Every Day Is Special: July 26 - Liberia's Independence Day

Posted on July 26, 2018

Liberia is the only African nation colonized by the United States. But it wasn't actually colonized by the U.S. government, but rather by freed slaves or freeborn African Americans, with funding by a private organization. (Unfortunately, the motivation for some members of the organization was racism. Sigh.)

Liberia is said to be the oldest republic on the African continent, having declared its independence on this date in 1847. Most of Africa was divvied up, colonized, and controlled by European powers, but the U.S. backed Liberia's efforts to remain independent during the so-called "Scramble for Africa"!

Having come from the U.S., Liberia's leaders adopted a lot of
language from the U.S. Declaration of Independence and many
American ideas of how to structure and run a government.

You might notice a resemblance in the flag, too!

Unfortunately, just because Liberia was Africa's first republic, that doesn't mean that the nation is running smoothly. There has been political instability, Liberians have suffered health crises like Ebola, and Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world.

On the other hand:

I hope Liberia can get beyond the crises and solve the problems and develop into the kind of nation that people want and deserve. (I hope those things for my own country, too!)