English is Liberia's official language from a history of US slavery and colonization

During a meeting with several African leaders, President Donald Trump made news with a compliment to the Liberian president, Joseph Boakai.

"In such good English, it's beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated?" asked Trump. "In Liberia? That's very interesting. It's beautiful English. I have people at this table that can't speak nearly as well."

Nervous chuckles and sideways glances ensued.

(Source: The Hill) 

What Trump didn’t seem to know was that English is Liberia’s official language. 

Liberia was founded in the 1820s as part of the American "colonization" movement, which sought to resettle free black Americans on the African continent rather than pursue emancipation in the U.S.

The American ‘colonization’ movement

The African nation of Liberia started as an idea on American soil in the early 1800s. Prominent white Americans, including then-President James Madison, were growing concerned about an increasing number of freed Black people who they saw as inferior and unable to integrate with white people. Others feared that Black people who had their freedom would encourage the enslaved population to rebel or assist in their flight to freedom up north. 

In 1816, a group of white elites started the American Colonization Society with a mission to send freed Black people to the African continent. The organization was supported by a mixed coalition of both abolitionists and slaveholders. Among slaveholders, the endeavor was a way to consolidate and strengthen the institution of slavery. Abolitionists saw it as a way to grant freedom to the enslaved population without integration.

Some Black Americans, though much smaller in number, supported the effort, seeing the return to the African continent as a way to escape violent racism and govern themselves with political and economic agency. 

Liberia's President Joseph Boakai in Nigeria on Dec 15, 2024. (AP)

The founding of Liberia

The American Colonization Society’s first voyage to West Africa took place in 1820, carrying about 90 immigrants who landed on Sherbro Island in Sierra Leone. Many died from disease. 

During another trip in 1821, society member Eli Ayres and U.S. Navy Lt. Robert Stockton purchased land along the coast for a settlement. There are mixed reports as to whether this transaction involved violent coercion of the native population. 

In 1822, the remaining immigrants from Sherbo Island and more Black Americans arrived and began their settlement, which expanded over the years. Violent conflicts between the indigenous population and the settlers erupted. 

In 1824, the settlement earned its name Liberia. The capital city was named Monrovia for U.S. President James Monroe, a major supporter of the effort. 

"The achievements of the Colonization Society were meager," wrote historian Nicholas Guyatt  in an article for the African American Intellectual History Society, "Its colony of Liberia, founded in 1821, recruited only ten thousand migrants from the United States over the four decades before the Civil War."

Liberia was also populated by Africans recaptured from illegal slave ships by the U.S. Navy that patrolled the West African coast. 

In 1847, Liberian residents declared independence from the American Colonization Society’s governance.

By the end of the 1800s, about 15,000 African Americans, 300 Afro-Caribbeans, and 6,000 Africans rescued from slave ships had migrated to Liberia, historian C. Patrick Burrowes told The Washington Post.

Americo-Liberians, descendents of the Black American immigrants, make up about 5% of the country, but controlled the government for much of Liberia's history. Indigenous Liberians weren’t granted citizenship until 1904 and didn’t have the right to vote in Liberian elections until 1946. Americo-Liberians’ political dominance ended after a violent military coup in 1980, led by indigenous soldiers. Civil unrest lasted until a peace agreement in 2003.

Today, Liberia is a democracy currently led by President Boakai, who is from the Kissi ethnic group and speaks both native languages of Kissi and Mendi as well as English. 

English is the official language of Liberia, but over 20 indigenous languages are also still spoken. The nation’s flag, created in 1827, was based on the U.S. flag.

People display a representation of the Liberian flag as they celebrate Liberia being an Ebola free nation in Monrovia, Liberia, May 11, 2015. (AP)