LIBERIA

     Liberia is the oldest republic in sub-Saharan Africa.  The country was founded on the west coast of Africa by freed slaves who were sent there by a colonization society in the United States.  These freed slaves were joined by others who had been freed from slave ships bound for the United States.  The name Liberia is derived from a Latin phrase meaning free land.

     Liberia’s land features include mountains, forested plateaus, and a rugged coastline.  The country has a hot, humid climate.  Most of Liberia’s workers farm for a living.  Monrovia, the country’s capital, is also its largest city.

Government

     In 2003, Liberia’s leaders signed an agreement with rebel groups establishing a transitional (temporary) government for Liberia.  The transitional government includes a Cabinet and legislature in which power is shared between the country’s main political parties and the rebel groups.  Elections for a permanent government are scheduled for 2005.

     Under Liberia’s constitution, a president heads the government, and the legislature consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives.  The voters elect the president to a six-year term.  The president appoints the Cabinet to carry out government functions.  The voters elect senators to nine-year terms and House members to six-year terms.  All Liberian citizens 18 years of age or older are allowed to vote.  Important political parties include the National Patriotic Party and the Unity Party.

     Liberia is divided into 15 counties.  Each county has a superintendent appointed by the president.

     A Supreme Court heads Liberia’s main court system.  The Supreme Court has a chief justice and four associate judges, all appointed by the president.  Another court system judges cases based on African customary law.

People

     Almost all of Liberia’s people are members of African ethnic groups.  Small groups of Americans, West Europeans, Lebanese, and Asian Indians also live in the country.  The African population is made up of two main groups – the indigenous (native) Africans, whose ancestors have lived in the area for hundreds of years; and the Americo-Liberians, who are descended mainly from African American settlers sent from the United States.

     Indigenous Africans account for about 95 percent of Liberia’s people.  They are divided into 16 ethnic groups, each with its own language, customs, history, and territory.  The largest groups are the Kpelle, who live in central Liberia, and the Bassa, who live along the coast.  Other groups include the Gio, Krahn, Kru, Mano, and Vai.

     The Americo-Liberians make up about 5 percent of the population.  They live in coastal cities and towns.  In general, the Americo-Liberians have been far better off than the indigenous Africans.  Before a group of indigenous Africans revolted in 1980, Americo-Liberians controlled the country’s political system.  The revolt brought indigenous Africans to power.

City Life

     Since the 1990’s, civil war and unrest have destroyed large areas of Liberia’s cities and towns.  During the 1980’s many urban Liberians had electric power and running water in their homes.  Monrovia had large buildings and stores, movie theaters, and busy streets.  Today, most of these features of urban life are gone.  Many of the expensive homes once occupied by Americo-Liberians are abandoned or in disrepair.  Most people who are still in the cities and towns live in small, tin-roofed wooden houses or in temporary dwellings.

Rural Life

     In the rural areas, people live in small villages.  Most people live in mud houses with thatched roofs.  Almost no homes in rural Liberia have electric power or indoor plumbing.

     Most people in rural Liberia work as farmers.  Many people who live along the coast fish for a living or work aboard ships.  As in the urban areas, extended families are common in Liberia’s rural areas.

Religions and languages

     About 30 percent of the people of Liberia are Christians, and about 20 percent are Muslims.  However, most Liberians – especially those in rural areas – follow traditional religious beliefs of their ethnic group.  English is Liberia’s official language.  It is used in government and business and is taught in the schools.  Each African ethnic group has its own language, and some also have several distinct dialects.

Education

     Liberia’s school system includes six years of elementary school and six years of secondary school.  The government supports some schools.  Others are run by missionaries.  By law, children must attend all 12 grades.  However, only about 60 percent of the children fulfill this requirement.  School attendance is much lower for girls than for boys.  Liberia lacks an adequate number of schools, especially in the rural areas.  The country also has shortages of teachers and teaching materials.

     Liberia has one university, one college, and three technical or trade institutions.  Less than 1 percent of the people of Liberia attend school beyond the secondary level.  Most of the country’s people cannot read and write. 

Land and climate

     Liberia has a rugged coastline.  A narrow coastal plain extends inland from the coastline, and the land gradually rises to a plateau region with low hills.  This region includes the Bomi Hills and the Bong Range.  Higher elevations of the plateau regions have forests of evergreen and deciduous trees, including ironwood and mahogany.  Its valleys have grasses with scattered trees.  Highlands in the northern and northwestern parts of Liberia include the Wologizi and Nimba mountain ranges.  Liberia’s most important rivers are Cavally (also spelled Cavalla), which forms Liberia’s border with Cote d’Ivoire; and the St. Paul, which flows through the mountains in the north.

     Liberia’s climate is hot and humid.  The average annual temperature is 80 degrees F along the coast.  Most of Liberia has a dry season and a rainy season.  On the coast, the dry season lasts from December to March.  However, the dry season lasts longer in inland areas of the country.  Annual rainfall on the coast averages 200 inches.  Inland areas receive about 81 inches of rain each year.

     Liberia once had much wildlife.  But hunters killed most of the wild animals.  Some elephants, crocodiles, pygmy hippopotamuses, antelopes, and leopards still live in the east and in the northwest.

Economy

     Liberia has plentiful natural resources, including water, minerals, and forests, and it has a climate favorable to agriculture.  But the civil war of the 1990’s severely damaged the country’s economy.  Many business people have left Liberia, and few have returned.  Before the war, Liberia had been a producer and exporter of iron ore and basic products such as rubber.  The country now has a subsistence economy – that is, an economy based largely on people producing food and other goods for their own use, rather than for export.  A few people, including several government officials, profit from diamond smuggling and other illegal trading activities.

Agriculture

     Agriculture is the chief occupation in Liberia.  Many Liberian families raise crops on small plots of land owned by their communities.  Cassava, rice, sugar cane, and tropical fruits are the chief food crops.  Many farmers also raise chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, and other livestock.  Most Liberian farmers use old fashioned farming methods, and few have modern farm machinery.  Liberia’s farmers produce goods mainly for their own families, and so there is little to sell to city dwellers.  As a result, the country must import much of its food.

Rubber is Liberia’s main agricultural export.  Large rubber plantations owned by foreign companies employ many Liberians.  Other crops exported from Liberia include cacao, which is used to make cocoa, and coffee.  Liberia has some large forest areas.  Timber cut from these regions is exported, used for firewood, or made into lumber for the construction of houses.

Service industries

    These are economic activities that provide services rather than produce goods.  The most important service industries are government activities, finance, insurance, and real estate.

Mining

     Almost all of Liberia’s mining income comes from iron ore.  A company jointly owned by Italians and Germans mines iron ore.  Liberian prospectors mine small amounts of gold and diamonds.

Manufacturing

     Factories in Liberia produce soap, beverages, and explosives and process farm, forest, and mining products.  Liberia has an oil refinery.

Transportation and communication

     Most of Liberia’s roads are unpaved.  Railroads built by mining companies carry freight between the companies’ mines and ports in Monrovia and Buchanan.  Monrovia has two airports.  Few Liberians own an automobile.  City dwellers usually walk or take taxis or buses.  Most rural Liberians travel on foot.  One of the largest merchant fleets in the world is registered under the Liberian flag.  But only a few ships are owned by Liberians.  The rest are owned by people from other countries who register their ships in Liberia because taxes are lower there.

     Liberia has 3 daily newspapers.  The country has an average of about 1 radio for every 4 people.  Only about 1 of every 50 Liberians owns a TV set.