WEST AFRICA REVIEW ISSN: 1525-4488

Beale Horton, M.D.

Since 1980, the news from the Republic of Liberia has seldom been cheerful. At the present time, the Republic is again offered an opportunity to rebuild and emerge from under the rule of the gun either by its pretend governments or any number of thugs and bandits masquerading as liberators. Liberia is working, with the crucial assistance of the international community, to rebuild itself. It is struggling with the arduous task of creating a meaningful common citizenship for its inhabitants and ensuring that the promise of that citizenship is redeemed for all. One of the principal obstacles on that road is traceable to the nature of the relationship between its indigenous, aboriginal population and its settler Americo-Liberian component. For those familiar with Liberia’s recent history, it was a core element of the Samuel Doe’s putsch in 1980 and the recent demographic composition of the main rebel group—Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy—reminds us of how much this issue continues to steer Liberian politics and her fortunes as a state. One element of the excerpt that we have culled from Horton’s writings—this is from 1874—is his insistence that the Americo-Liberians would have to work out a modus vivendi with the native population of their then new country if its future prosperity was not to be imperiled. Would that those to whom Horton directed his admonition had listened to him. Might Liberia have been saved decades of turmoil, suffering, death, destruction, and humiliation?

Olúfëmi Táíwò

We have in Chapter 12 considered at some length the physical geography of the interior countries of the Colony of Lagos, their capabilities, the manners and customs of the people, and now we have to remark on its requirements; but not having had sufficient opportunity during my brief stay there to make a full investigation of the subject, my remarks will be but few and of a general nature.

1. Every improvement should be made in the drainage of the town.

2. The various rivers already detailed should be properly, carefully, and systematically surveyed.

3. Every facility should he given to the inhabitants for the transport of their produce from the interior into the port of Lagos.

4. A good tram-road should be made in various directions to the interior, commencing from Lagos and other British towns — one from Ikorodo to Makun, to be pushed forward to Ipara. Another from the mainland of Lagos to Munsho, to be carried to Otta, a third from Worro to Igbessa, and a fourth from Badagry to Addo.

With these few observations, I must dismiss the subject of Lagos, with the hope that I may hereafter get sufficient opportunities to make it a subject of close examination and report, and shall now pass on to a few remarks on the Republic of Liberia.

My friend Professor Blyden, of this republic, in an oration delivered in Syria not long ago, made the following remarks respecting the neighbouring British Colony, Sierra Leone, the seat of the British Government in Western Africa.

Sierra Leone [said he] strikingly exemplifies the inefficiency of European legislation as a civilizer of the black race. Under British rule, crippled by monarchical restraint, the African element, so essential to African civilization in Sierra Leone, is rendered subdued and silent, and hence that province has been, and under like circumstances will continue to be, of no marked avail as a pioneer of intelligent progress. Even if it should not be possible for the Republic of Liberia to acquire them in the course of time in an honourable and quiet manner, still they will never rise to sufficient importance to cause us internal uneasiness.

Whilst we cannot endorse this qualified statement of Professor Blyden, as it is not our intention here to discourse on the subject, Liberia will no doubt allow Sierra Leone to point out certain defects in the government of that Republic, which, if remedied, would greatly enhance social advancement and material progress. In Chapter 2 I have considered certain defects in the constitution and government of the Republic which are of fundamental importance. Here I intend to remark on some social defects which should engage the immediate attention of the Legislature.

First, appearance aids considerably in our diagnosis of the character of a person, place, or thing. The entrance to Monrovia, the capital of the Liberian Republic, reminds one of the entrance to a purely native town, where the light of civilization has never reached, and it gives to the casual observer the idea of a want of a firm government, a want of revenue, a want of developmental powers, and the existence of great inertia in the municipal authority of Monrovia. At the very entrance of the town, as one jumps out of his boat, he first meets with a number of miserable cane fishing huts, occupied by an almost naked crowd of kroomen and women; the children, wretchedly tattooed, squatting about in perfect nudity, and answering the calls of nature in every direction. Behind these about twenty feet in diameter, is a thick bush, in which is a narrow footpath leading to a pile of stones put together helter-skelter, without any idea of masonry, and forming the commencement of a bridge, which is so rickety as to require a passer-by to keep Newton always in memory, as the least loss in the centre of gravity would lead to a fearful catastrophe. All around this bridge is an extent of land consisting of mangrove swamp, which is entirely exposed twice in the course of the twenty-four hours, and which gives out most deadly miasmata. Such was the condition of the entrance of Monrovia, the capital of the Liberian Republic, when I landed there in January 1866.

The miserable fishing huts should on no account be permitted to remain where they are; the bush should be cut down, and the land reclaimed from the river, and sold for the benefit of the town corporation, which can be easily done by the building of a river wall along its edge at low-water mark; the rescued land can then be filled up and hardened with materials from without, so that in course of time, instead of being the source of pernicious poison, it might be of gain to the municipality of the town. On the whole, Monrovia was a very unfortunate selection for the capital of the Republic; and the large and open streets are covered with huge basaltic rocks, which entirely preclude a carriage drive.

Whilst we rejoice with the Liberians on their yearly accession of emigrants from America, it behoves us to remind them that unless certain improvements are made among the aboriginal inhabitants whom they meet in the country, in order that they may be brought to the scale of equality with themselves, there will be a poor chance for the prosperous futurity of the Government. These original inhabitants are a firm, able- bodied race, who, unlike the American Indians, would withstand ‘wave after wave of destructive and malignant tempest’, were it ever to be brought against them. They are a perpetual race, and the climate is more likely to devastate the emigrants than them — i.e. if the former continue to remain pure and unmixed with the aboriginal inhabitants. The improvement in the position of the coloured population of America would lead a priori to the belief that ere long there would be but very few emigrations from that country and consequently a general diminution of the civilized population. It must always be borne in mind that purely mulatto population cannot exist for any lengthened period; they must either merge into one or other races (black or white), or gradually die out. Among mulattoes propagation is less prolific, and the offspring is delicate and short lived. When, however, propagation has been maintained in purity, within a few generations the whole race dies out. The duty of the Liberian Government should therefore be: