Download or read book The First Liberian Civil War written by George Klay Kieh and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2008 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges the dominant view that the first Liberian civil war was caused by ethno-cultural antagonisms between and among the country's various ethnic groups. Alternatively, the book argues that the war was the consequence of the multifaceted crises of underdevelopment - cultural, economic, political, and social - generated by the neo-colonial Liberian State.

Download or read book Liberia s First Civil War written by Edmund Hogan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-13 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive narrative history of Liberia’s first civil war, from its origins in the 1980s right through the conflict and up to the peace agreement and conclusion of hostilities in 1997. The first Liberian Civil War was one of Africa’s most devastating conflicts, claiming the lives of more than 200,000 Liberians, and sending shockwaves across the world. Drawing on a wide range of local and international sources, the book traces the background of the war and its long-term and immediate causes, before analysing the detail of the unfolding conflict, the eventual ceasefire, peace agreement and subsequent elections. In particular, the book shines a light on hitherto unseen first-hand Roman Catholic indigenous and missionary sources, which offer a rare intimacy to the analysis. Detailing the impact of Liberia’s individual warlords and peacemakers, the book also explains the roles played by non-governmental agencies, national, regional and international actors, by the UN, ECOWAS and the Organisation of African Unity, and by nations with special interests and influence, such as the USA and other West African states. This book’s detailed narrative analysis of the Liberian conflict will be an important read for anyone with an interest in the Liberian conflict, including researchers within African studies, political science, contemporary history, international relations, and peace and conflict studies.

Download or read book The Liberian Civil War written by Mark Huband and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The civil war in 1989 promised freedom from ten years of vicious dictatorship; instead the seeds of Liberia's devastation were sown. Mark Huband's account of the conflict is a portrayal of the war as it unfolded, drawing on the author's experience of living amongst the fighters.

Download or read book Liberia written by Gabriel I. H. Williams and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Download or read book Sweet Battlefields written by Mats Utas and published by Mats Utas. This book was released on 2003 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Liberia s Women Veterans written by Leena Vastapuu and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Liberian civil wars of the 1990s and 2000s became notorious for their atrocities, and for the widespread use of child soldiers. Girls and young women accounted for up to 40 per cent of these soldiers, but their unique perspective and experiences have largely been excluded from accounts of the conflict. In Liberia's Women Veterans, Leena Vastapuu uses an innovative auto-photographic methodology to tell the story of two of Africa's most brutal civil wars through the eyes of 133 female former soldiers. Incorporating their testimonies alongside a series of vivid illustrations by Emmi Nieminen, the book provides an in-depth account of these women's experiences of trauma, stigma, and the challenges of reintegration into post-war society, as well as their hopes and aspirations for the future. Vastapuu argues that these women, too often been perceived merely as passive victims of the conflict, can in fact play an important role in post-war reconciliation and peace-building. Overturning gendered perceptions of warfare and militarism, the book provides a unique take on humanitarian practices and post-conflict societies, making essential reading for policymakers as well as students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences.

Download or read book Liberian Civil War written by James Youboty and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A graphic account of the very bloody civil war in Liberia. The country was founded in 1822 on the West Coast of Africa by freed American slaves. The ex-slaves dominated & suppressed the native Africans in the region until 1980 when their dynasty was ousted through a bloody coup led by M/sgt. Samuel Kanyon Doe. Doe ruled the country for 10 years to the discontentment of the descendants of the ex-slaves, referred to as Americo-Liberians. They considered him a dictator. One of the Americo-Liberians, Charles Taylor, a member of Doe's government, fell out of favor with President Doe when he visited the USA to purchase merchandise for the government. Instead of returning to Liberia, Taylor pocketed the money. The Liberian government consequently requested his extradition. Taylor was arrested & jailed in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Strangely, he escaped from jail & departed the USA without a "smidgen of detection" in 1985. On December 24, 1989 he invaded Liberia from neighboring Ivory Coast. Under the name of National Patriotic Front of Liberia, Taylor & armed followers roamed the country spreading extreme atrocities instead of going to Monrovia, the Liberian capital, to overthrow the government. Five American nuns were among the 50,000 casualties. Since then, President Doe was captured & tortured to death. Liberia is relegated to a state of anarchy.

Download or read book The Burden of Collective Goodwill written by Abiodun Alao and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is the first to discuss in detail the extensive external involvement in the Liberian civil war, a war that claimed up to 200,000 lives, created a massive refuge crisis and brought West Africa to the tribunal of international attention. The book is conceived against the background that the international response to the conflict has features that are unprecedented in the management of civil conflicts in the post-cold war era. For example, the regional peacekeeping mission was the first after the end of the cold war, while the dispatch of UN Observer mission was the first ever joint peacekeeping mission between the UN and a regional organisation. The extensive involvement of international organisations in the conflict has not been witnessed in the region since the Biafran war of 1967-1970.

Download or read book Liberia s Civil War written by Adekeye Adebajo and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text aims to unravel the tangled web of the conflict by addressing questions including: why did Nigeria intervene in Liberia and remain committed throughout the seven-year civil war?; and to what extent was ECOMOG's intervention shaped by Nigeria's hegemonic aspirations.

Download or read book The Evolution of Deadly Conflict in Liberia written by Jeremy I. Levitt and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book represents the first attempt to holistically document and analyze the causes of deadly conflict in Liberia from its founding to the present. It reconstructs and examines the root, operational, and catalytic causes of eighteen internal deadly conflicts that transpired in Liberia between 1822 and 2003, including the 1980 coup d'e'tat against the Tolbert regime and the Great War (1989-2003). The book seeks to answer two primary questions: What are the historical causes of deadly conflict in Liberia, and To what extent has the evolution of settler nationalism and authoritarianism contributed to the stimulation of conflict between settler and native Liberians? To answer these questions, Levitt examines a continuum of circular causation among the state of affairs that led to the founding of the Liberian State, the evolution of settler authoritarianism and nationalism, and internal conflict. By analyzing these processes together, the causes of eighteen conflicts are revealed and thoroughly discussed. The book also has three major objectives: to determine the historical causes of deadly conflict in Liberia, in particular, the underlining historical phenomena responsible for birthing the Great War; to present an alternative framework to comprehend and examine the aged conflict dynamic between settler and indigenous Liberians, and within Liberian society itself; and to produce the first comprehensive study of deadly conflict in Liberia. This book advantageously spans the fields of political science, history, international law, and peace and conflict studies; it is an excellent interdisciplinary choice. "Dr. Levitt has meticulously investigated the major violent conflicts in Liberia's tortured history and convincingly traced their roots to political institutions of domination and control that remain at the foundation of Liberia's system of governance today. The book's message for Liberia's future is unmistakable." -- Amos Sawyer, Professor and Associate Director, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University-Bloomington, and former Interim President of Liberia, IGNU "[T]he definitive work on the causes of Liberia's cycle of deadly conflict... The vital importance of Dr. Levitt's work is clear: only by understanding those root causes can Liberians and those who wish them well hope to find an exit from the cycle." -- David Wippman, Professor of Law and Vice Provost for International Relations, Cornell University "This is an excellent book... Levitt deserves great credit for its quality, thoroughness and the care of his research." -- Crawford Young, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison "[A]n original work with fresh perspective that is well grounded in history and theory and of great value to Liberian studies and to the theoretical literature on deadly conflict." -- D. Elwood Dunn, Professor & Chair of Political Science, University of the South (TN), Former Liberian Government Official "Levitt's painstaking documentation of the deadly conflicts makes a most useful contribution to the on-going governance debate. This work is a major contribution to understanding the primary factors that collapsed the Liberian state." -- Dr. Byron Tarr, Development Consultants Inc. Monrovia, Liberia "Levitt, for his part, makes a major contribution to our understanding both of Liberia's past and how that past ought to inform our understanding of the present. Indeed, his is the first systematic accounting for the many nation-building conflicts of Liberia." -- African Studies Review

Download or read book American Warlord written by Johnny Dwyer and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2015 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Another America The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It written by James Ciment and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-08-13 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the history of Liberia, founded and settled by a small group of African Americans who left early 19th century America to free themselves from prejudice, but ended up persecuting the area's natives in a way that mirrored their own histories.

Download or read book Civil War and State Formation written by Felix Gerdes and published by Campus Verlag. This book was released on 2013-05 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberia was the scene of two devastating civil wars since late 1989 and became widely considered a failed state. By contrast, the country is frequently described as a success story since the international professional Ellen Johnson Sirleaf assumed the presidency following democratic elections in 2005. The book investigates the political economy of civil war and democratic peace and puts the developments into historical perspective. The author argues that the civil wars did not represent the breakdown of the state but exhibited dynamics characteristic of state formation. His analysis of continuity and change in Liberia's political evolution details both political progress and persistent structural deficits of the polity. Book jacket.

Download or read book Liberia written by Frank Sherman and published by New Africa Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is a general introduction to Liberia. It is comprehensive in scope covering a wide range of subjects from a historical and contemporary perspective. It is intended for members of the general public. But some members of the academic community may also find this work to be useful in their fields. Subjects covered include an overview of the country and its geography including all the regions - known as counties - and the different ethnic groups who live there. The work is also a historical study of Liberia since the founding of the country by freed black American slaves. One of the subjects covered in the book is the conflicts - including wars - the new black American settlers had with the indigenous people. The freed slaves who, together with their descendants, came to be known as Americo-Liberians, dominated the country and excluded the indigenous people from the government and other areas of national life for almost 160 years until the Americo-Liberian rulers were overthrown in a military coup in 1980. It was one of the bloodiest military coups in modern African history. The soldiers who overthrew the government were members of native tribes and were hailed as liberators by the indigenous people who had been dominated and had suffered discrimination at the hands of Americo-Liberians throughout the nation's history. Some of them were even sold into slavery in Panama by the Americo-Liberian rulers in the 1930s, prompting an investigation of the labour scandal by the League of Nations. Others were forced to work on various projects within Liberia itself and became virtual slaves in their own country. Americo-Liberians saw the natives as inferior to them and treated them that way. The mistreatment of the members of native tribes by the Americo-Liberians was one of the main reasons native soldiers of the Liberian army decided to overthrow the government. The book also covers the Liberian civil war which destroyed the country in the 1990s and early 2000s, a conflict which also had historical roots. The conflict is attributed to the inequalities between Americo-Liberians and the indigenous people which existed throughout the nation's history. But its immediate cause was the brutalities Liberians suffered under the military rulers who overthrew the Americo-Liberian-dominated government. Another major subject covered in the book is the ethnic composition of Liberia. The work looks at all the ethnic groups in the country and their home regions - counties - as well as their cultures, providing a comprehensive picture of life in contemporary times in Africa's oldest republic. The national culture of Liberia in general is also another subject addressed in the book. The author has also addressed another very important subject: indigenous forms of writing invented by the members of different tribes or ethnic groups in Liberia. The indigenous scripts are a major contribution to civilisation and Liberia stands out among all the countries on the African continent as the country which has the largest number of these forms of writing. People going to Liberia for the first time, and anybody else who wants to learn about this African country, may find this work to be useful.

Download or read book Easy Prey written by Janet Fleischman and published by Human Rights Watch. This book was released on 1994 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Child soldiers are among the most tragic victims of the war in Liberia. Although international law forbids the use of children under the age of 15 as soldiers, thousands of young children have been involved in the fighting since it began in December 1989. The main rebel forces, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and the United Liberian Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), have consistently used children under the age of 18, including thousands under 15. Children are also reportedly used by the other warring factions. As a consequence, thousands of children in Liberia have suffered cruelly during the war: many have been killed or wounded or witnessed terrible atrocities. Moreover, many children themselves have been forced to take part in the killing, maiming or rape of civilians. The use of children as soldiers presents grave human rights problems. Many of these children have been killed during the conflict, thus denied the most basic right -- the right to life. Others have been forcibly conscripted by the warring factions, and separated from their families against their wills. Many have joined warring factions to survive. All have been denied a normal childhood. Reintegrating these children into their communities is a task of immense difficulty. Some children's parents have been killed, their families have fled, and no relatives can be found. In others, families have refused to take children back because of the abuses they have committed. Human Rights Watch believes that 18 is the minimum age at which people may properly take part in armed conflict."--cover.

Download or read book The Liberian Civil Wars written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-09-07 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading In the spring of 1786, an organization was founded in London to provide some aid for destitute blacks and Asians in the British capital who were by then beginning to become conspicuous. Quite a number of them were resettled blacks from the American colonies who aided British forces in the Revolutionary War and found themselves thereafter no longer welcome in the United States. Others were captives, slaves for one reason or another released on the high seas, and other stevedores and sailors washed up on the shore of England. It was generally believed that the figure was some 15,000, and with limited employment prospects and no community support, most were in very difficult circumstances indeed. The motivations for this were complicated and varied, and in part they could be explained by an interest in creating circumstances advantageous to blacks, but also to give them an opportunity to form and run a colony effectively in order to debunk a widely held belief that no black man could do such a thing. There was also some value in redistributing freed blacks from the various plantation colonies of the empire, not to mention the political expedience of protecting the British Isles themselves from an expanding population of non-whites generated as a consequence of imperial activities. The idea of locating this ideal colony in the vicinity of modern Sierra Leone came about thanks to the representations of a plant collector by the name of Henry Smeathman, who had recently returned from the West African region and believed that the Pepper Coast (also referred to as Grain Coast) offered the most viable prospects. At the time, British and European trade in West Africa was vibrant and wide-ranging, including the slave trade, and there was a steady movement of merchant and Royal Navy ships between West Africa and the British mainland. His reasons for advocating that spot are rather vague, although it probably was at the time one of the least deadly stretches of an otherwise fever-ridden coastline. There was a lot of sentimentality and idealism behind the development of the idea, as well as a certain amount of pragmatism, but the upshot of it was that in 1787, a shipment of 4,000 blacks arrived in several ships offshore of what would today be Freetown. They were essentially dropped off, wished the best of luck, and otherwise abandoned. Conditions, of course, were primitive, and the mortality rate among these early pioneers was atrocious. One of the first problems they faced was hostility from local tribes, and almost from the moment they landed, they found themselves in a state of war. Nonetheless, they managed to establish a bridgehead, and in due course a colony took root. Numbers were augmented occasionally by independent arrivals, and the steady deposit of captives collected in one way or another by the Royal Navy Atlantic Squadron. The Liberian Civil Wars: The History and Legacy of the Deadly Conflicts and Liberia's Transition to Democracy in the 21st Century looks at the incredibly deadly conflicts, and how they changed the nation. Along with pictures, you will learn about the the wars and Liberia's transition like never before.

Download or read book The Liberian Civil War written by Mark Huband and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The civil war in 1989 promised freedom from ten years of vicious dictatorship; instead the seeds of Liberia's devastation were sown. Mark Huband's account of the conflict is a portrayal of the war as it unfolded, drawing on the author's experience of living amongst the fighters.