I.

Introduction

Liberia, republic, western Africa, bounded on the north by Sierra Leone and Guinea, on the east by Côte d’Ivoire, and on the south and west by the Atlantic Ocean. An independent state since its establishment in 1847, Liberia has an area of 99,067 sq km (38,250 sq mi). The capital of Liberia is Monrovia.

II.

Land and Resources

The coast of Liberia extends about 595 km (370 mi) from the River Mano in the west to the River Cavalla in the east. From a narrow, flat coastal plain the country rises in a series of ill-defined plateaux to a higher interior covered with evergreen rainforest in the south and deciduous rainforest in the north. The coastal plain, 15 to 55 km (9 to 34 mi) wide, is virtually the only developed region. The interior mountains reach elevations of about 900 to 1,200 m (3,000 to 4,000 ft). Many comparatively small rivers traverse the country.

A.

Climate

The climate of Liberia is equatorial and humid, particularly during the rainy seasons from June to July and October to November. Annual rainfall varies from 1,778 mm (70 in) in the interior to 5,080 mm (200 in) along the coast. The annual mean temperature is about 27.8° C (82° F).

B.

Natural Resources

Until the outbreak of civil war in 1990 Liberia’s economy was primarily agricultural, with adequate supplies of water and a climate favouring agriculture. Minerals and forest products provided the most important export resources, but timber reserves declined in the mid-1990s. Iron ore and rubber account for over 80 per cent of export earnings. Hydroelectric power plants were built on several rivers, including the St Paul.

C.

Plants and Animals

The trees of Liberia’s extensive tropical forests include cotton, fig, mahogany, ironwood, and various kinds of palms, as well as rubber trees. Large numbers of pygmy hippopotamus used to be found, as well as chimpanzee, elephant, buffalo, and monkey; wildlife, however, has been severely affected by civil war and many species are now considered endangered.

D.

Environmental Concerns

Rich in biodiversity, Liberia was almost entirely forested until recent decades. Forest and woodland now cover only 47 per cent (1995) of the land, although much of this is relatively undisturbed tropical rainforest. Slash-and-burn agriculture is the major cause of forest loss, but logging is an increasingly important factor. In addition to deforestation, major environmental threats include soil erosion and water pollution, from the dumping of iron-ore tailings in rivers to oil and sewage along the coast. Wetlands in river basins and coastal mangroves are also threatened by agriculture and firewood collection. Although there are ten national forests in Liberia, logging is permitted within them. The only truly protected land is in Sapo National Park, which makes up 1 per cent of the country’s area. A well-developed national conservation plan, including several new national parks and nature reserves, and sophisticated management schemes, was proposed in the late 1980s, but development has been shelved because of the civil war. Liberia has ratified international environmental agreements concerning endangered species, nuclear tests, ship pollution, and tropical timber and has signed treaties on biodiversity, climate change, environmental modification, law of the sea, marine dumping, and marine life. Regionally, Liberia has ratified the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

III.

Population

The population of Liberia comprises some 16 indigenous ethnic groups, belonging to the Mande, West Atlantic, and Kwa linguistic groups, and the descendants of emancipated slaves who emigrated from the United States, known as Americo-Liberians. Agriculture has been the traditional mainstay of the vast majority of the population. Until displaced by civil war, most lived in small towns and villages. Many of the indigenous groups retained their traditional way of life.

A.

Population Characteristics

Liberia has a population of 3,334,587 (2008 estimate), of whom at least 25 per cent are refugees abroad. Americo-Liberians make up no more than 5 per cent of the population. The largest of the 16 indigenous ethnic groups is the Kpelle of central Liberia, accounting for about 25 per cent of the population. Other large groups are the Bassa, the Gio, the seafaring Kru, and the Vai. A degree of assimilation has occurred between Americo-Liberians and indigenous peoples since the 1940s.

B.

Political Divisions

Effective local government has broken down, but Liberia is divided into 15 administrative divisions: Bomi, Bong, Gparbolu, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, Lofa, Margibi, Maryland, Montserrado, Nimba, River Cess, River Gee, and Sinoe.

C.

Principal Cities

Monrovia is the main port and largest city, as well as the capital. It has a population of 572,000 (2003 estimate). Other important communities are Buchanan, population 27,300 (2003 estimate), which was the terminal for the railway transporting iron ore from the Mount Nimba mining project before the civil war; Harbel, 60,000 (1985); and Yekepa, 16,000 (1985).

D.

Religion

Including the Americo-Liberians, about 10 per cent of Liberians are Christian, principally Protestant. Islam has made inroads among the people of the interior, who have largely retained their traditional religions. Altogether, about 70 per cent of the people follow traditional religions and 20 per cent are Muslim.

E.

Language

English is Liberia’s official language but it is spoken by around only 69,000 people as a mother tongue. Twenty-seven African languages, all from the Niger-Congo language family, are spoken. Liberia Kpelle (487,400), Bassa (347,600), Mano (185,000), and Klao (184,000) are the most widely spoken. Most of the population speaks Liberian Pidgin English, which is a second language, to communicate across the many languages.

F.

Education

The Compulsory Education Act of 1912 provides for compulsory, free education for children between the ages of 6 and 16. The government was attempting to implement this law before the outbreak of civil war, but educational facilities were scarce and only a minority of children received an education. Since 1990 the educational system has virtually collapsed. Only about 60 per cent of the population was literate in 2005. Higher education was provided by the University of Liberia (1851), in Monrovia, and several colleges.

G.

Culture

Monrovia is the site of three major museums: the National Museum of Liberia, the Natural History Museum of Liberia, and the Africana Museum. The Tubman Centre of African Culture is based in Cape Mount. Famous Liberian writers include Bai T. J. Moore, a poet, folklorist and novelist. His most popular selection of poetry is Ebony Dust (1962).

IV.

Economy

Years of civil strife have destroyed much of Liberia’s economic infrastructure, have made civil administration nearly impossible, and have brought economic activity virtually to a halt. The deterioration of economic conditions has been greatly exacerbated by the flight of most business people with their expertise and capital. Resumption of hostilities in 1993 and 1996 brought efforts at economic recovery and repatriation of some 750,000 Liberian refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries to a virtual halt. Inflation and unemployment remain extremely high, and the country is largely dependent on relief aid. Recovery depends on the re-establishment of a stable central government.

Before the civil war, Liberia encouraged foreign investment in the development of its rich natural resources, mainly rubber, iron ore, and timber. The huge Harbel rubber plantation owned by the American company Firestone was the largest employer in the country after the government until the mid-1980s. Many hundreds of civilian workers were killed there by rebel forces in 1993. More than 65 per cent of Liberia’s labour force was engaged in mainly subsistence agriculture, fishing, and forestry.

The government implemented educational and vocational training programmes in order to develop the skills of the people, but financial mismanagement, poor international commodity prices, and rising debt had led to an economic crisis even before the outbreak of civil war. Since 1990, with the collapse of the formal economy, subsistence production has struggled to re-emerge with great difficulty. In 1992 the country’s gross national product was US$973 million (World Bank estimate; 1990-1992 prices), equivalent to US$354 per capita. In 1994 the annual budget showed revenues of US$225 million and current expenditures of US$285 million.

A.

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Rice, sugar cane, and cassava (manioc) are the main traditional food crops of Liberia; the country must import rice to meet its needs. The major export crops were coffee and cacao. Fruits, vegetables, and sweet potatoes are normally grown for local consumption. In 2006 production included, in tonnes, cassava (634,874), sugar cane (255,000), and rice (66,000).

Oil palm kernels, from which an oil for soaps is extracted, and palm fibres are important forest products. However, the most important forest industry, and the one on which Liberia’s modern economy was first built, is the production of rubber. In the mid-1980s the Firestone and smaller plantations covered 66,800 hectares (165,000 acres) and produced about 85,000 tonnes of rubber a year. By 1994 rubber production had declined to 10,000 tonnes, but rose to 31,000 tonnes in 1995. Commercial deep-water fishing was expanding before the war; compared with an annual catch of about 18,700 tonnes in the late 1980s, which included sole, lobster, crayfish, shrimp, and crab, by 2005 the total catch had declined to 10,000 tonnes.

B.

Mining

In the early 1960s the mining of iron ore replaced the production of rubber as the principal industry. Liberia has large reserves of rich iron ore and was a major world exporter of the commodity. Production in the late 1980s was about 18.9 million tonnes annually; by 1990 it was 2.4 million. In 1992 mining of iron ore ceased. Other commercially exploited minerals included small quantities of diamonds and gold.

C.

Manufacturing

Liberia had few major manufacturing industries before 1989. Small-scale production, mainly foreign-owned, of food products, construction materials, and consumer products was carried on. The country is still struggling to recover from the effects of the civil war.

D.

Currency and Banking

The monetary unit of Liberia is the Liberian dollar, currency at par (in theory) with the US dollar since 1940; the US dollar is also legal tender, and normally preferred in transactions. After the onset of the civil war different notes were in use in government- and rebel-held territory. In 2000 new currency notes were introduced in an attempt at unifying the monetary system. The National Bank of Liberia (established 1974) is the country's central bank.

E.

Energy

Total annual electricity production stood at about 485 million kWh in 1994, some 39 per cent of which was hydroelectric power.

F.

Commerce and Trade

Before the civil war the main exports of Liberia were iron ore (70 per cent by value), rubber (15 per cent), wood (5 per cent), diamonds, coffee, cacao, and palm kernels. In 1995 total exports were valued at about US$667 million. Imports, which were valued at US$5,870 million, included mineral fuels, machinery, metals, foodstuffs, chemicals, and textiles. The main trade partners of Liberia are the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, and South Korea.

G.

Transport

Of about 10,600 km (6,587 mi) of roads that serve the country, about 6 per cent are paved. In 1997 there were 3 passenger cars per 1,000 people. The railways, with a total of 493 km (306 mi) of track, mainly carried iron ore to the coast; the Lamco railway closed at the start of the civil war and others were shut down as a result of it. Several years after the end of the war, the transport infrastructure is still in very poor shape. Monrovia Roberts International Airport and Sprigg Payne International Airport both lie near Monrovia. The Liberian merchant marine, because of low registry costs, has one of the largest tanker fleets in the world. In 1995 about 1,190 ships were registered under the Liberian flag of convenience.

V.

Government

Following a coup d’état in 1980, Liberia’s constitution, promulgated in 1847, was suspended. A new constitution was published in 1983 and was approved by popular referendum on July 3, 1984, coming into force in January 1986. The civil war, which began in 1989, left the country with no effective government, and divided between opposing camps. After several abortive peace attempts, an accord was reached in 1993, and a transitional administration created in 1994. Handover to an elected government was slow; multi-party elections finally took place in July 1997. After Charles Taylor was forced to leave office in 2003, Charles Gyude Bryant of the Liberian Action Party became acting president. Elections in 2005 saw Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf voted in as president; she became the first woman head of state in Africa.

The president, who is both chief of state and head of government, is voted in for a six-year term. There is a bicameral National Assembly consisting of the 26-member Senate and 64-member House of Representatives, all elected by popular vote. Members of the Senate serve nine-year terms while the lower house serve six-year terms.

A.

Political Parties

The ruling party after the 1997 elections was the National Patriotic Party (NPP), which had 70 seats in the National Assembly. Other parties included the Unity Party (UP) with ten seats and the All Liberia Coalition Party (ALCOP) with five.

B.

Judiciary

The Liberian judicial system is largely modelled on that of the United States. The People’s Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and six associate justices. Subordinate courts are established by the legislature, and all judges are appointed by the president for life terms.

C.

Health and Welfare

Malaria, tuberculosis, yaws, and leprosy are prevalent in Liberia. In 2008 average life expectancy was 43 years for women and 40 years for men; the infant mortality rate was 144 deaths per 1,000 live births. Some hospitals are operated by the central government, but no national social welfare system exists. In 2004 there were around 33,854 people per doctor; 8.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product was spent on health care in 1995.

D.

International Organizations

Liberia is a member of the United Nations (UN), the African Union, African Development Bank, and ECOWAS.

VI.

History

Liberia owes its establishment to the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816 to enable freed American slaves to resettle in Africa (see Slavery). An attempt at colonization in Sierra Leone had failed in 1815. Six years later native rulers granted a tract of land on Cape Mesurado, at the mouth of the St Paul River, to US representatives, and the first Americo-Liberians, led by Jehudi Ashmun, began a settlement in 1822 near where Monrovia now stands. In 1824 an American agent for the society, Ralph Randolph Gurley, named the new colony Liberia and the Cape Mesurado settlement Monrovia, after the then US president, James Monroe.

Other separate settlements were established along the coast during the next 20 years. Soon, however, conflicts arose between the settlers and the society in the United States. By the time Joseph Jenkins Roberts became the first black governor in 1841, the decision had been made to give the colonists almost full control of the government. A constitution modelled on that of the United States was drawn up, and Liberia became an independent republic in July 1847. Roberts was its first president, serving until 1856. Great Britain recognized Liberia in 1848, France in 1852, and the United States in 1862.

A.

Relations with Indigenous People

The Americo-Liberian communities eked out a precarious existence during the 19th century. Claims over interior territory were disputed not only by the indigenous peoples, but also by European states that did not recognize Liberian jurisdiction over the interior. US support led to a series of agreements with Britain and France between 1892 and 1911, which marked the present boundaries. (Liberian control over the interior peoples, however, was not completely assured until the 1940s.) Loans from Britain and the United States partially eased the country’s financial difficulties.

Liberia declared war on Germany on August 14, 1917, which gave the Allies an additional base in West Africa during World War I. In 1926 the Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company opened a rubber plantation on 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) of land granted by the Liberian government the year before. Rubber production quickly became the mainstay of the nation’s economy.

In 1931 the League of Nations confirmed that Americo-Liberians were using indigenous people for forced labour, tantamount to slavery. The ensuing scandal implicated the highest government officials; the president and vice-president resigned. By 1936 the new government had succeeded in abolishing forced-labour practices, but the indigenous population was still treated as second-class citizens, without voting rights.

B.

Tubman’s Regime

US-Liberian relations became closer after the United States entered World War II. In 1942 the republic agreed to allow US troops to be based in the country, despite the fact that Liberia did not declare war on the Axis powers until 1944. In 1945 Liberia became one of the original member states of the UN.

Following his election in May 1943, President William V. S. Tubman pursued a policy of national unification and economic development through foreign investment. The latter policy led to the exploitation in the 1950s of the huge iron-ore deposits in the Bomi Hills, located north of Monrovia. In the presidential election of May 1951, women and indigenous property owners voted for the first time, but the few thousand Americo-Liberians living in the coastal region still retained control of the government.

The incumbent Tubman, candidate of the dominant True Whig Party, was re-elected without opposition. The government had suppressed the Reformation and United People’s parties. Their leaders, supported mainly by the indigenous people of the hinterland, were arrested or exiled following the election. President Tubman was returned to office in the 1955 election, but he narrowly escaped assassination during his victory celebration. Thirty people were indicted for treason; two former Cabinet ministers and five others were convicted.

Considerable progress, both social and material, was made during Tubman’s later terms as President. In February 1958 the legislature passed a law making racial discrimination punishable by fine and imprisonment for citizens and by deportation for aliens. During the 1960s a Swedish-American group completed a major iron-ore project at Mount Nimba, and German investors developed iron-ore resources in the Bong Mountains. The Liberian Bank of Industrial Development and Investment was established in 1965 to provide capital for private investment.

During this time President Tubman held a firm rein on power. After some labour unrest within Liberia and coups elsewhere in Africa, he was given emergency powers in February 1966 for 12 months. In 1967 he was re-elected to his sixth term (a year ahead of time), and he was returned the seventh time in May 1971. Two months later he died, and was succeeded by William R. Tolbert, Jr., Liberia’s vice-president since 1951.

C.

Violent Change

Under Tolbert’s leadership during the 1970s, Liberia loosened somewhat its close ties with the United States. In 1974 it accepted economic aid from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and in 1978 it joined, with other developing countries, the Lomé Agreement with the European Community (now European Union). Domestically, emphasis was placed on bringing the isolated interior into national political life, and on improving the economic conditions of the indigenous population. In 1979, however, the country was paralysed by riots caused by a proposed increase in the price of rice, the staple food. More than 40 people were killed in the violence.

In 1980, Tolbert’s opponents, emboldened by a court decision recognizing them as an opposition party, openly called for his overthrow. Their leader, Gabriel B. Matthews, and a dozen others were arrested. A month later, on April 12, a bloody coup was staged by army personnel under the leadership of Master Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe. Tolbert and many of his aides were killed. A People’s Redemption Council, headed by Doe, subsequently suspended the constitution and assumed full legislative and executive powers. More than a dozen officials of the previous regime were publicly executed.

Under pressure from the United States and other creditors, Doe’s government issued a new constitution in July 1984 which allowed the return of political parties outlawed since 1980. Doe, however, used his power to assure that opposition parties did not threaten his domination, and he won the presidential election in 1985.

By the late 1980s inflation was rampant, exports were almost non-existent, and more than half the population was considered unemployed. In addition, relations with the United States, Liberia’s major foreign benefactor, deteriorated because of government corruption and human-rights abuses.

D.

The Civil War

In December 1989 a group of dissidents began an uprising against the government. The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPLF), a rebel group led by Charles Taylor, soon had an ill-trained army of 10,000 men, and within weeks it controlled much of the countryside. A split among the insurgents only increased the violence as fighting continued into 1990. The multinational ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) peacekeeping force sent to Liberia failed to halt the fighting. Doe was captured and executed by a breakaway faction of rebels in September.

The destruction of Liberia’s economy begun by Doe was completed by the war, which between 1989 and 1996 claimed the lives of more than 150,000 Liberians and left over 1 million people homeless; by 1992 more than one quarter of the population had fled the country as refugees. Efforts negotiated by ECOWAS to halt the fighting failed in 1991 and 1992.

The NPLF and the other rebel group, the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), rejected the provisional government established by ECOWAS, and led by Charles Sawyer. Fighting resumed and it was not until July 1993, following the imposition of an arms embargo by the United Nations Security Council, that a peace accord was negotiated and the terms for a return to a multi-party democracy agreed by the three groups.

A 35-member transitional government and legislature involving the provisional government, the NPLF and ULIMO was established by May 1994, and subsequently agreed on January 1, 1996, as the date for a return to a democratically elected government. However, the whole process was jeopardized by an outbreak of fighting by NPLF and ULIMO dissidents in September, and by a power struggle within the NPLF that led to Taylor being deposed. The fighting spread and the civil war resumed in many areas, despite the continuation of the coalition between the provisional government, the NPLF, and ULIMO, and quickly involved six different factions. Attempts to negotiate a peace collapsed in January 1995, and the war continued.

In September 1995 a transitional coalition government was formed under Wilton Sankawulo. The war was resumed in April 1996 when forces loyal to faction leaders Charles Taylor and Alhaji Kromah attacked rival factions in Monrovia, further damaging the capital’s already weakened infrastructure and causing panic among the remaining foreign residents, thousands of whom sought refuge in US facilities. Prospects for peace once again became extremely uncertain. Two ceasefires called in 1996 failed, and the evacuation of foreign nationals continued, with the United States despatching five warships to the area. In August 1996 a peace agreement was reached and a disarmament programme begun under ECOMOG (the Monitoring Observer Group of ECOWAS).

E.

The War’s Aftermath

Despite some minor flare-ups, the disarmament proceeded reasonably smoothly in 1997, with landmines being cleared and roads reopened to allow the return of refugees and the movement of aid convoys. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in July 1997, with Charles Taylor winning 75 per cent of the vote and his party gaining a majority in the National Assembly. Although nominally deemed to be constitutional, free, and fair, the elections were believed to be constrained by voter intimidation—most people thought that war would have continued had Taylor lost. Taylor appointed his former rival Kromah to the post of chairman of the National Reconciliation Board in December; however, with another rival warlord, Roosevelt Johnson, he was charged with treason in October 1998. Johnson fled the country after seeking refuge at the US Embassy, and Kromah remained at liberty when the trial opened in November. Withdrawal of ECOMOG forces was completed in October 1999.

The northern Liberian town of Voinjama was attacked by rebels from Guinea in April 1999, and subsequent fighting and retaliatory attacks led to the displacement of thousands of people. In addition, Liberia’s support of rebel groups in Sierra Leone and the illegal diamond smuggling trade between the two countries caused international aid donors to threaten suspension of funds. New currency notes were released in March 2000 in an attempt to put an end to two dollar currencies in circulation, a situation that had been causing considerable business difficulties.

In early 2001 the UN Security Council announced its intentions to impose sanctions, including an arms embargo, on Liberia, if it did not make efforts to reduce illegal diamond trading and gun running with rebels in other West African countries. A ban on diamond exports came into force, and Taylor announced the closure of the Sierra Leone border and, at the same time, expelled diplomats from Guinea and Sierra Leone, in a move which threatened to further destabilize relations between the countries. The border was reopened several months later but the violence within the country continued, with the government’s forces embarking on new offensives—it was estimated that over 50,000 people were displaced by the fighting. In February 2002, President Taylor declared a state of emergency as rebels moved in on Monrovia. He claimed that the government was fighting an unfair war against rebels, as it was unable to get new military supplies because of the continuing arms embargo. Taylor felt confident enough to lift the state of emergency in September but the situation rapidly deteriorated with the rebels advancing to positions just outside Monrovia by March 2003. The conflict intensified once more with two rebel groups—Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL)—advancing on Monrovia and continuing their efforts to gain control of the city. Following a period of intense fighting that claimed the lives of hundreds of people in the city, a ceasefire was declared in June, although the attacks and unrest continued. In August soldiers from ECOMOG, a Nigerian-led peacekeeping force, were deployed to the country. Taylor was accused by Sierra Leone of war crimes in June and in August was forced to hand over power to his deputy, Moses Blah. Nigeria promised Taylor asylum.

In October the US forces in the country were replaced by UN peacekeeping forces. Blah was relieved of the interim presidency and was succeeded by Gyude Bryant, who took over the role of Chairman of the National Transitional Government. Over the next couple of years the priorities were to stabilize the country economically and politically and to disarm the rebels. Marked improvements were seen and new investment emerged. More than 20 candidates stood in the country’s presidential election held in October 2005. The poll saw a narrow win for the former footballer George Weah, but he failed to win the 51 per cent necessary for victory and a run-off between Weah and his closest competitor, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was held the following month. The run-off was won by Johnson-Sirleaf, who secured 59 per cent of the vote. Johnson-Sirleaf, a US-educated economist and former finance minister, became Africa’s first woman head of state.