Liberia

liberia.gif
View other destinations: 

Useful links

http://www.liberianonline.com/: Business, travel, news, sport, you name it!

AllAfrica.com : A news website aggregating information from over 300 sources, together with specially commissioned articles and commentaries.

AfricaGuide.com: Exhaustive resource website covering the whole of Africa – climate, travel and medical advice, visas and money, public holidays, getting around, people and culture, shopping and forums.

The Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor websites may also provide useful information.

Located on the west coast of Africa, Liberia is bordered by Guinea in the north, Ivory Coast to the east, Sierra Leone on the northwest and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and southwest. It is one of the very few African countries not colonized by a European country, but was in fact founded and colonized by freed American slaves with the help of a private organization called the American Colonization Society in 1821-1822. Its capital city, Monrovia, was named after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States.

After many years as a workable republic, in 1980, a military coup led by Samuel Doe ushered in a decade of authoritarian rule. Then in December 1989, Charles Taylor launched a rebellion against Doe's regime that led to a prolonged civil war in which countless thousands were killed. Further intervals of peace and civil war followed, and the process of rebuilding the social and economic structure of this war-torn country is proving difficult.

Although facilities for foreign visitors are adequate in the capital, they are virtually non-existent in the rest of the country, and hence Liberia cannot be regarded as in any way being a tourist destination.

Print       Email       Bookmark