Liberia's Cannibalistic War

The world is no stranger to the concept of Civil War. Throughout history, countless factions have engaged in battles to take control of one country or another. Although many of these power struggles have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, torture, and untold devastation, no Civil Wars have come close to matching the levels of insane brutality that took place in Liberia.

In today’s episode, we shall take a look at the drug-fueled war, which, in many cases, involved cannibalism, vampirism, and the forced deployment of child soldiers.

Between 1989 and 2003, the people of Liberia experienced two Civil Wars. So, how did these come to happen? To answer this question, it is necessary to travel back in time to the founding of Liberia in 1847. After the American Colonization Society began returning freed slaves to Africa, a rift started to grow between those who were returning and those who were fortunate enough to have avoided one of the most abominable chapters in human history.

Unfortunately, in a repeat that might be familiar to some of the history scholars among you, many of those who were returning to Africa had picked up certain ideas from their former captors, and now believed their fellow Africans to be little more than uncultured savages. The American influence was so strong among those who were returning that they actually named the capital of Liberia Monrovia after the fifth American President James Monroe.

The Americo-Liberians, as they would come to be called, quickly rose to positions of power, and they used this power to repress, subjugate, and, in some cases, enslave the native people.

This became so bad that, in 1931, a report issued by the League of Nations implicated many high-ranking officials in organized slavery. An extract from an article written in The Spectator at the time, which has not aged well with regards to acceptable language but otherwise very succinctly summarizes the report’s findings, reads thusly:

“The slavery in Liberia mostly takes the form of forced labor. The Liberian natives are of a very backward type. There has been no serious attempt to raise them; they have merely been exploited; they have no readiness in self-defense. The officials have made a habit of sending out the ‘Frontier Force’ to bring in natives to work compulsorily upon roads, bridges, barracks, and so forth for derisory payments.

Having got this labor safely at their disposal, many of the officials have used it, compulsorily again, for their own enrichment on their lands.”

Upon the publication of this report, the Liberian president, the vice president, and several other high-ranking officials immediately resigned. Sadly, this seems to have done little to improve the situation, and, although the country, to outsiders at least, appeared to remain fairly peaceful, there was a growing feeling of animosity towards the Americo-Liberians. Almost 50 years after the aforementioned report was published, something happened that would change Liberia forever.

On the 12th of April 1980, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, the son of poor, uneducated members of the Krahn tribe, stormed the presidential palace along with 17 other dissident members of the armed forces. During this attack, the president, William Tolbert, was murdered along with the vice president and several other high-ranking officials. After the successful completion of his coup, Doe would assume power, and upon taking charge, he and his men would round up many more government officials who were paraded naked through the streets of the capital before being publicly executed by firing squad. Later, when asked about these executions, Doe told reporters:

“It’s the law of the country that people be executed for their crimes — both political and economic. They were guilty of crimes. I didn’t decide the punishment.” “God said if you violated a law, the law deals with you. God said whenever your finger or arm bothers you or is sore, it is better to cut it off. “Look in your Bible — St. John. There’s no easy way to get in power in Africa. You have to do things you have no business doing.”

In spite of, or maybe because of, this brutal takeover, the new regime appears to have been quite popular. Doe immediately began making promises to eradicate corruption, oppression, and economic inequality, while simultaneously assuring the public that the country would be placed under democratically elected leadership. While somewhat dubious elections would indeed take place in 1985, elections that would see Master Sergeant Samuel Doe assume the position of president, the country would remain under martial law for five years.

During that time, Doe was very busy. He promoted himself to general, suspended the constitution, dissolved the executive and legislative branches of government, banned all opposing political activity, and conducted trials against his adversaries in which the accused were refused legal representation. He also used the five years before the elections to fill what remained of the government with his political allies.

Even before he was sworn in as president, the few people who had been permitted to stand against him questioned the validity of the election. So much so, in fact, that, on November 12, 1985, Doe’s former ally General Thomas Quiwonkpa attempted a coup of his own. This one would not be quite as successful; Doe declared it to be a failure within the day and, three days later, Quiwonkpa would be located and murdered by army loyalists.

His body would then be taken to a local market, castrated, dismembered and partially eaten.

Although Doe claimed to have initially taken power in order to remove the influence of the Americo-Liberians, he quickly realized that being on good terms with America could prove to be tremendously beneficial, and he quickly struck up a friendship with President Reagan.

In exchange for a huge amount of cash, which was theoretically meant to be used to better the lives of Liberian citizens but actually mostly lined the pockets of Doe and his officials, America was granted several favors including, but not limited to:

• The installation of a radio tower which would allow the broadcast of radio America throughout Africa.
• The use of all Liberia’s ports by American forces to help strengthen their military positions throughout Africa and the banning of socialist teachings in schools and universities.

Doe even went as far as to establish ties with Israel, upsetting many other African leaders, purely to improve his standing with the United States leadership.

As a reward for all this good behavior, Doe received more than $500 million in aid and loans from the US, considerably more than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to some estimates, Doe and his associates embezzled more than 300 million of these dollars, spending them on things like private jets, luxurious real estate, and even satellite dishes that would allow Doe to watch live broadcasts of President Reagan’s speeches. As the 80s drew to a close and President Reagan had other, more pressing issues to deal with, American support for Doe began to wane. Liberia was becoming less and less useful to the US, and in May 1989, they finally withdrew all financial support.

Given that Doe was becoming less and less popular with the people, this made his position somewhat tenuous. After failing to obtain financial backing from countries such as Israel and Nigeria, Doe tried one more time to get on America’s good side. In an article published in The Washington Post, he appealed directly to President Bush, saying:

“Our capital is named after your President Monroe. Our flag is a replica of your flag. We in Liberia have always considered ourselves stepchildren of the United States. We implore you to come and help your stepchildren, who are in danger of losing our freedoms and our lives.”

Sadly for Doe, this final plea was unsuccessful, and on the 9th of September 1990, Doe was captured, brutally tortured and killed. His body was mutilated and then paraded through the streets.

Tragically for the people of Liberia, this was not the end of the troubles but merely the beginning.

Although Doe had remained in power until almost the end of 1990, the Civil War had, in fact, started the previous year. Charles Taylor, a former government official working under Doe, has an interesting story. During the early 1980s, he was found guilty of embezzling nearly $900,000, fled to America, was subsequently arrested and detained pending deportation back to Liberia, escaped (possibly with the assistance of the CIA), made his way to Libya, spent time receiving military training under Muammar Gaddafi, formed the “National Patriotic Front of Liberia,” and, on the 24th of December 1989, launched an invasion designed to overthrow Doe.

As had become typical with any military action in Liberia, the story of Taylor’s invasion is brutal in the extreme. Initially, it genuinely appeared that Taylor stood no chance. His small group of poorly armed attackers should have easily been crushed by the Liberian armed forces. However, the soldiers who were dispatched to deal with this latest problem very much turned the tables in Taylor’s favor.

Soldiers not only engaged the invaders but indiscriminately raped and murdered local civilians. Unsurprisingly, this led to many survivors willingly joining with Taylor and his forces, led by a small but dedicated group of Libyan mercenaries and former Liberian military higher-ups, quickly swelled.

According to the available evidence, Taylor certainly did not discriminate when it came to who he would allow to enlist. One article, published by ProPublica, tells of how small children were often used as soldiers:

“Among the most notorious recruits were the Small Boys Unit — young children, often orphans, who swore allegiance to ‘Papai,’ as Taylor was called. To prove their loyalty, the children sometimes had to gun down their mothers and fathers. They would become among some of the most vicious killers in a war of heartless, mindless, unfathomable killing. Elementary and middle schools emptied of children as they flocked to join Taylor.

Catholic nuns reported school attendance dropping from 3,000 to 1,000 students in one town. Children too young to carry rifles were given grenades instead.”

Perhaps even more concerning than this are the frequent claims that Taylor’s men regularly engaged in cannibalism. When testifying at Taylor’s war crimes tribunal, his former vice-president Moses Blah said that military men would frequently cook and eat human innards during the campaign. While talking about a member of Taylor’s presidential guard, Nelson Gaye, Blah said:

“I saw one incident with my own eyes. I visited a camp… he roasted the hands of a human being, then ate them with boiled cassava. Gaye and his men also cooked human intestines and ate them with cassava. You could not enter the unit without doing that.”

While all this was going on, a breakaway faction of Taylor’s “National Patriotic Front of Liberia,” led by Prince Y. Johnson, had already taken the capital. In fact, it was this faction that was responsible for the death of Doe. Following this combined takeover, a national transitional government theoretically assumed control of the country.

However, the fighting would not really stop until 1997 when Charles Taylor was elected president. During this period, the use of child soldiers, ritual executions, and the targeting of protected people were commonplace.

So, what happened next? Were the people of Liberia finally able to live out their lives in relative peace?

Well, no. Although the country was now theoretically under Democratic leadership, there were still several groups that wished to seize control. Not only that, but the government was certainly not above using the proven tactic of keeping the people scared in order to extract maximum obedience. At certain points, things became so confusing that, when people later told their stories, they weren’t even sure by whom they had been attacked.

The following is a brief account from one lady who described what happened after she refused to allow a member of Taylor’s law enforcement team to borrow her cell phone:

“He took a bayonet from behind him (he had it stuck in his trousers) and proceeded to slash me all over my body. He cut me deep on my back, resulting in the cutting of a major vein. Then he cut across my left thigh and almost around the entire thigh. He stabbed me several times on my head and gave me deep cuts on my left and right arms, on my back and my abdomen. I bled profusely.”

Another account tells of how locals would use rebel forces to settle personal vendettas. Because of a land dispute, one man told a rebel leader that his neighbor was harboring several government sympathizers. As a result of this, his house was destroyed, he and his oldest son were shot in front of their family, and both of his daughters were repeatedly raped.

These certainly were not isolated incidents; our research shows that attacks like this were, if not commonplace, then certainly not unusual. Obviously, many people were unhappy about this. Chief among these were the “Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy” (LURD), and on the 21st of April 1999, they launched an attack from Guinea, Liberia’s neighbor to the north, with the result that Liberia was now engaged in its second Civil War in less than a decade.

After several years of intense fighting, human rights violations, and even more forced child conscription, (LURD), along with another organization known as the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), had taken over control of much of the country and were quickly closing in on the capital. After further intervention by troops from Nigeria, the United Nations, and the United States, Taylor would eventually resign as president on the 11th of August 2003. Rather than running the risk of going the same way as several of his predecessors, he elected to flee the country and go into exile in Nigeria.

In 2005, Liberia held its first independently verified, legitimate elections, and as a result of this, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the twenty-fourth president of Liberia and the first woman to head an African nation. She would hold this position, more or less peacefully, until 2018.

Although this is chronologically the end of the story, much of the more distressing testimony would not become widely known to the public until the war crimes trials of several individuals who were not only involved in atrocities in Liberia but in nearby Sierra Leone. Sadly, very few of these individuals have paid for their crimes. According to a Reuters article:

“Alieu Kosiah, who fought in the 1990s against then-President Charles Taylor’s army, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2021 for rape, murder, and cannibalism in Switzerland’s first-ever war crimes trial.”

In the trial of Kunti Kamara, Kamara, a former member of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for democracy, was found guilty by a French court of “complicity in crimes against humanity and responsibility as a direct perpetrator for torture and barbaric acts.” He was sentenced to life in prison. Sadly, there are many so-called warlords who participated in the civil wars who have not only openly admitted to their crimes but remain free to this day.

One individual who now works as a preacher in Liberia told reporters from Vice that he and several others would “regularly drink the blood of an innocent child before going into battle.” According to certain archaic tribal customs, doing this would almost guarantee victory. Unfortunately, although Liberia has certainly become a more peaceful place than it was in the past, its government seems to be reluctant when it comes to pursuing its former war criminals.

Because of this, there is a very real likelihood that many of those who needlessly took the lives of innocent men, women, and children will be granted the luxury of living out the remainder of their lives in freedom and obscurity.

Key Takeaways

• Liberia’s civil wars, from 1989 to 2003, were marked by extreme brutality, including cannibalism and child soldier use.
• The Americo-Liberians, descendants of freed American slaves, initially dominated and oppressed native Liberians.
• Samuel Doe’s coup in 1980 led to a brutal regime, with Doe later being overthrown and killed by Charles Taylor.
• Charles Taylor’s forces used child soldiers and engaged in widespread atrocities during his rise to power.
• Despite peace efforts, many war criminals from Liberia’s civil wars remain unpunished and free.

Frequently Asked Questions

What were the two main Civil Wars in Liberia about?

The two Civil Wars in Liberia, which took place between 1989 and 2003, involved brutal conflicts characterized by drug-fueled violence, cannibalism, vampirism, and the forced deployment of child soldiers.

What was the root cause of the tensions in Liberia leading up to the Civil Wars?

The tensions in Liberia stemmed from a historical rift between the Americo-Liberians, who returned from America and held positions of power, and the native Liberians, who were often repressed and subjugated.

What significant event occurred on April 12, 1980, in Liberia?

On April 12, 1980, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe led a coup that resulted in the murder of President William Tolbert and several high-ranking officials. Doe then assumed power and executed more government officials.

How did Samuel Doe’s regime initially gain popularity?

Doe’s regime initially gained popularity by promising to eradicate corruption, oppression, and economic inequality, and by assuring the public that the country would be placed under democratically elected leadership.

What role did Charles Taylor play in the Liberian Civil War?

Charles Taylor, a former government official under Doe, launched an invasion in 1989 to overthrow Doe. His forces were known for their brutal tactics, including the use of child soldiers and cannibalism.

What was the outcome of the first Liberian Civil War?

The first Liberian Civil War ended in 1997 when Charles Taylor was elected president. However, the fighting did not truly stop, and the country remained in turmoil.

What significant event marked the end of Charles Taylor’s presidency?

Charles Taylor resigned as president on August 11, 2003, and fled to Nigeria after intense fighting and international intervention.

Who became the first woman to head an African nation after Liberia’s elections in 2005?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the twenty-fourth president of Liberia and the first woman to head an African nation after the 2005 elections.

What were some of the atrocities committed during the Liberian Civil Wars?

Atrocities included the use of child soldiers, ritual executions, cannibalism, and the targeting of protected people. Many civilians were indiscriminately raped and murdered.

What is the current status of war criminals from the Liberian Civil Wars?

Many war criminals remain free, and the Liberian government has been reluctant to pursue them. Some have been convicted in international trials, but many others have not faced justice.

Sources

• Original Into the Shadows video: Liberia’s Cannibalistic War
• Hero image source by Tony / openverse, by.

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