The people of Liberia are classified into three major groups: the indigenous people, who are in the majority and who migrated from the western Sudan in the late Middle Ages; black immigrants from the United States (known historically as Americo-Liberians) and the West Indies; and other black immigrants from neighbouring western African states who came during the anti-slave-trade campaign and European colonial rule. The Americo-Liberians are most closely associated with founding Liberia. Most of them migrated to Liberia between 1820 and 1865; continued migration has been intermittent. Americo-Liberians controlled the government until a military coup in 1980.
Liberia has a population (2001 estimate) of 3,225,837, giving the country an overall population density of 33 persons per sq km (84 per sq mi). Civil war between 1989 and 1996 drove hundreds of thousands of Liberians into neighboring countries as refugees. An estimated 47 percent of those remaining live in cities and towns. Before the war, a majority of the population was engaged in agriculture, and many maintained their traditional ways of life.
Liberia owes its establishment to the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816 to resettle freed American slaves 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 Saint Paul River, to U.S. representatives, and the first Americo-Liberians, led by Jehudi Ashmun, began the settlement. In 1824 an American agent for the society, Ralph Randolph Gurley, named the new colony Liberia and the Cape Mesurado settlement Monrovia. 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 modeled 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. Liberia was recognized by Britain in 1848, by France in 1852, and by the United States in 1862.
In the beginning of the 19th century the tide started to rise in favour of the abolition of slavery, and the Grain Coast was suggested as a suitable home for freed American slaves. In 1818 two U.S. government agents and two officers of the American Colonization Society (founded 1816) visited the Grain Coast. After abortive attempts to establish settlements there, an agreement was signed in 1821 between the officers of the society and local African chiefs granting the society possession of Cape Mesurado. The first American freed slaves landed in 1822 on Providence Island at the mouth of the Mesurado River. They were followed shortly by Jehudi Ashmun, a white American, who became the real founder of Liberia. By the time Ashmun left in 1828 the territory had a government, a digest of laws for the settlers, and the beginnings of profitable foreign commerce. Other settlements were started along the St. John River, at Greenville, and at Harper. In 1839 Thomas Buchanan was appointed the first governor. On his death in 1841 he was succeeded by Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a black man born free in Virginia in 1809; Roberts enlarged the boundaries of the territory and improved economic conditions.
In December 1989 a group of dissidents began an uprising against the government. The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), a rebel group led by Charles Taylor, soon had an ill-trained army of 10,000 men, and within weeks they controlled much of the countryside. A split among the insurgents only increased the violence as fighting continued into 1990. An Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) monitoring group (ECOMOG) was sent to Liberia as a peacekeeping force, but failed to halt the fighting. Doe was captured and executed by a splinter group of the NPFL in September 1990. The destruction of Liberia’s economy begun by Doe was completed by the war.
Traditional and Western lifestyles coexist; however, traditional values, customs, and norms influence the Western type considerably. In cities both Western and African music and dancing styles are in vogue, but in rural areas traditional rhythms are favoured. Schools instruct students in the legends, traditions, songs, arts, and crafts of African culture, and the government promotes African culture through such agencies as the National Museum in Monrovia, the Tubman Center for African Culture in Robertsport, and the National Cultural Center in Kendeja, which exhibits architecture of the 16 ethnic groups of Liberia. Mask making is an artistic pursuit that is also related to the social structure of some ethnic groups. Music festivals, predominantly religious, are held in most communities. The University of Liberia has an arts and crafts centre. There are several libraries, including a children's library in Monrovia and a National Public Library.
Football (soccer) is the most popular sport. An intercounty football competition is held for the annual championship. The University of Liberia and Cuttington University College hold annual sports competitions.
Monrovia has five daily newspapers, including the Daily Observer, the largest and most prestigious. A few magazines are published annually. Officially, there is press freedom, but newspapers are banned occasionally for violating government policies on information.
Malaria, tuberculosis, yaws, and leprosy are prevalent in Liberia. In 2001 average life expectancy at birth was 53 years for women and 50 years for men; the infant mortality rate was 132 per 1,000 live births. Some hospitals are operated by the central government, but no national social-welfare system exists.
The four physiographic regions of Liberia parallel the coast. The coastal plains are about 350 miles (560 kilometres) long and extend up to 25 miles inland. They are low and sandy, with miles of beaches interspersed with bar-enclosed lagoons, mangrove swamps, and a few rocky promontories—the highest being Cape Mount (about 1,000 feet [305 metres] in elevation) in the northwest, Cape Mesurado in Monrovia, and Cape Palmas in the southeast. Parallel to the coastal plains is a region of rolling hills some 20 miles wide with an average maximum elevation of about 300 feet; a few hills rise as high as 500 feet. It is a region suitable for agriculture and forestry. Behind the rolling hills, most of the country's interior is a dissected plateau with scattered low mountains ranging from 600 to 1,000 feet in elevation; some mountains rise to 2,000 feet. A striking feature of the mountainous northern highlands along the Guinea frontier is Mount Nimba.
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 are found, as well as chimpanzee, elephant, buffalo, and monkey.
Civil war destroyed much of the economy of Liberia, particularly the infrastructure in and around Monrovia. Prior to the war the country had encouraged foreign investment in the development of its rich natural resources, mainly rubber, iron ore, and timber; many investors have since departed. With 72 percent of the labor force engaged in agriculture and forestry, the government had undertaken educational and vocational training programs to encourage the development of other sectors. Those programs, too, were stopped by the war. In the late 1980s the annual budget showed revenues of $217 million and current and development expenditures of $248 million; by 1993 government income had been reduced to small revenues from registering merchant shipping. The principal port in Buchanan reopened in mid-1993, and the export of rubber and timber resumed.
The Liberian economy is predominantly agrarian, and raw materials, equipment, and consumer goods are imported. Production for export is carried out on a large scale through foreign investment in rubber, forestry, and mining. Foreign ships registering under a Liberian “flag of convenience” have made Liberia the world's foremost nation in registered shipping tonnage. Liberia nevertheless remains a primarily agricultural and underdeveloped country. The distribution of wealth is uneven, the coastal districts receiving a greater share of economic benefits than the hinterland, after which the administrative centres are the next beneficiaries.
A civil war in 1989-96 destroyed much of Liberia's economy, especially the infrastructure in and around Monrovia. Many businessmen fled the country, taking capital and expertise with them. Some returned during 1997. Many will not return. Richly endowed with water, mineral resources, forests, and a climate favorable to agriculture, Liberia had been a producer and exporter of basic products, while local manufacturing, mainly foreign owned, had been small in scope. The democratically elected government, installed in August 1997, inherited massive international debts and currently relies on revenues from its maritime registry to provide the bulk of its foreign exchange earnings. The restoration of the infrastructure and the raising of incomes in this ravaged economy depend on the implementation of sound macro- and micro-economic policies of the new government, including the encouragement of foreign investment. Recent growth has been from a low base, and continued growth will require major policy successes
Telephone and telegraph service via microwave radio relay network; main center is Monrovia
domestic: NA
international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
About 10 percent of Liberia’s people are Christian, principally Protestant. Islam has made progress among the people of the interior, who have largely retained their animist religions. Altogether, about 70 percent of the people follow traditional religions and 20 percent are Muslim. English is Liberia’s official language but is spoken by only about one-fifth of the people. The remainder speak various African languages which mainly belong to the Mande, West Atlantic, or Kwa linguistic groups.
All Liberia Coalition Party or ALCOP [Lusinee KAMARA]; Free Democratic Party or FDP [Roderick Nyennatee LEWIS, chairman]; Liberian Action Party or LAP [Cletus WOTORSON]; Liberian National Union or LINU [Henry MONIBA, chairman]; Liberian People's Party or LPP [Togba-Nah TIPOTEH, chairman]; National Democratic Party of Liberia or NDPL [Isaac DAKINAH]; National Patriotic Party or NPP [Charles Ghankay TAYLOR] - governing party; People's Progressive Party or PPP [Chea CHEAPOO, chairman]; Reformation Alliance Party or RAP [Henry Boimah FAHNBULLEH, chairman]; True Whig Party or TWP [Rudolph SHERMAN, chairman]; United People's Party or UPP [Gabriel Baccus MATTHEWS, chairman]; Unity Party or UP [Charles Clarke]
Following a coup d’état in 1980, Liberia’s constitution, promulgated in 1847, was suspended. A new constitution was published in 1983, approved by popular referendum in 1984, and promulgated in January 1986. Under this constitution a president and vice president are jointly elected to a six-year term by universal adult suffrage. The two-chamber National Assembly is composed of a Senate, whose 26 members are elected to nine-year terms, and a House of Representatives, whose 64 members are elected for six years.
International organization Member
ACP, AfDB, CCC, ECA, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat (nonsignatory user), Interpol, IOC, IOM, ITU, NAM, OAU, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO.
The Compulsory Education Act of 1912 provides for compulsory, free education for children between the ages of 6 and 16. However, government attempts to implement this law are hindered by a scarcity of educational facilities, and only 33 percent of primary school-aged children were receiving education in 1996. Just 71 percent of the population was literate in 2001. Higher education is provided by the University of Liberia (1862), in Monrovia, and several colleges.
Military branches: Army, Air Force, Navy
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 715,753 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 385,460 (2001 est.)
Large refugee population from civil war in Sierra Leone
