AHC: Keep Liberia One of Africa's Richest Country

[QuoProQuid]

It is a little known fact that for much of the 1970s, Liberia was one of Africa's richest nation. For a brief period, the capital of Monrovia was ranked similarly to Japan for quality of life. Due to prolonged conflict and economic mismanagement however, Liberia has had one of the world's most erratic records of economic growth on the planet. Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) fell every year between 1979 and 1995, bottoming out at just USD45. This represented a reduction of more than 95 per cent from the early 1970s.

In less than thirty years, thanks to a military coup and two civil wars, the country became the poorest on the continent. With much of its infrastructure destroyed, an underdeveloped transportation network and a devastated cultural life, the country is only now beginning to recover with United Nations oversight. It was only recently returned control of its owned armed forces.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to prevent Liberia's social, political and economic collapse. Your PoD may be no earlier than the late 1960s.

Bonus points if you can make it THE richest nation in Africa.

EDIT: I apologize for the grammatical error in the title. I wasn't thinking.

 

[anamarvelo]

It is a little known fact that for much of the 1970s, Liberia was one of Africa's richest nation. For a brief period, the capital of Monrovia was ranked similarly to Japan for quality of life. Due to prolonged conflict and economic mismanagement however, Liberia has had one of the world's most erratic records of economic growth on the planet. Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) fell every year between 1979 and 1995, bottoming out at just USD45. This represented a reduction of more than 95 per cent from the early 1970s.

In less than thirty years, thanks to a military coup and two civil wars, the country became the poorest on the continent. With much of its infrastructure destroyed, an underdeveloped transportation network and a devastated cultural life, the country is only now beginning to recover with United Nations oversight. It was only recently returned control of its owned armed forces.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to prevent Liberia's social, political and economic collapse. Your PoD may be no earlier than the late 1960s.

Bonus points if you can make it THE richest nation in Africa.

EDIT: I apologize for the grammatical error in the title. I wasn't thinking.

the only way to do this is to prevent hte first military cou
i will do a litte research and come back with a finished way to prevent it

 

[anamarvelo]

the only way to do this is to prevent hte first military cou
i will do a litte research and come back with a finished way to prevent it

ok so to prevnet the cou the liberians upper class (the former slaves from america) have to stop there supression of the lower classes of the indignest population i hate it when people do that
ever since liberais founding the fomer slaves where on top and the native africans where on the bottoms and they where treaty worse than there new master where treated
this would have to be stoped problin at least in the 1950's
they would also have to spend money to build school and hel educate the supress populace
without that men who orcastrated the cou would have no supporters and they would not gane power

 

[anamarvelo]

ok so to prevnet the cou the liberians upper class (the former slaves from america) have to stop there supression of the lower classes of the indignest population i hate it when people do that
ever since liberais founding the fomer slaves where on top and the native africans where on the bottoms and they where treaty worse than there new master where treated
this would have to be stoped problin at least in the 1950's
they would also have to spend money to build school and hel educate the supress populace
without that men who orcastrated the cou would have no supporters and they would not gane power

also there is a theroy that the CIA help orcastrate the Cou to gain more contol over liberia

 

[QuoProQuid]

ok so to prevnet the cou the liberians upper class (the former slaves from america) have to stop there supression of the lower classes of the indignest population i hate it when people do that
ever since liberais founding the fomer slaves where on top and the native africans where on the bottoms and they where treaty worse than there new master where treated
this would have to be stoped problin at least in the 1950's
they would also have to spend money to build school and hel educate the supress populace
without that men who orcastrated the cou would have no supporters and they would not gane power

I'm sorry but I understood nothing of this.

 

[Jape]

1960s might be a little difficult - I think you could keep Liberia's prosperity up longer but fact is it was a ticking time bomb - the 'American' ruling class completely cut themselves off from the 'Africans'. The oligarchs had the overwhelming share of the economic power and all of the political. You need a liberalising political force. William Tubman ran the place from the 1940s to the 1970s - he was the not-so benign father figure who oversaw Liberia's growth. However his successor William Tolbert(sic?) was corrupt and didn't even tolerate the token opposition to the Whig Party. Get a better leader to succeed Tubman and you might be cool - but political liberalising needs to happen or the Native Africans will look to Charles Taylors for decisive action at some point, possibly post-Cold War when Western funds start to die down.

Much earlier POD - It doesn't seem insane for a unification of the two ruling classes - the tribal aristocracy coverting to Christianity and being brought into the fold - a reason for the divide was only freemen and their descendents could vote. It would certainly help Liberia's growth earlier on as Monorovia was effectively the whole state well into the 1900s due to the tribes having little respect for the foriegners. And in the name of bitter, horrid irony the Liberian Americans were big fans of serfdom! Even into the 1930s when they were caught by the League of Nations trafficing in the West African Gulf.

 

[The Oncoming Storm]

Clearly you need to make the Americo-Liberians more tolerant and willing to share power with the indigenous Liberians, while Liberia was wealthy there was a hideous imbalance as to how that wealth was shared out. My favourite Liberia story, and one that tells you just how rotten things were, was the 1927 Presidential Election in which President Charles King was re-elected with a majority of 234,000 votes, which is surprising as Liberia only had 15,000 registered voters at that time...