Faith “Zanweah” Sternstein grew up in Tappita, Nimba County, Liberia. Her heritage and cultural background is that of the Dan (Gio) ethnic group, where her lineage comes directly through Chiefs Tarpeh, Snagon, and Vonleh. She met her future husband, Martin Sternstein, when he served as Fulbright Professor at the University of Liberia. While much has been written about Liberia, there has been little serious research into the lives of the early presidents, and we much enjoyed filling in this gap. We subscribe to the African proverb: Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
C. Patrick Burrowes is a renowned Liberian historian with whom we enjoyed many discussions on the campus of the University of Liberia. He has written extensively.
This book delves into pre-colonial, post-colonial, and present-day Liberia as he analyzes both the trans-Atlantic and Mideast slave trade, the quest for freedom, and the difficult road to Liberian statehood. The 1920s Fernando Po slavery scandal led to the resignation of President King and almost to the end of Liberia as a free country.
According to Burrowes, this past history continues to traumatize Liberia and can be linked to atrocities committed during the 1980s and 1990s.
Africa's past and present are deeply influenced by the capture and selling of millions of its people over several centuries. To a greater extent, that is true for Liberia, a country to which blacks from the Americas returned. Liberia’s recent civil war, the trans-Atlantic slave trade inflicted pains, traumas and losses that cannot be ignored out of existence. Driven beneath the surface, they corrode our conscience and erode our humanity. By pretending they did not happen, we destroy our ability to tell right from wrong, victims from villains. Echoes of the slavery era can be heard in the derogatory names…
We met and befriended the author when he was a political science professor at the University of Liberia.
At a later date he became president of the country! Before his untimely death, he wrote with a true insider understanding and perspective. In this book, beginning with nineteenth-century colonization, he analyzes social changes, struggles, and exploitations, and gives insights into the political process over six generations of history.
He concludes with thoughts about the future of self-governance in Liberia and throughout Africa.
Liberia is a West African country whose history is intricately tied to America's past and Africa's future. Unique in its origins as a colony for resettling free blacks from the United States, the nation nevertheless experienced a progressive centralization of state power closely resembling the typical postcolonial political order in Africa. Amos Sawyer is himself a part of Liberian history. As president, and before that as a political scientist and a citizen active in academic and civic affairs in his country, he has seen events there from an extraordinary perspective. In this deeply engrossing book, he describes how autocratic control…
The plan was insane. The trap seemed to snap shut on Bruce and Maggie Tate, an isolation forced on them by the pandemic and America's growing political factionalism. Something had to change.
Maggie's surprising answer: buy a boat, learn to pilot it, and embark on the Great Loop. With no…
In writing our own book on early Liberian history, Dr. Elwood Dunn provided much encouragement as well as bibliographic suggestions.
His own book has everything from detailed maps of ethnic groupings and a chronology of significant events, to insightful biographies of the personalities who have shaped Liberian history. It is an incomparable archive of knowledge of Liberia’s past.
The prose is lucid and engaging with a resulting colorful mosaic which holds interest wherever one opens a page.
Originally formed to harbor freed slaves and Americans returning to Africa, Liberia once was a land of hope. That was shattered by a long Civil War that shook its very foundation. Today's Liberia is glimpsed in this second edition. Building on the first edition, this updated volume focuses on the personalities, from the founders of Liberia, to the soldiers who are responsible simultaneously for destruction and the hope of stability. Along with these people, various social and ethnic groups, political parties and labor movements, economic entities and natural resources are profiled in this updated work. A new chronology of Liberia…
We have divergent views on Greene’s travelog. Before first venturing forth to Liberia, Martin read Greene’s book for some appreciation of the undeveloped regions of the country. Faith, a native Liberian, read the book and found Greene’s naivety somewhat amusing.
In 1935 Greene embarked on a four-week, 350-mile trek through the Liberian hinterland. He had sharp eyes and was a master storyteller. With wit, compassion, and insight, he described a part of Liberia seemingly untouched by Western civilization.
While he overly dwelled on what he perceives as negatives, still an unconquered spirit of the indigenes manages to shine forth.
His mind crowded with vivid images of Africa, Graham Greene set off in 1935 to discover Liberia, a remote and unfamiliar republic founded for released slaves. Now with a new introduction by Paul Theroux, Journey Without Maps is the spellbinding record of Greene's journey. Crossing the red-clay terrain from Sierra Leone to the coast of Grand Bassa with a chain of porters, he came to know one of the few areas of Africa untouched by colonization. Western civilization had not yet impinged on either the human psyche or the social structure, and neither poverty, disease, nor hunger seemed able to…
This is the story of New York City, told through the prism of one block. It’s a story of forest and cement, bird cries and taxi horns, theaters and brothels, hotels and factories, gambling dens and gourmet foods.
It’s also the story of high life and low life, immigrants and…
This scholarly two-volume treatise covers the history of Liberia from 1820 to 1944.
We often referred to this comprehensive study to point us to sources relating to our own research. The author carefully documents political, legal, and constitutional changes over a 125-year period. There is extensive quoting from primary sources.
This is not an easy read, but should be used as a reference for specific topics of interest. There is no comparative authoritative contribution to Liberia’s legal record.
A Documentary History of the Constitutions, Laws and Treaties of Liberia from the Earliest Settlements to the Establishment of the Republic, a Sketch of the Activities of the American Colonization Societies, a Commentary on the Constitution of the Republic and a Survey of the Political and Social Legislation from 1847 to 1944. With Appendices Containing the Laws of the Colony of Liberia, 1820-1839, and Acts of the Governor and Council, 1839-1847. With Maps and Illustrations. Foreword by Roscoe Pound. With a new introduction by Nakomo Duche.
"Interesting questions of public law and of international law are raised by the history…
Barack Obama was not the first African-American president of a country. Ten men, born as slaves or to freed slave families in America, immigrated to Liberia and served as presidents of Liberia. Their stories are a fascinating chapter in the histories of Liberia and America. For all their faults, they led a fledgling country totaling 20,000 settlers; demonstrated to skeptics that blacks were capable of self-government; faced an inhospitable environment; nursed a “peculiar relationship” with America; confronted financial ruin; attempted rule over a million indigenous people; against all odds stood up to the most powerful European countries of the time; and established the only truly independent country in Africa. All this was accomplished under the constant scrutiny of supporters and critics of this “grand experiment.”
Radical Friend highlights the remarkable life of Amy Kirby Post, a nineteenth-century abolitionist and women's rights activist who created deep friendships across the color line to promote social justice. Her relationships with Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Sojourner Truth, William C. Nell, and other Black activists from the 1840s to the…
Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools
by
Victoria Twead,
Wall Street Journal Top 10 and New York Times bestselling author.
"James Herriot meets Driving over Lemons"
If Joe and Vicky had known what relocating to a tiny mountain village in Andalucía would REALLY be like, they might have hesitated... They have no idea of the culture shock in store.…
