Causes Of Political Conflict In Liberia

Political and Economic Factors
Leibenow (1969) traced the historical development of Liberia and the method of governance as factors in the national conflict in the Liberian society. Similarly, Sawyer (1996) observed that even the motto inscribed on Liberia’s official coat of arms, The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here, excluded the Africans who were living on the land before the settlers arrived. Such exclusions of the Africans from government employment and taxation without representation greatly contributed to the military coup and the level of violence in Liberia. Feeling excluded from their government, the Africans began to identify themselves with individual ethnic groups instead of looking at themselves as Liberians. This separation from the African majority became a factor in the Liberian national conflict.

The Liberian conflict contained features of class distinctions and struggle for political power, which later became factors in the national conflict. While some of these policies were contrary to liberal democratic theory, in which the ultimate power rests with the people, these policies allowed the ruling elite to maintain political and economic powers by excluding the majority of the Liberian population, the native Africans. These practices led to the 1980 military coup and later became one of the conditions responsible for the persistent national conflict in