The Years the Locusts Have Eaten: Liberia 1816-2004

This is a historical narrative of Liberia and the Liberian people. It begins with the formation of the Liberian state by the American Colonization Society (ACS) during the early nineteenth century, and ends in a colossal civil war in the 21st century. In their trepidation of a slave insurgency of Haitian proportion, and in their zeal to separate the races, the ACS created Liberia as a homeland for free African-Americans, under the guise of philanthropy. The leading proponents of this back-to-Africa movement included: Presidents Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Jackson; Chief Justice John Marshall, and Francis Scott Key. These men were not only slaveholders who refused to manumit their slaves, but they were also steadfast segregationists. Although the legislative efforts of the ACS facilitated the eventual suppression of the slave trade, the grand design of creating a permanent homeland in Africa for all African-Americans triggered the death of thousands of innocent Americans, and initiated the creation of a banana republic. From 1822, when the Liberian state was created, to its collapse in 2003, Liberian leaders never made a pungent attempt to establish and maintain democratic institutions. The nation remained mired in a labyrinth of self-inflicted wounds, brought on by authoritarian rule, rampant corruption, ethnic hatred and intolerance, and anarchism. The political psychosis rose to a sadistic level by a bloody coup detat in 1980, which claimed the lives of the top echelon of the government, and brought to power a brutal military dictatorship. A decade later, a series of full-blown civil wars from 1990 to 2003, inflicted fatality to over ten percent of the population, dislocated over three-quarters of the Liberian people as refugees, and wrecked the entire infrastructure of the country. This is the epic struggle of the Liberian people.