How Corrupt Was The Liberian Government Set Up By Black Americans?

Executive Summary

• African Americans that moved to Liberia moved there to get away from slavery.
• They ended up immediately creating a highly corrupt government.

Introduction

Liberia provides a fascinating story of how ex-slaves behave after being freed if allowed to enslave others. I cover the slave aspect of the creation of Liberia in the article Did African Americans Enslave Liberian Americans. This article covers the topic of what government the Liberian Americans created in Liberia.

Our References for This Article

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The Origins of Liberia

Liberia began as a settlement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), who believed black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. – Wikipedia

IN 1821, a ship arrived at a place near where my hotel now stood (Monrovia lies on the Atlantic, on a peninsula), bringing an agent of the American Colonisation Society, Robert Stockton. Stockton, holding a pistol to the head of the local tribal chief, King Peter, forced him to sell – for six muskets and one trunk of beads – the land upon which the US organisation planned to settle freed slaves (mainly from the cotton plantations of Virginia, Georgia, Maryland). Stockton’s organisation was of a liberal and charitable character. Its activists believed that the best reparation for the injuries of slavery would be the return of former slaves to the land of their ancestors – to Africa. – The Guardian

The Liberian Political Environment They Created

The corruption created by African Liberians in Liberia is explained in the following quotation.

The Americo-Liberians were the privileged group, but even within that community the true power was in the hands of a small number of families. The entire system turned more and more corrupt. Nepotism, and not merit, became the prevailing way of filling offices. – History of Yesterday

This is very normal in black societies, and it is copied in US cities run by blacks and African countries. Merit-based hiring is generally not considered something of importance in black-run societies. In South Africa, for example, large numbers of qualified whites have been fired and replaced by politically connected blacks.

The quote continues…

With the power being overwhelmingly in the hands of the Americo-Liberians, abuse ensued. Corrupt officials would force the natives to work on their lands or on construction projects, often without pay.

Pissed off with the corruption, Faulkner accused the True Whig leaders of abusing the natives, and instituting a system which was akin to slavery in all, but name. The League of Nations was called in to investigate. Indeed, their report was damning.

They found that certain Liberian officials forced the natives to work on projects, and even sent them out to labor on plantations abroad. Intimidation, humiliation, and compulsion were common methods used.

“They have condoned the utilization of this force for purposes of physical compulsion on road construction for the intimidation of villagers, for the humiliation and degradation of chiefs, of captured natives to the coast, there guarding them till the time of shipment.” — League of Nations report – History of Yesterday

And this quotation.

In the decades after 1945, the Liberian government received hundreds of millions of dollars of unrestricted foreign investment, which destabilized the Liberian economy. Government revenue rose enormously, but was being grossly embezzled by government officials. – Wikipedia

The Continuation of High Levels of Corruption in Liberia

This corruption continued from the origins of the country.

Tubman died in 1971. He was replaced by his friend, vice-president William Tolbert. Tolbert was a walking embodiment of corruption. He dealt in everything – gold, cars, passports. The entire elite, those descendants of black American slaves, followed his example. People who begged in the street for bread or water were shot on Tolbert’s orders. His police killed hundreds.

Doe’s coup was not simply the exchange of a corrupt political boss/bureaucrat for a semi-illiterate in uniform. It was simultaneously a bloody, cruel, and caricature-like revolt of the downtrodden, half-enslaved masses from the African jungle against their hated rulers – the descendants of slaves from American plantations. Doe immediately declared himself president. He ordered 13 ministers from Tolbert’s administration killed at once, before a large crowd of gaping onlookers.

Doe was lazy, and spent entire days sitting in his residence playing checkers with subordinates. Uncertain as to what he should do next, and how to save himself from vengeance after having killed so many, he saw as the only solution to surround himself with people from his own tribe, the Krahn. He summoned them in huge numbers to Monrovia. Power now devolved from the hands of the wealthy, settled, and worldly Americo-Liberians (who had managed meantime to flee the country) into those of a poor, illiterate tribe of forest dwellers unnerved by their new situation and who, pulled abruptly from their huts, were seeing a city, a car, or shoes for the first time. They understood one thing, however: that their only means of survival would be to frighten or liquidate all actual or eventual enemies, meaning all non-Krahn. And so a handful of these erstwhile paupers set out to terrorise the nation.– The Guardian

Here are some more quotes on corruption in Liberia.

The 2013 US State Department report said that: “Judges were susceptible to bribes to award damages in civil cases. Judges sometimes requested bribes to try cases, release detainees from prison, or find defendants not guilty in criminal cases. Defense attorneys and prosecutors sometimes suggested defendants pay bribes to secure favorable rulings from or to appease judges, prosecutors, jurors, and police officers.”

In 2013, Human Rights Watch released a report specifically about police corruption in Liberia. They interviewed more than 120 people who had said they had been victimized in their dealings with the police. They said that “police officers typically ask crime victims to pay to register their cases, for transport to the crime scene, and for pens and other items used in the investigation. Criminal suspects routinely pay bribes for release from police detention.

Street vendors said they were often the victim of police raids, especially in Monrovia. Vendors said that police routinely steal goods, arrest vendors, and then require them to pay for their release from detention. Motorcycle and taxi drivers throughout the country described harassment and extortion along roads.

In Liberia’s education system, patronage and bribery by administrators, professors, and students are widely reported. Abuse of resources, teacher absenteeism, and sex for grades are common. A culture of silence prevents reporting of problems and hence any constructive reform.

Amidst Liberia’s Ebola epidemic in 2014, some body-collection teams dispatched to collect the Ebola dead accepted bribes to issue falsified death certificates to family members, stating that their dead relative died from something other than Ebola. The body of the Ebola victim could also be left with relatives. Ebola carries a stigma in Liberia, and some families do not want to admit that their relative died of Ebola. – Wikipedia

Corruption as A Repeating Pattern of Black Run Societies

The Liberian example is interesting because this is usually the outcome of black-run societies. And this brings up a repeating pattern of corruption that transpired when black Africans took over the governing apparatus in Zimbabwe and South Africa. And there was another similarity between Liberia and South Africa. South Africa has been in a corrupt free fall since the ANC took it over, and you can read about this depth of corruption in the article How South Africa’s Decline Mirrors the Decline of Eskom.

The story of the decline of South Africa is expressed in the following quotation.

In 1994 the ANC [African National Congress] inherited the strongest economy in Africa, with excellent infrastructure, including cheap, reliable electricity. [In 2021] the ANC has wrecked it all. We have continual blackouts; the passenger railways are crumbling into ruin; most of the municipalities are dysfunctional, with appalling water supply and sewage running in the streets; South African Airways is bankrupt; the economy is crippled; deep poverty is widespread, and unemployment is at 43 per cent (including many who have given up looking for work). This tragedy has been caused by systematic corruption, a bloated government, ruinous racial laws and a relentless assault on private enterprise.

‘Politicians in Durban walk around with hit lists in their back pockets … a hitman can be hired as easily as we hail e-rides. A simple trip to the taxi rank gets you an inkabi — or hitman — as long as you have R5,000 to pay.’ But if there are many immediate causes of the rioting, there is only one profound cause, which is the failure of the ANC to improve the lives of ordinary black people. – The Spectator

Here is a story of corruption from the black run Detroit.

Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, later Federal Bureau of Prisons #44678-039, turned the mayor’s office into a criminal enterprise to enrich his family and entourage. His chief of staff was turning tricks in the Manoogian Mansion.

While Detroit hemorrhaged its population, Mayor Kilpatrick was in North Carolina enjoying aromatic whirlpool baths, expensive champagne, and chocolate strawberries with his African-American mistress. He succeeded in extorting millions of dollars from contractors which the city never got back. – Occidental Dissent

The Worst Run Cities in the US are Almost Entirely Black Run

See the following list. What do you notice about the list?

This is a list of the worst-run cities (it’s a best-run list that has been sorted in reverse). All of the cities in this list are predominantly black and run by blacks, except for Stockton, CA, which is Mexican and run by Mexicans. 

Conclusion

The country that African Americans created was exceptionally corrupt. This matches other examples when blacks run governments, which extend from African countries to cites in the US that become black run, to countries managed by whites, like Zimbabwe and South Africa, that are then turned over to black rule.