It is surprising to me how few Americans are aware, in fact seem willfully ignorant, of the network of wealthy American blacks, not only inside the US itself, but across the Atlantic in West Africa. Rich American blacks forged close ties decades ago to the ruling elites throughout West Africa. The focus of this network is Liberia.
Liberia was begun in the year 1822 when the American Colonization Society sent a ship to the “Grain Coast”, a part of southwest Africa not far from the Gold Coast. Once there, they “purchased” a tiny island off the coast n a small group of former black slaves were settled. Before long, as 1000s more steadily arrived, the ex-slaves used the education, power, n wealth they had brought to expand their control over the mainland. In a few decades they had established a colonial regime that ruled over the black natives as thoroughly as any European colonial regime, the first black colonial regime in Africa. No one questioned their right to do so, considering their right to occupy to be as fully established by the fact of their ancestors coming generally from West Africa, just as no one ever questioned the right of Ukrainian Jews to “return” to Palestine since their ancestors had allegedly come from Palestine many years ago.
The original purchase of 140 acres from local chiefs was succeeded by a colonial rule of these Americo-Liberians who eventually used physical force to spread their control over the hinterland. The British established a similar black colony in Sierra Leone to the north n when the French occupied Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), the littoral of that part of Africa was set in stone, the territorial boundaries unchanged today.
In 1847, the Republic of Liberia became formally independent n the Americo-Liberians became a tiny ruling minority in a land of millions of native blacks, who were divided into a dozen major tribes that spoke widely varying dialects. The Americo-Liberian caste was highly exclusive, restricting marriage to Americo-Liberians only, with the result that this black elite shrank over the years while the native tribes kept growing in number, though not in education or income. In the 1920s, their rule was so complete that the elite began selling conscripted natives to the Spanish on the island of Fernando Po to work in what amounted to slave plantations n the League of Nations conducted an inquiry n denounced the practice as modern-day slavery. This scandal caused the President of Liberia to resign.
By the 1970s, Liberia seemed headed for better times under President Tubman, then William Tolbert. Just a few years later, however, in 1980, an illiterate sergeant named Samuel Doe seized power in a military coup n murdered Tolbert. As one of Liberia’s natives from the Krahn tribe, Doe despised the ruling Americo-Liberians. Arresting former ministers, all Americo-Liberians, he had 13 tied to posts n publicly executed. Putting Krahn members in charge of the country’s armed forces, Doe unleashed a series of punitive repressions against the other native tribes n demoted Americo-Liberians to make room for Krahn tribal members.
One of those Americo-Liberians who were targeted by Doe was Charles Taylor. A minor official n teacher, Charles Taylor fled Doe’s government to the US to evade prosecution for alleged embezzlement. Imprisoned in a jail in Massachusetts, he mysteriously walked out of the jail in 1985, drove (sic!) to Mexico, then boarded a plane to Ghana, then traveled to Cote d’Ivoire, n eventually flew to Libya where Qaddafi trained him in revolutionary strategy n tactics along with other dissidents. From Qaddafi, he supposedly found the money to finance n arm members of those Liberian tribes persecuted by the Krahn. In 1989 Taylor invaded Liberia from Cote d’Ivoire, thus launching the 1st Liberian Civil War.
Many questions arose at the time. Who was Charles Taylor? Where was he schooled? As someone wanted for embezzlement, how was he admitted into the US? Once admitted, why was he then arrested? How did he then manage to walk out of jail, drive across the US, then have sufficient documentation to cross the border, then fly to a third country, finance n arm a group of terrorists, n finally arrange a military invasion of a sovereign country?
Answers: he was an Americo-Liberian. His father was an Americo-Liberian of Americo-Liberian ancestry. He was adopted n raised by another Americo-Liberian family. His mother was allegedly of a non-Americo-Liberian tribe, the Gola, the closest native tribe to the capital, Monrovia, but there is zero archival documentation of this n could merely be a political narrative later invented to garner political support from non-Americo-Liberians after he launched his invasion.
Taylor was the product of an elite Americo-Liberian secondary school in Monrovia. He received a degree in economics at Bentley College in the US in 1977, tho it is unknown how he supported himself at the time or who paid his tuition, tho one should keep in mind that this was the heyday of US Affirmative Action n any black who could read n write was almost guaranteed considerable financial assistance from the US government. Almost as soon as he escaped jail in the US, it was speculated that he had been recruited by the CIA n when he turned up well-armed n well-funded in Cote d’Ivoire, these speculations expanded to include perhaps having been recruited specifically to overthrow Doe n restore the rule of the former Americo-Liberians whom Doe had removed from power. As an Americo-Liberian himself, n thus could be relied on not to further degrade the position of Americo-Liberians in Liberia, Taylor had the further convenient claim to equal ancestry from among a native tribe via his alleged tribal mother.
The question of Taylor’s funding is crucial because of the vast differential between the wealthy Americo-Liberians n the native black populace of Liberia. This differential by the time of the 1980s had become enormous, largely due to the US Affirmative Action programs that came into law in the US in the 1970s n were expanded in the 1980s. This is what I call “the Black Pipeline”. In the US, ever since the civil rights laws of the 1960s, American institutions, both academic n private for-profit corporations, became eager to employ n promote any person of African descent. Not only were American-born blacks flooded with financial assistance to complete college degrees, but were afterward hired in droves by private corporations so the latter might avert civil rights prosecutions by the DOJ n EEOC. Any black would do, whether a citizen or not. Ivy League schools like Harvard found that not enough American-born blacks were qualifying, so they soon recruited blacks from Africa to satisfy what amounted to racial quotas under the “equal outcome” principle invented by the Democrat-controlled US Supreme Court.
“The Black Pipeline” thus came into being. Blacks from places like Nigeria, Ghana, n Liberia, even Sierra Leone–provided they were literate n the product of identifiable secondary schools–found easy entrance into the US where, once admitted, their graduation from a US college was virtually assured. And peccadilloes like an irregular legal history in the US, or an embezzlement charge under a disfavored foreign autocrat like Doe, could be easily overlooked. The Black Pipeline leads from elite secondary schools to elite American colleges then to serving on the boards of wealthy American corporations earning $500k to $1 million per year, n, in the case of a foreign black, returning finally to Africa to serve as a minister of portfolio for $200k per year, already rich even before arriving, with well-established wealthy n powerful American contacts n business connections. Once ensconced in his African country, he can serve out his days as host to visiting Black American Royalty n further cement domestic friendships thus positioning himself to receive vast amounts of American financial aid, enriching not only one’s home African country but further enriching one personally.
This is how the ruling Americo-Liberians in Liberia are compensated while the locals earn about 5 cents per hour. Multi-millionaire Americo-Liberians, many dual-citizens tied by cultural background n marriage to the Black Elite in the US, thus rule local African blacks who earn $100 to $200 per year. More than “tied”–rather joined at the hip. The American black elite are not only Blacks first n Americans second, they are rich blacks first n poor blacks second. Their ties to the ruling elites in West Africa are far closer than their ties to White Americans, n Black politicians like the late Sheila Jackson Lee–themselves products of the Affirmative Action Black Pipeline–regularly tour W. Africa to cement their relations to the local elites n autocrats, distributing US taxpayer dollars as they tour, ensuring they will have a place to retire to where their own invested wealth will guarantee their political dominance over the local population. The Americo-Liberian dominance has spread over W. Africa, which itself has become a larger Liberia, all under the thumb of the US Black Elite, whose rule n influence are paid for by American taxpayers who continue to believe that Africa is mud huts ruled by witch doctors with bones thru their noses instead of an extension of the US Black Elite’s Affirmative Action exclusive racial club.
When Charles Taylor invaded Liberia in 1989, his main tribal supporters were the Gio n Mano, who had suffered under the Krahn. Before long, the Gio broke off n under Prince Johnson, launched a three-way tribal war: Doe’s Krahn versus Taylor’s Mano versus Prince Johnson’s Gio. Prince, who is not a chieftain but a warlord like Taylor, seized most of Monrovia n executed Doe. (“Prince” is just his personal name.)
After 8 years of brutal civil war, in 1997, a general cease-fire was declared, ECOMOG African peacekeepers arrived, n an election was held which surprisingly elected Taylor by a large majority–assuming one can trust any ‘election’ in a society riven by years of violent antagonistic tribes, where the only literate class are self-interested Americo-Liberians like Taylor, who supervised the elections.
Taylor’s rule turned out to be little different from Doe’s n he soon provoked a new revolt from the Krahn. In 1999, a new tribal alliance called the LURD invaded from Guinea. Consisting of Mandingo n Krahn, they defeated Taylor’s government troops n besieged the capital Monrovia. Keep in mind that, as a graduate of an American college, Charles Taylor was supposedly well educated in the US Constitution n in the human rights principles of Western Civilization. He apparently forgot all that once he returned to Africa, assuming he ever actually learned these principles to graduate, or that these principles were actually taught by Bentley College in the first place.
When I was in Liberia a few years later, I heard first-hand what happened at that time. The new occupiers were mostly tribal members from the hinterland adjacent to Guinea. They hated all Americo-Liberians, which included of course Charles Taylor, n for nine months they roamed the streets of Monrovia freely, robbing n torturing n executing anyone whom they suspected of being one of the privileged Americo-Liberians, their colonial masters. Anyone who looked well-fed, or who spoke English, including government workers n teachers, or who seemed to have any connection whatsoever with the US were summarily butchered in the streets. All Americo-Liberians who wished to live had to hide for nine long months to avoid being murdered.
Peace finally returned to Liberia after 2003. Taylor was persuaded to resign n he was eventually prosecuted at the Hague for war crimes for launching the RUF terrorist faction in Sierra Leone, n he was imprisoned for life. Prince Johnson n the other warlords were not prosecuted because the legal charges only stemmed from crimes in Sierra Leone, which Taylor had used as a source of diamonds to help him fund his struggle for power in Liberia, while the other warlords were less culpable in the conflict in Sierra Leone. It was Taylor who armed n launched the RUF who committed the well-known atrocities of that conflict in exchange for “blood diamonds”. The general amnesty of 2003 allowed all other offenders in Liberia to go free, n Prince Johnson, still firmly in control of the Gio tribal faction, continues to serve as its representative in the government of Liberia today. Ever nervous of a new outbreak of tribal conflict, the Americo-Liberian Presidential palace remains guarded today by dour n well-armed, n very strong-looking, female Indian soldiers assigned there by the UN, as I personally witnessed. The palace itself remains riddled with bullet holes.
If you are a Black who wishes to do business in Liberia, you can expect a sincere support from the local regime, which is once again predominantly Americo-Liberian. If you are not of W. African black descent, you should be prepared to pay large fees, perhaps in the millions of dollars, in bribes. These fees will be paid to the same American-educated products of the “Black Pipeline” who got rich in the US n who continue to govern Liberia. If the class rule in Liberia were not black like their colonial subjects, n did not enjoy the unqualified support of the Black Elite in the US, I suspect their rule would be the biggest scandal in Africa.
Click on the videos to the right for up-close details of Monrovia.
