About Liberia
The Liberian Civil War disrupted the lives of nearly every Liberian citizen. A quarter-million people (10% of the population) were killed, and 1.7 million became refugees or displaced people.
In a way, displaced people were the founders of Liberia. Nearly 200 years ago the country was settled by former slaves transported from the United States. Liberia became an independent nation in 1847 with a freed slave from Virginia as its first president. English is its official language.
After more than a century of peace, Liberia experienced growing political unrest, then violence and all-out civil war in the 1980s and 90s. The most chilling statistic of all: an estimated 60% of the so-called soldiers in this war were children. An entire generation lost their childhood. Even non-combatant children saw loved ones killed and their homes burned or looted.
Peace finally came again in 2003, but years of fighting had damaged Liberia’s economy, government, and infrastructure. Today, the survivors struggle with the long-term effects of their wartime experiences, including drug addiction and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
PBS Global Connections has an excellent history of Liberia if you'd like to know more. For a glimpse of modern day Monrovia (which includes footage shot by Family of Hope board members in January, 2007) visit the Star Tribune's special online report about Liberia, A People Torn.
About Liberia: A Liberian Perspective
The following two texts, given as speeches by Byron Tarr, a native of Liberia, offer a helpful look at the life and government of Liberia. Dr. Tarr has held three cabinet positions in the government of Liberia. He has also worked for the U.N. as a professional tax expert, and served as an economic consultant for nearly all of the English-speaking countries in Africa. What links Dr. Tarr to Families of Hope is the fact that his educational roots lie in the same Zondo school that Family of Hope is rebuilding.
As a pre-schooler, Dr. Tarr enrolled in the Mid-Baptist Mission school in Zondo in 1954. After completing his primary schooling elsewhere in Liberia, he prepared for college through a correspondence course with the American School of Chicago. He later graduated from Cuttington College and Divinity School in 1966 with a degree in economics and philosophy, then attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Ubana, where he earned an M.A in Development Economics and a Ph.D. in Public Finance.
Dr. Tarr has co-authored two books, and has published extensively in journals in the U.S. and the U.K. He currently serves as a consultant on macroeconomics and governance issues to a number of inter-governmental organizations, including the U.N. Development Program, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank.
Christ Didn't Have to Do It, But He Did (MS Word doc, 48.5 KB)Knowing the Bassa People (MS Word doc, 33.5 KB)