TRC Hashes Out Root Causes of Liberian Civil War

MONROVIA – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has outlined the root causes of the Liberian civil war, the historical, traditional and other violent conflicts of the Liberian state, as well as their unimaginable impacts before and since independence in 1847.

In its recently released Edited and Final Report, the Commission said the April 12 military coup (1980-1989), the Liberian Civil War (1989-1997) and the LURD/MODEL Insurrection (1999-2003) were the results of the numerous conflicts, which are highlighted in the report.
Central to understanding elitism, inequality, underdevelopment and armed conflict in Liberia from 1979 to 2003 was the decision to establish the Liberian state and the psychology of that establishment that maintained a divided nation from independence in 1847 till present, the commission said.

According to the TRC, the early founders of the state had a choice between whether to build a united Liberia with all its peoples involved in the building and development of the emergent nation, or to form a separate “civilized” state with the mission to civilize and Christianize the “savage and barbaric” indigenous population as a precondition for citizenship and land ownership in the land of their birth and nativity.

“The American-borne early leadership chose the latter option of building a separatist state as a political direction and philosophy. This choice of the latter is at the root of Liberia’s as yet unresolved historical problem of political identity and legitimacy. The decision to adopt a Euro-American styled settlement with a civilizing and Christianizing mission in time alienated, marginalized and degraded not only the majority of the [indigenous] inhabitants of the Liberia area, but also the black settlers, many of whom [had themselves] suffered slavery and harbored American colonialist sentiments. Such sentiments became the philosophical foundation on which white American colonial leaders established and ruled Liberia for the first 25 years of its existence,” the report said.

The commission indicated that the engendered political culture was transferred to successive leaderships and became ingrained into the national polity. Although the alternate and more inclusive vision had proponents, it never gained political traction. The civilizing and Christianizing ethos has thus dominated political discourse and served as the foundation of the Liberian state.

Circumstances encountered seem not to have led to a change of direction, so that after 187 years as a political entity and some 162 years of political independence, Liberia has yet to reconcile the two opposing ideas (the civilizing mission and the building of an African nationality) and peoples (descendants of the Americo-Liberians and descendants of the indigenous or native people).

Conflict in the history of Liberia, including the violent variety, is thus to be understood, the report said, in terms of the choices once made exclusively by the Liberian leadership, and which are now opened to the people of Liberia as a whole.

The second historical root cause of the Liberian conflict finds basis in the coercive use of force and authority to sustain the settlers’ hegemony as it relates to culture, the acquisition of land and the corresponding issues of identity and trade, the TRC said.

The American Colonization Society (ACS) and settlers’ mentality perceived the natives and their culture, tradition and customary practice as inferior and uncivilized. As such, to be assimilated or accepted into the community of the settlers, one had to be firstly Christianized and then civilized. To be employed or conduct trade, the native had to be civilized. This often meant a change of name, religion, social orientation and affiliations, dress code and doing away with one’s indigenous dialect in order to adapt the civilized lifestyle.

The TRC asserted that those natives who opposed this level of acculturation found themselves in constant conflict with the settlers, which often was violent.

Increasingly suspicious of the natives, the settler government sought to maintain an independent identity and nation, while at the same time realizing that it needed to acquire more land and more territories in to exert its legitimacy.

The natives were also suspicious of the settlers’ motives and thought they were on a mission to exterminate them.

Pressures from the French and British colonial powers nearby also influenced the decision of the settlers to expand territorially.

The natives of course resisted, and for many years there were violent conflicts with deadly consequences until the end of the Kru Confederacy War of 1915, when the economy began to grow under President Arthur Barclay, who became more engaging under his appeasement policies.

Prior to what may be termed a “ceasefire” after over half a century of violent conflicts and serious warfare, control of trading routes especially along the coast in goods and slaves was both competitive and contentious.

The natives continued in the slave trade, which the settlers would accept nowhere near their territories.

Wars were fought over trading in slaves and control of the lucrative coastal trading routes, which involved trading with the Europeans and opportunity of collecting trade levies on the part of the settler government.

These trade routes were of high premium to both sides, and the cost of maintaining constant warfare hurt both parties’ interests and became unbearably expensive.

Antecedent Causes

Liberia’s checkered history is replete with conflict, the TRC Report asserted.

During the pre-colonial period, before the arrival of the settlers to Liberia’s shores, there were many conflicts and wars between the natives themselves until the colonial period began from 1822-1847 when the settlers intervened, and a crisis of different dimension surfaced.

After independence in 1847, the new state of Liberia had its own set of conflicts bordering on legitimacy, inclusion and identity, land and the struggle for supremacy.

It indicated that for over a century thereafter, the settlers dominated the politics and the economy of the new state to the exclusion of the native majority.

President William V.S. Tubman in 1944, building on the gains of his predecessor, President Edwin Barclay, introduced three policies – open door, unification and integration – which helped to reduce tensions between the natives and the settlers for a while until it became clear that Tubman had an agenda of his own, which fostered a new conflict.

In this era, privilege and opportunity were reserved for an elite few as economic disparity widened.

The report added that Tubman ruled Liberia for 27 years, and at the time of his death, 3.5% of the population, mostly of the Americo-Liberian stock, accounted for more than 60% of the nation’s wealth. His reign was characterized by patronage and privilege as well as political control of all institutions of government ,which saw the rise of authoritarianism in Liberian politics.

Tubman was brutal in dealing with political opponents, the commission said, and virtually exterminated all political opposition during that period. This method of operation stifled the growth of democracy in Liberia.

Amid a burgeoning economy, the vast majority of the citizenry was very poor and was suppressed into silence through his vast network of informants, which pitted friends against friends, wives against husbands, brothers against sisters, etc.

For $33.33 monthly, any number of people could get recruited to spy for President Tubman on their relatives and friends without engaging in any other form of employment.

With a booming economy and a free paycheck, there were no incentives to be industrious.
Liberians became virtually lazy during this period. Tubman also exploited and benefited from the cold war as an ally of the United States of America.

The 27 years of Tubman rule coincided with a period of awakening and expanded education opportunity to members of the indigenous class, who sought education as an advantage to “change the system,” demand equity and overcome years of alienation, suppression and marginalization.

Liberia was a police state breeding a conflict of imaginable proportions.

Direct and Immediate Causes to the Conflict

By the time of Tubman’s death, discontent was high, and cold war rivalry had intensified, Liberia all the while maintaining its position as a loyal ally of the United States (US).

President William Richard Tolbert inherited an economy on the verge of decline due to global economic conditions.

Tolbert also inherited an inefficient government bureaucracy, which he sought to reform, having served as Vice President for 19 years, prior to becoming president.

With his liberal socio-oriented policies, the president offended both right wing conservatives within the elite establishment and the United States by his leaning towards non-alignment, which brought to doubt Liberia’s standing with the US as a loyal cold war ally.

Voices for change grew louder as opposition was legalized and the space for free speech and dissent was widened by the president’s new policies.

Demand for change grew stronger while the response of the establishment was ambiguous and inadequate.

According to the TRC’s final report, chief among the immediate causes of the 14-year civil conflict were:
- The 1979 rice riots and the government’s response to demand for public demonstration of free expression;
- the dominance of one branch (the Executive branch) over the other two branches (the Legislature and Judiciary), thereby leading to the institutionalization of an overly powerful executive presidency with no checks and balances;
- mass illiteracy and poverty;
- corruption;
- economic disparity;
- iolation of human rights without redress;
- exclusion and marginalization.

Others include:
- ethnic rivalry;
- disunity;
- land acquisition, tenure, and distribution;
- over-centralization of power and wealth; and
- the introduction of ethnic tensions, superiority and rivalry into the Liberian body politic.