LIBERIA!

Monrovia, Liberia just over a million people jammed pack into one little country. Liberia at one time was one of the most beautiful, peaceful and joyus travel destinations of west Africa and the continent as a whole. The country began as a new destination for free African- Americans, and began to be separated by the native born and Americans. 

The population began to grow and grow as people were moving from the countrysides of Ivory Coast and the outstretches of Liberia into the city's capital Monrovia. Things were going well and the country had great potential as a port for importing and exporting of natural resources, manufactured goods and other items like food, oil and the country's gold mind of rubber. The poets were also tanker facilities and a fishery pier. 

The events that took place and destroyed the beautiful motherland and first American Colonized Colony, were due to former President of Liberia Samuel Doe. Doe led a military coup and Liberia was caught in two consecutive civil wars, which were infamous for their destructive violence. 

The Doe military "take-over" was a bloody one, labelled ‘a revolution’ by the 18 enlisted men of the Armed Forces of Liberia who toppled the Government of William R. Tolbert. The 66-year old President was savagely murdered by private soldier Harrison Pennoh, who later proved mentally unstable. But Before the end of the month the entire Cabinet had been put on trial and sentenced to death, with no right to be defended by a lawyer and no right to appeal to the verdict. In a horrific scene they were all but one publicly executed on a beach near Monrovia. 

During these times, thousands of people were killed; women raped, children turned to army soldiers, homes fully destructed and destroyed, a thousands of bystanders brutally murdered. The liberian civil war, was one of Africa's bloodiest, claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Liberians and further displaced a million others into refugee camps in neighboring countries. 

By only the grace of God, the UN Troops and current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is at peace but still struggling to recover from such a devastating era. Monrovia, the capital, is a working port, but it's sprawling neighborhoods are generally poor with intermittent electricity. Despite its past, Monrovia has a friendly reputation thanks to its warmhearted residents.

Today, July 26th marks it's 167th Independence. This day is special to my homeland because it not only marks our freedom but it gives the country something to stand on. 

LS