BBC Information, Monrovia & Nairobi
US President Donald Trump has praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for talking “just right English” and requested him the place he went to college.
What Trump would possibly have ignored is that Liberia stocks a singular and long-standing reference to the United States.
English is the rustic’s respectable language and lots of Liberians discuss with an American accessory on account of the ones ancient ties to the United States.
It’s going to had been this accessory that Trump picked up on.
Listed below are 5 issues to grasp in regards to the nation:
Based through freed slaves
Liberia was once based through freed African-American slaves in 1822 earlier than pointing out independence in 1847.
1000’s of black American citizens and liberated Africans – rescued from transatlantic slave ships – settled in Liberia all through the colonial generation.
Former US President Abraham Lincoln formally declared Liberia’s independence in 1862 however the nation retained a large number of US heritage and it remained within the American “sphere of affect” all through the colonial duration.
Because of this integration, Liberian tradition, landmarks, and establishments have a heavy African-American affect.
Ten of Liberia’s 26 presidents had been born in the United States.

The capital is known as after a former US president

Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, was once named in honour of The us’s fifth President, James Monroe, who was once a robust supporter of the American Colonization Society (ACS).
The ACS was once the organisation accountable for resettling freed African-American citizens in West Africa – which in the end ended in the founding of Liberia.
No longer strangely the early structure of the town was once in large part influenced through American-style structures.
Many streets in Monrovia are named after colonial American figures, reflecting the town’s founding and ancient ties to the United States.
Just about equivalent flags

The flag of Liberia carefully resembles the American flag. It options 11 alternating purple and white stripes and a blue sq. with a unmarried white big name.
The white big name symbolises Liberia as the primary impartial republic in Africa.
The USA flag, compared, has 13 stripes representing the unique 13 colonies and 50 stars, one for every state.
The Liberian flag was once designed through seven black ladies – all born in The us.
Ex-president’s son performs for US soccer workforce

Timothy Weah, the son of Liberia’s former President George Weah, is an American skilled football participant who performs for Italian membership Juventus in addition to the United States nationwide workforce.
The 25-year-old ahead was once born in the United States however started his skilled occupation with Paris St-Germain in France, the place he gained the Ligue 1 identify earlier than shifting on mortgage to the Scottish workforce, Celtic.
His father, George, is a Liberian soccer legend who gained the Ballon d’Or in 1995 whilst taking part in for Juventus’s Italian competitors AC Milan. He’s the one African winner of this award – and went directly to be elected president in 2018.
Former president gained the Nobel Peace Prize

Liberia produced Africa’s first elected feminine president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
She was once elected in 2005, two years after the country’s bloody civil battle ended, and served as president till 2018.
Sirleaf has a robust American background as she studied at Madison Trade School and later went to Harvard College the place she graduated as an economist.
She has won international popularity and accolades for keeping up peace all through her management.
Her tale is pitted with outstanding feats of defiance and braveness.
In 2011, together with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karmān, she gained the Nobel Prize for Peace for her efforts to additional ladies’s rights.
In 2016, Forbes indexed her a few of the maximum robust ladies on the earth.
What do Liberians make of the feedback?
There was a blended response.
Accountant Joseph Manley, 40, instructed the BBC that Trump will have to had been correctly briefed earlier than assembly Liberia’s chief.
“Liberia has at all times been an English-speaking nation. Our president represents a rustic with a wealthy tutorial custom.”
For human assets skilled Henrietta Peter-Mogballah, The USA president’s wonder at Boakai’s eloquence displays a broader drawback of world lack of expertise about African countries and its peoples.
“From commute studies and observations, maximum voters of different countries out of doors Africa have no idea so much about African nations,” she stated. “The few that know a bit of, their minds are clouded through narratives of battle, poverty, and loss of training.”
Whilst many have criticised Trump, others see not anything unsuitable in his feedback.
“I imagine President Trump’s statement was once a real praise on President Boakai’s command of English,” attorney and flesh presser Kanio Gbala instructed the BBC. “There is not any proof of sarcasm. Studying it as disrespectful would possibly mirror political agendas.”
Extra about Liberia from the BBC:
