Highlights of U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visit to Liberia..........

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon began a visit to Liberia Monday, "I have come to Liberia to see at first hand the remarkable achievements your country has made in recovering from a devastating conflict. And I have come to reassure the Liberian people of my steadfast commitment to peace, stability and prosperity in your nation," Mr. Ban said in an address to a joint session of the Liberian legislature in the capital, Monrovia.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (R) is greeted upon his arrival at Monrovia's airport on April 21.

Traditional Leaders and Chiefs honor UN Secretary General at Gowning Ceremony.

Mr. Ban outlined several areas where further progress is needed, including reforming the legal and judicial system and extending the rule of law throughout the country.
He said more also needs to be done to reintegrate populations affected by war and promote reconciliation and national unity, as well as ensure economic development. "Delivering the peace dividend in these areas is necessary to underpin the stability that Liberia currently enjoys," he noted.
"In this and other challenges confronting Liberia, the entire United Nations family will work with you," the Secretary-General pledged.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has begun the first phase of its drawdown process, and the Security Council will decide on the next phase after reviewing the progress made by the Government in meeting certain key benchmarks.
Mr. Ban said his recommendations to the Council on the drawdown will be linked to the Government's ability to assume full responsibility for its national security. "Our common strategic goal is to ensure that Liberia has a solid security sector - one that can stand on its own feet before UNMIL completes its withdrawal."

Some Notable Liberians of the 19th and 20th century.....

Angie Brooks Randolph.

Liberian lawyer and diplomat who was the FIRST woman to be accepted as a legal apprentice. On her first appearance in court she was laughed at. She was accredited by the Liberian Supreme Court in 1953, as the first woman Liberian lawyer. She had a career in government administration and legal education in Liberia before being appointed assistant secretary of state in 1958. In 1969 she became the first African woman to be elected president of the General Assembly of the United Nations . During her career she was awarded 18 honorary doctorates of law from various universities in America and received many awards from civil and religious organisations.

Wilton Sankawulo is one of Liberia's foremost creative writers, educators, and public servants of long record. While engaged in government service, he joined the faculties of the University of Liberia and Cuttington University College as Professor of English and Literature. Sankawulo's many publications include myths and legends of Liberia, novels, a biography, and a collection of essays.

Presedent Barclay With President F.D Roosevelt at Roberts field Liberia, 1944.

Edwin Barclay, a member of the True Whig Party served as foreign minister and secretary of state of Liberia in the government of Charles D.B. King from 1920 until 1930. He became the 17 President of Liberia in 1930 when President King and Vice-President Allen B. Yancey resigned because of a scandal. He was elected in his own right for the first time in 1931. Barclay is credited with helping the country survive some of Liberia's greatest threats to its sovereignty in that country's history. They included threats by the League of Nations led by Germany, and the United Kingdom, to to recolonize the country unless reforms were made. He also compose the Liberian national song the lone star forever. Barclay retired in 1944 and was replaced by William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman .

Father of Pan-Africanism.

Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912) was a Liberian educator and statesman. More than any other figure, he laid the foundation of West African nationalism and of pan-Africanism.

In his writings, he defended his race at every opportunity, exalted the achievements of other Blacks, and attacked slavery. As a teacher he was professor of classics and president of Liberia College . He was also a politician and diplomat in Liberia, serving as Secretary of State, Minister of Interior , and Minister to Britain from and Minister Plenipotentiary to London and Paris in 1905.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876), often called the Father of his country, was born of free parents in Norfolk, Virginia, on March 15, 1809. He became the first black ACS governor of Liberia in 1841. In 1848, he was elected the first president of an independent Liberia.

He spent his first year as Liberia's leader attempting to attain recognition from European countries and the United States. England and France were the first countries to accept Liberian independence in 1848. In 1849, Portugal, Brazil, Sardinia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, and Haiti all formally recognized Liberia. However, the United Stated withheld recognition until 1862, during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, because the U.S. leaders believed that the southern states would not accept a black ambassador in Washington D.C.
Roberts was re-elected three more times to serve a total of eight years. During his leadership, an institution of higher learning, later to become Liberia University, was established. By 1860, through treaties and purchases with local African leaders, Liberia had extended its boundaries to include a 600 mile coastline.

April 12 1980 a day that will forever remain in infamy..........

In the early morning of April 12 1980, a group of junior officers from the Armed forces of Liberia, led my Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe, entered the Executive mansion, seat of the Liberian government, fought their way into the presidential suite and staged a bloody coup. thus starting a chain of events that would forever change the history of our country.
Doe's forces executed President William R. Tolbert, along with dozen officials of the Tolbert's regime, who were mostly of Americo-Liberian descent. This marked the first time since Liberia's establishment as a country that it was governed by people of native African descent instead of the Americo-Liberian elite. Doe became head of state and suspended the constitution, but promised a return to civilian rule by 1985. Many people welcomed Doe's takeover as a shift favoring the majority of the population that had been excluded from power, my mother said market women would dance and sing songs praising the military government with songs like, " native woman born soldiers, soldiers killed Tolbert.

The late Liberian president William Tolbert is welcome to the white house by president Nixon.

Former American president Jimmy Carter waves to cheering crowds during his state visit to Liberia in 1979.

But Doe's government increasingly adopted an ethnic outlook, as members of his Krahn ethnic group soon dominated political and military life in Liberia. This caused a heightened level of ethnic tension leading to frequent hostilities between the politically and militarily dominant Krahns and other ethnic groups in the country.

Members of the people's redemption council led by Doe.

The execution of former government officials. April 12 1980.

President Doe pays a state visit to the U.S 1983.

Liberia in later years would be shaken to the very core, as a brutal civil war, which will last for almost two decade , pits tribe against tribe and leads to the death of more than 200,000 Liberians, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of others, and the destruction of the country's infrastructure.

On September 9, 1990, Prince Johnson head of the independent national Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) captured Doe and tortured and killed him. The end of the Doe regime only continued the ethnic warfare in Liberia.

Liberian Refugees are national security threat, says Interior minister Bartels.....

Ghana's Interior Minister Kwamena Bartels, told the Ghanaian press today that the seemingly innocent demonstration by Liberian refugees in the country was part of a wider plot by a number of persons to cause mayhem at the Gomoa Buduburam settlement and threaten the security of Ghana.
According to him, Government is aware of the presence of a number of ex-combatants at the settlement and will, therefore, not sit down unconcerned for the country’s security to be jeopardized. Bertels also told the press the Ghanaian Government is considering closing down the Buduburam refugee camp in the Central Region after it has repatriated the last batch of the Liberian refugees this year.
This is due to the closeness of the resettlement site to the country's capital, Accra, which officials fear could pose a threat to the nation's security.

Ghana continue to maintained its hard line in the standoff with Liberian refugees which culminated in the deportation of 16 of them and removal of more than 600 others from their camp just west of the capital, Accra, and said a "firm decision" had been taken that all of them must return home.

Ghanaians love to think of themselves as the most hospitable people in all Africa, but by treating helpless women and refugees like they were the scum of the earth, they have dug a hole they can never get out of, is this their idea of hospitality? Our late president Samuel Doe once said the town trap is not for rat alone, today Ghana may be stable but who knows what will happen in the future, we will forever remember what they did to our people, in our time of need you give us a place to lay our head but at the same time insulted and abuse us, what could we have done? after all a beggar has no choice, he must accept what is given him.
The xenophobia cause by the Ghanaian interior minister's hatred and his disgust of Liberian refugees in his country is shameful but it’s yet another reason why our government must do all it can to bring our people home, they are not stray dogs for Ghanaians to do or say what ever they feel like to them, enough is enough, after all no man is an island, thank you for your hospitality, but our people will take their chances at home.

Outrageous....

I came across this video on the Internet and i was mad like hell with the so called reporter one sided reporting.



i lived in Monrovia when that war criminal Charles Taylor, and his savages attacked the city, we were at the mercy of these criminals, and if it was not for the west African peace force, we would not have made it out alive, i am glad they bomb the shit out of those fools, i am glad their leader is sitting in a UN jail. i hope he rot in hell, those asshole destroy our nation and forever traumatize a who generation of Liberian children, they will pay for what they did.