Liberia
Introduction
The Republic of Liberia has a reputation for being a dangerous place. She gained this reputation from a long-running and devastating civil war and for taking part in the bloody rebellion in neighboring Sierra Leone. The United Nations still garrisons more than 15,000 soldiers in Liberia. Liberia is one of the organization’s most expensive peacekeeping missions. As a result of all of the turmoil most of Liberia’s cultural wealth remains off limits to foreign visitors. In fact it is not considered safe to travel outside of the country’s capital, Monrovia. Liberia is Africa’s first republic and one of only two modern countries in Sub-Saharan Africa who never experienced the oppression of colonial rule. Ethiopia is the other one. In 1820 the first freed, American slaves began to populate what is now Liberia. The slaves were aided by the American Colonization Society, a private organization that believed ex-slaves would have greater freedom and equality in Africa. Liberia’s current population is 3.5 million with a third of them living in Monrovia. It was not until 1980 that a military coup deposed the Americo-Liberian establishment. Instead of ushering in a better life, the next twenty years witnessed political and economic instability that disintegrated into two successive civil wars in which more than a quarter of a million people died. The country’s economy plunged into an abyss. Liberia is now one of the world’s poorest countries, yet it has the highest ratio of foreign direct investment to GDP in the world. She has received $16 billion in investment since 2006. Liberia’s economy is slowly beginning to gain traction. Local entrepreneurs and government, assisted by international grants and loans, have made some sound strategic moves in telecommunication and infrastructure. It is much more difficult for an investor to initiate a new business in the country. One is free to, even encouraged, to invest in existing projects, but there is a definite bias against foreign ownership of the economy. Liberia recently elected Africa’s first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Mama Liberia from kenneth.kolo on Vimeo.
