Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text.
LIBERIA:
DESCRIPTION
HISTORY
PROBLEMS
BY
FREDERICK STARR
CHICAGO
1913
Copyrighted, 1913
By FREDERICK STARR
CHICAGO
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
WILLIAM N. SELIG
OF CHICAGO
IN EVIDENCE OF APPRECIATION AND AS
A TOKEN OF REGARD
[v]
PREFACE
Africa has been partitioned among the nations. Thelittle kingdom of Abyssinia, in the north, and the Republicof Liberia, upon the west coast, are all of thecontinent that remain in the hands of Africans. Liberiaalone is in the hands of negroes. Will it remainso, or is it destined to disappear? Is it a failure?The reports which have so frequently been printed inbooks of travel and elementary treatises of ethnologyappear almost unanimous in the assertion that it is.Yet there are those who believe that the Black Republicis far indeed from being a failure. We arenot willing to admit that its history and conditionswarrant the assumption that the black man is incapableof conducting an independent government. Asuccessful Liberia would be a star of hope to the DarkContinent. In Liberian success there lies AfricanRedemption; redemption, not only in the religioussense, but redemption economic, social, governmental.If the black men can stand alone in Liberia, he canstand alone elsewhere; if the negro is able to organizeand maintain a government on the west coast, he cando the same on the east coast, and in the southern partof Africa. Africa is restless under the white man;it makes no difference whether the ruler be Portuguese,French, German, Spanish, Belgian, or English,the native is dissatisfied under the present regime. Itis recognized that a spark may cause a conflagrationthrough negro Africa. On the other hand, the colonialburden of the European governments grows heavy;the trade advantages of holding Africa might beequally gained without the expense and trouble ofadministration; it is mutual jealousy, not great success,[vi]which holds the European powers in Africa.Were each convinced that withdrawal would not giveadvantage to other powers, that abdication would notbe recognized as weakness, that free trade with blackmen might not result in individual national advantage,they would be quite ready to withdraw from theDark Continent. In every colony the native is advancing;education becomes more general; it mustcontinue to diffuse itself, and with diffusion of knowledgeamong the natives, restlessness will be increased;the colonial burden will become heavier,—not lighter.If Liberia prospers, it will stand as an example ofwhat black men can do to all the other negro populationsof the continent; its example would stimulateadvance for all; the sight of enterprises originatingwith negroes and carried out by them would giveheart and stimulus to negroes everywhere. This doesnot mean that all the European colonies should necessari