are the Liberian civil war. While these issues still persist Liberia has been making progress towards equality. Liberia has enjoyed relative stability in the past few years. The civil war is remembered, but it does not define Liberia as a country. Liberia doesn’t seem too weary of its past. It’s flag still mirrors the American one of its colonizer, and its capital Monrovia is named after American president James Monroe (Barbato). For the most part, Liberians are beginning to move on from their bloody past.

Since its independence in 1843, Liberia has remained dependent on America through economic ties. Indeed, 30% of Liberia’s total imports come from America (Trading Economics). This is the way it has been throughout much of Liberia’s history. America imported development and modernization in exchange for Liberia’s production of Rubber (Adebayo). However, this relationship was threatened by the Liberian civil war. The economy immediately crashed as investors lost confidence in the reliability of Liberia’s markets. (Barrientos) Liberia turned from being a relatively developed African country to a conflict-ridden one. Now that Liberia has exited its Civil War, the economic future of Liberia has come into question. Some of the indigenous population are wary to renew economic ties with America as the past economic arrangement was more exploitative than mutual as Native Liberians worked as slaves in all but name (MacDougall). However, Liberia and America seem to be working together more symbiotically this time and the outlook towards Liberia’s economic future remains optimistic (Konneh).

After years of hardship, Liberia’s future remains uncertain. Everytime Liberia recovers from a crisis, a new one appears. Shortly after the civil war, ebola spread rampantly throughout Liberia. Without cooperation between American-Liberians, Indigenous Liberians, and America, it is certain that Liberia will share the fate of many other African countries put through similar hardships.