Talk:Liberia/Archive 1

Untitled Comments
Why not provide information on major towns like Gbarnga, Saniquelle, etc.? There are 15 or so tribes and many other details that could be provided. Schools, hospitals, could be mentioned as well.
 * Yes, that would be excellent! If you know information, please add it to the page!

Moved from article page: ''Much of these articles originally came from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2002 U.S. Department of State website. Somewhat Wikified.'' olivier 09:31, 31 Jul 2003 (UTC)

It ought to be mentioned how it happened that many merchant ships came to be registered in Liberia, and at least for official purposes under the Liberian flag. This is something I have never understood, myself. -- Smerdis of Tlön 12:55, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Replaced COA: Image:lib-coa.gif. --Jiang|(Talk) 07:16, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Uploaded Samuel Doe picture
I uploaded a replacement picture of Doe from the page that the other presidents' pictures came from, and fixed the relevant pages. Finngall 23:46, 20 February 2007 (UTC)Finngall

President Samuel Doe a Goat?
I've never met President Doe in person, but I would bet just about anything that he is in fact a HUMAN and not a GOAT, as the picture on this page, Presidents of Liberia, and Samuel Doe, all suggest. Can someone correct this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.165.10.95 (talk) 16:37, 20 February 2007 (UTC).

Just A Thought...
Hey, if blacks in the United States are called African-Americans, does that make the first immigrants to Liberia American-Africans? Or would they be African-American-Africans? M.Neko

Here's a better thought... WHy does the article reference people who were returned to liberia as "african americans". If they were born in Africa, were forcefully taken away, then returned they're just Africans.

Why, because most of them were not born in Africa. Their forefathers were born in Africa. WaRScytH 16:04, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I was just talking to a friend of mine from Liberia who now lives in the US. I asked if that would make him an African-American-African-American. He said he identifies as an "African-African" and just checks the block that says "Black", so there you go. 198.6.46.11 15:41, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

A good Liberian Information Site
http://www.liberianforum.com is a good website for learning about Liberia. It contains a vast array of information, news, history and discussions on Liberia and Liberian issues.

Missing perspective on origins of Liberia
Might it not be truer to say that the history of Liberia began in 1817, when the American Colonization Society acquired the land? And is it not possibly misleading to say that Liberia became independent in 1847 without pointing out that independence was effectively forced on the territory, because the US would not claim sovereignty over it? and that a lot of the emigration to Liberia was in effect forced (in that for many of the emigrants, freedom was granted on condition that they emigrate -- so the only alternative to emigration was continued slavery)?

High - Yellows
It would be fitting to acknowledge the leading role that the mixed-race High-Yellows from the United States performed in Liberia from the outset until their descendants were executed and placed on display around 1970. They were not "black" people. Many photographs were taken of the dead bodies of those High-Yellows. I'm not wildly color-blind. I saw pictures of the High-Yellows.

Entered on Sunday at 20:38Z, July 10th, 2005.151.201.135.91 21:15, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

It is not at all the case that the history of the area now called Liberia began in 1817. That was merely the founding of the political entity called Liberia, and was most certainly not the result of anything like an "act of self-determination" by the existing populace of the area. This could quite easily be called a colonisation. Although it is true that the subsequent history of Liberia is dominated by its connection with the United States, some thought might be given to the viewpoints of the 95% of the populace who are of indigenous descent. NickyMcLean 02:53, 26 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, the early history of Liberia is mostly about the Americo-Liberians and their struggles against the indigenous population in the interior of the country. For more information, consult History of Liberia.  Feel free to bring any relevant material from that article over into this one if you think it would help balance the coverage here.
 * --Richard 03:48, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

the term High Yellow seems racist to me, and dated. I don't think it is a proper noun either. light skin blacks should be preferred. Rds865 (talk) 20:19, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

HIGH YELLOWS
In reponse to your comment on "high yellows" not being black,my mother who is considered "high yellow"or light skinned is black her father was very darkskinnded her mother was light skinned or high yellow,my broher sister and i about medium skinned brown as is most of my family ,and we are all black people,you should really do some research on black culture befrore u make an erroneous statement,it makes u look ignorant and propogates false hoods.

DPJ

Umm, someone has made this page unreadable.

True, True,...To the responder, Please learn to spell correctly, so we are not thought of as being illiterate. (my opinion: Spellcheck) Secondly, the original author of this thread has got to have his/her facts correct. It was in 1980 when they were executed.

Use of metric system
I have read in several places that the Metric system is not officially used in Liberia, but have never been able to discover the details. Is there a local system of measurement that is used? Have there been attempts at metrication? Seabhcán 11:48, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

From my experience living in Liberia, the metric system might be preferred, but the "standard" system is still the de-facto standard. Some highway signs gave distances in kilometers, but the speed limits and so forth have been in miles per hour. Perhaps with a new government and a fresh start Liberia will totally switch over to Metric system. But it will take a long time, because people are used to the standard system of units and the education system is only barely getting back off the ground.

Given the complete and absolute destruction of the electrical grid, Liberia has officially switched over from 60Hz to 50Hz -- that is, when they do eventually start rebuilding their electrical grid. At least all the private generators and electrical equipment being imported is for 50Hz, with the exception of several private power grids that have survived the war and are still on 60Hz. (Firestone Rubber Plantation and the Robertsfield Airport are two that I know of.) Alan J Shea 14:38, 19 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reply. So Liberia traditionally used miles for distance. What about measurements of weight and volume? I'm curious because I wonder whether Liberia used the UK or US system of units (US units have the same names but different values, with the exception of the mile. A US gallon, for example, is 3.7l where as a British gallon is 4.5l) Seabhcán 14:48, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Hmm, didn't think of mentioning those units... Given Liberia's historic ties to the USA, US Gallons, quarts, etc were and probably still are standard units of measure. Rice however is sold by the non-standard "cup", which varies from seller to seller!

Since war has disrupted so much of Liberia's economy, they are adopting more of the standards of the countries around them rather than be being the island they once were. (I should not fail to mention that Sierra Leone, with its ties to the UK, previously used the Imperial gallon, mile, and so forth.) I suspect that liters are gaining popularity, and I'm sure marketers will try to take advantage of people's unfamiliarity with it to cheat. I apologize for my cynicism, I've lived in Liberia too long. Alan J Shea 15:30, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

moved from article
Some of the factors that led to the coup in 1980, were the growing resentment amongst the indigenous tribes, but the most important was the rice riots that mainly caused the disturbances in Monrovia that ultimately lead to the coup.

The rice riot was lead by Baccus Matthew, who True Whig Party had promised to have the price of rice at $7.00. As we have seen that has never happened.--70.19.73.7 04:26, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

ellen johnson-sirleaf
someone should add recent history and presumably the bush administration's support leading up to the recent election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Santaduck 18:28, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

currency
i recently received a coin with George W. Bush's face on the front with the words Republic of Liberia on the back. is this real currency from Liberia? i was wondering if anyone here knew about this. thanks! Anthonymendoza 23:29, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

No it isnt, Liberian coins from 1, 5, 10, 25 50 cents and $1 and $5 exist. All modern coins have a Liberty head and no president, and older ones an elephant. But it could be a commemorative issue not circulated n Liberia. What value is it? Date as well would be good. Enlil Ninlil 01:32, 16 May 2006 (UTC)


 * the face value is $10 and the year is 2001. it came with a certificate of authenticity.  does liberia issue commemorative coins?  Anthonymendoza 03:09, 17 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes Liberia does issue commemoratives, actually it issues many of them, not many countries is west africa issue commemoratives. So id say if you find one other on e-bay, a book or a web sit its real.

Enlil Ninlil 05:53, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Talk page
 * Site about the coin

No previous coastal settlements?
The article speaks of "mutual mistrust and hostility between the "Americans" along the coast and the "Natives" of the interior." This suggests that when the settleers came, they could freely settle at the coast and that hostilities only started after that. This sounds so unlikely that it has to be untrue. People always settle near water, and throughout the world, the population centres are near the coast (if there is any). So the natives must have concentrated near the coast here too. So they must have been driven away from there. So the hostilities started there. At least, that stands to reason. Unless, of course, they had already been driven away during previous colonisations, but that's unlikely because those European colonisers (Portuguese, according to the German article) were usually just a ruling minority. This was the very thing I wanted to look up here, but there's no info on it. DirkvdM 07:51, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

From other sources I now understand the following. The Portuguese fought with the Dutch over Ghana, which drew them away from this region, leaving it uncolonised by Europeans. In 1787, poor blacks were brought from London to Sierra Leone (a similar scheme to that or Liberia) and in 1821 part of that land was 'bought' (sometimes at gunpoint) by the American Colonization Society to form Liberia (or 'local chiefs'?), after which a new type of colonisation started, driving out the local Mande, Kwa and Mel. Which answers my question to some extent. However, this is too sketchy to base an edit on, so I'll leave that to someone who is more informed. Some sources: http://www.mrdowling.com/610-liberia.html, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/libhtml/liberia.html, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/liberia/essays/history/ and http://www.expedia.co.uk/lonelyplanet/Liberia/historyandculture.aspx. DirkvdM 09:10, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Famous People
should there be a list of famous Liberians? It seems like there should, in some way, be more relating to George Weah. --CHernandez 23:57, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

I think its a good idea... Oprah Winfrey traced her origins, and her ancestors are from Liberia. E.Carvalho 13:31, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

President Tubmann
I miss the Tubmann period with the Open Door Policy. Partly a rather scandalous exploitation of the rich iron mine in Bomi Hills ((I believe the revenue was $1/ton of iron ore), partly a benevolent dictatorship, opening the doors for rubber plantations, the Nimba mines, and forest exploration. Not too benevolent if you disagreed with Tubmann - Bella Yella was a NO-word in those times.  Who will fill in this blanc sheet in the history?

Gutted external links section
Hello, I gutted the external links section because it was full of advertisements and grossly different than the external links of a typical nation article. Take a look at any other nation's external links for more of what we're looking for here. --Improv 18:52, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Ethiopia
What the article claims about Ethiopia is not kinda true. Ethiopia DID fall under European domination, as it was conquered by the Italians. Although, it happened kinda late, only in 1936 IIRC. WaRScytH 16:16, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Needs work! Monrovia-centric, little on non-English speaking Liberians (who are 90% of the country)
This article needs a lot of work. Way too much emphasis on current events (post-1990) -- move that into a separate "Liberia - current events" article if we must. This article doesn't even mention ANY language spoken except English! Only a tiny fraction of the country speaks English as a native language, most don't speak it at all. How would a reader know what languages ARE spoken? What about society, social organization outside of Monrovia? What are the major ethnic groups? Etc. DBrnstn 12:05, 13 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Liberia needs a lot of work. I'm going to be using the featured article Chad as a template for Liberia's structure and coverage. The Intro ought to have key aspects of the country and the history is discombobulated for a start. Kain Nihil 11:03, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Comments
WHAT ABOUT THE SLAVE TRADE? FREED AMERICAN SLAVES PARTICIPATED IN ENSLAVING THE NATIVE POPULATION DURING THEIR SETTLEMENT. MENTIONS NOTHING ABOUT THAT!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.142.49.178 (talk) 21:09, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Debt
I watch a doco last night that said the U.S had wiped Liberia debt is this true--124.182.63.115 02:31, 15 October 2007 (UTC) Matthew