Word: settlers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Like most of his political predecessors, Tolbert was one of the "settlers," or Americo-Liberians, descended from the freed American slaves who founded the West African nation in 1847. Throughout Liberia's history, the settler group dominated both the government and the economy of Africa's oldest republic, despite the fact that it represented only about 3% of the country's 1.7 million people. Tolbert, a Baptist minister who had served 20 years as vice president, made a degree of headway in reforming the top leadership after he assumed the presidency in 1971. Alarmed by an outbreak...