Africa has been a hotbed of conflict for the last century.
As the colonial regimes of the Old World withered, the shadow of the Cold War enveloped the continent.
Vast natural resources were discovered, and weapons proliferated, providing the means
for idealists and renegades to take power for themselves.
This is Untangling Africa, and in this episode, we take deep dive into the turmoil of Liberia’s
Civil War.
To tell this tale, we’ve got to start at the very beginning, with the United
States.
They got involved in the “Scramble for Africa” just as the Europeans did; they were just
late to the party.
One of the last regions that hadn’t yet been snapped up by the colonial powers was
the Pepper Coast, now Liberia.
It was here that the American Colonization Society, a strange alliance of emancipist
Quakers and racist slaveowners, decided to send free Americans with African heritage.
The Quakers believed African-Americans would have a better chance there, away from racist
attitudes.
The slaveholders were worried about a rebellion.
Both agreed that “repatriation” was the best course of action, so off to the Pepper
Coast went anyone with African heritage who could afford the fee.
And that meant any heritage, regardless of where someone might be from.
Transposing the example to Europe, imagine a motley crew of Serbs, Swiss, and Scots being
“repatriated” to Portugal.
Worse than that, the Pepper Coast was already inhabited, and the locals had nothing in common
with the American newcomers.
The newcomers didn’t want anything to do with the locals either and married only within
their community.
This created an Americo-Liberian ethnicity culturally distinct from the region’s general
population.
This group believed itself superior to the locals and instilled a rigid class system.
Contemporaries likened Liberia’s regime to South Africa’s Apartheid, albeit based
on whether one’s ancestors had come from America, rather than skin colour.
While it wasn’t always called one, Liberia was a colonial state just like the others
that governed most of Africa.
Liberia declared independence in 1847, and the Americo-Liberian minority kept tight control
of the country until 1980.
It was supposed to be a democracy, but the party representing the Americo-Liberians ran
Liberia as a one-party state.
It was not to last.
Citing decades of unfair treatment, economic downturn, and widespread Americo-Liberian
corruption, Master Sergeant Samual Doe, a Liberian native, led 17 soldiers and NCOs
in a coup against the regime.
They killed the president and seized power, then executed the heads of the government.
Doe, who promoted himself to General, was the first indigenous leader of Liberia and
enjoyed widespread support.
He suspended the constitution but promised a return to civilian rule by 1985.
Elections were held in October of that year.
Doe won, but many argued the elections were fraudulent.
A month later, Thomas Quiwonkpa, a military officer of the old regime who had been forced
to flee, launched a counter-coup.
He had the support of many Gio and Mano people—other indigenous groups that felt sidelined by Doe’s
preferential treatment of his own group: the Krahn.
Quiwonkpa’s coup was a failure, however, and he was killed, and then reportedly eaten
by Doe’s security forces.
But Quiwonkpa wasn’t the only official with a grudge.
Charles Taylor had been the Director General of the General Services Agency under Doe,
essentially putting him in charge of government purchasing.
He was sacked, however, after embezzling one million dollars in government funds, and escaped
to the US when his crime was discovered.
But he was caught, arrested on a warrant for extradition, and detained in Plymouth County
Correctional Facility, Massachusetts.
While awaiting trial, Taylor escaped by sawing through his window bars and abseiling to freedom
with a rope made from bedsheets, after which he went dark, resurfacing weeks later in Libya
as Muammar Gaddafi’s protege.
During this time, he trained in guerrilla warfare, and once he was ready, he relocated
to Cote D'Ivoire.
Gathering exiled and disaffected Gio and Mano people into an army named the National Patriot
Front of Liberia, or the NPFL, Charles Taylor then invaded Liberia, kicking off Liberia’s
First Civil War in December 1989.
Doe was quick to respond, sending two battalions of regular Armed Forces of Liberia—AFL—troops
to crush Taylor’s insurgency.
The soldiers, of whom many were ethnic Krahns, employed scorched earth tactics to deny Taylor’s
insurgents resources.
They did this in regions dominated by Gios and Manos, however, pushing many over to the
enemy.
The face of the conflict changed.
No longer a political campaign, it was now an ethnic war.
Thousands were massacred on both sides, and rape was used as a weapon of terror.
Across the country, people fled from both the rebels and the soldiers.
The rebels captured the strategic town of Gbarnga in May 1990, and two months later,
were fighting in the outskirts of the capital Monrovia.
This was the site of the worst atrocity of the war: when 30 AFL soldiers shot and hacked
600 civilians to death inside St. Peter's Lutheran Church.
The only survivors were several children, who hid under a mound of corpses.
West Africa could not sit idly by while such atrocities were committed.
In August 1990, a Nigerian-led contingent of ECOMOG deployed to enforce a ceasefire,
evacuate foreigners, and stop the massacres.
ECOMOG landed on the beach Normandy-style and quickly captured the port despite a fierce
NPFL defence.
The Nigerians, regarded as tough and experienced soldiers, broke the siege on President Doe’s
palace and forced the rebels to regroup.
The NPFL splintered into two, with Prince Johnson commanding the Independent NPFL, or
INPFL, forces.
Two weeks later, they intercepted Doe while he was en route to the ECOMOG base for talks.
The president’s torture and execution were videotaped and broadcast for all to see.
The AFL broke and many of Doe’s loyalists fled across the border into Guinea and Sierra
Leone.
While they licked their wounds, ECOMOG tried for peace.
Six peace conferences were held, but Taylor, the principal instigator of the violence,
refused to attend unless they made him president.
Instead, ECOMOG and their Liberian allies elected Dr Amos Sawyer, an academic, as president.
Unsurprisingly, the NPFL and INPFL refused to accept him and continued fighting.
Sawyer controlled Monrovia but relied on ECOMOG to hold it.
Chaos ruled the rest of Liberia.
While ECOMOG pursued peace, a new faction appeared.
The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy, or ULIMO, coalesced from remnants
of the AFL and Doe’s loyalists.
Its members briefly fought alongside government forces in Sierra Leone, then, in September
1991, attacked the NPFL, conquering swathes of territory.
ULIMO divided its spoils but also divided itself in the process.
It broke into two factions organised on ethnic lines: Roosevelt Johnson’s Krahn ULIMO-J
and Alhaji Kromah’s Mandingo ULIMO-K. It was these factions that sponsored some of
the most deranged and brutal warlords of the entire conflict.
First among these sadistic killers was General Butt Naked.
Joshua Blahyi was initiated as a Krahn high priest at the tender age of eleven.
By 14, he was performing black magic rituals for Doe at the presidential palace to help
him win the upcoming election.
At 21, Blahyi was a full-blown zealot convinced an ancient spirit had called him to war.
His beliefs rubbed off on those around him, and Blahyi soon commanded a fanatical ULIMO-J
force comprised mostly of child soldiers.
They believed in the power of his magic, and Blahyi concocted rituals involving copious
amounts of drugs to convince them they were bulletproof.
He and his flock then tore off their clothes and charged into battle, killing everything
in their path.
Stories of this naked lunatic circulated widely, and he became known as “General Butt Naked,”
and his disciples the “Naked Base Commandos.”
Fear was their primary weapon, and their depravity knew no bounds.
Once the Naked Base Commandos had captured an area, General Butt Naked would take more
drugs to give himself a vision.
The spirit would tell him who to sacrifice.
It was usually a child.
In General Butt Naked’s own words, “They bring to me a living child that I slaughter
and take the heart out to eat it.”
What’s more shocking is he wasn’t the only one doing this.
Alieu Kosiah, a ULIMO warlord known as “Bluff Boy” also murdered and ate people, as did
Mohammed Jabateh, otherwise known as “Jungle Jabbah.”
Acts of cannibalism usually involved the victim’s heart and were part of rituals to gain strength
and terrify foes.
At this point, the UN decided to get involved.
In September 1993, they sent in 368 military observers as part of UNOMIL.
These soldiers deployed alongside ECOMOG but left the West Africans to do the lion’s
share of the fighting.
The situation worsened in 1994, and some UNOMIL personnel were captured and held for ransom
by the rebels.
The war had also kickstarted a humanitarian crisis.
One-point-eight million people were displaced and in desperate need of food, shelter, and,
above all, safety.
In light of the constant factional fighting and warlord rule over most of the country,
the UN acknowledged it wasn’t up to the task.
Into the gap stepped the Ghanian president Jerry Rawlings.
Rawlings was a regional power player, and his extensive connections brought Taylor and
the other warlords to the negotiating table.
In August 1995, Taylor’s NPFL and the ULIMO factions agreed to a ceasefire.
An interim civilian government held power while the country was readied for elections,
but before they took place, fighting broke out again.
In April 1996, the NPFL attacked Monrovia.
The two ethnic wings of ULIMO fought back, and both sides battled against minor warlords,
gang bosses, and third party factions.
ECOMOG marched in, and the uncompromising Nigerians lived up to their take-no-prisoners
reputation.
Law and order was reestablished within a month, but roughly half the city was destroyed and
most of its population displaced.
All foreigners were pulled out by UN security forces during the fighting.
They looked after their own.
With Monrovia now secured by ECOMOG troops, another peace conference was held.
The Second Abuja Conference marked the 15th and final attempt at brokering a peace deal
between the factions.
It included a full disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration package for fighters from
all sides, and gave power to another civilian transitionary government, named the Ruling
Council.
Things were relatively calm until July 1997, when elections were held.
Charles Taylor led the National Patriotic Party and ran on an intimidation platform.
His cooperation was critical to maintain the fragile peace, so if he pulled out, people
knew the fighting and terror would resume.
His slogan was probably the most on-the-nose in modern political history.
His supporters chanted, “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him.”
Shockingly, people did.
Taylor won the election in a landslide, taking 75% of the vote.
The UN managed the election and upheld its result, even though it was the last thing
they wanted.
With Taylor’s victory, unsteady peace returned to Liberia.
However, violence continued to flare up in regional areas and along Liberia’s borders.
Taylor’s political rivals were eliminated, and the state industries turned over to producing
goods to exchange for weapons and drugs.
Taylor funnelled these to other rebel groups in West Africa, and made himself incredibly
rich in the process.
For ECOMOG and the UN, the First Liberian Civil War could not have had a worse outcome.
Due to a lack of records, it’s impossible to say how many were killed during the conflict
in Liberia.
But our best guess is that between 80,000 and 200,000 people were killed between 1989
and 1997.
Nearly two million were displaced, and virtually all of Liberia’s wealth was looted and its
state infrastructure destroyed.
But that’s not where the story ends.
Large numbers of ex-ULIMO fighters had fled over the border into Guinea, and they were
preparing for round two…
But what do YOU think?
Was the conflict inevitable, or could good governance have prevented it?
Why do YOU think cannibalism was so sidespread among the rebel leaders?
Would YOU have voted for Charles Taylor?