LIB Daily History

FIRST AIRPLANE IN LIBERIA, 1930. Introduced by the Firestone Company at their Harbel plantation, where it picked up President Edwin Barclay, his wife and officials for a flight around Monrovia.

According to Liberia: a Country Study (!984, 292n1), the word Gio "appears to be pejorative, e.g. Gio means slave". The same source indicates that the Gio are also known as the Dan. The Dan tribe belongs to the southern branch of the Mande, one of the three main linguistic families of Liberia (ibid.). According to Ethnologue: Languages of the World, the population of the Dan, or Gio, in Liberia was estimated at 196,800 in 1991 and is concentrated in Nimba county, in north-central Liberia (1992, 287-88). The attached sections of the above-mentioned publications provide maps with information on the geographical distribution of the Dan.

A doctor of social anthropology, who specializes on West Africa and who is currently working at the Maryland Office for New Americans in Baltimore, Maryland, stated during a 29 March 1996 telephone interview that although there are some occasional ritual murders in Liberia, these occurences are not specific to the culture of the Dan (Gio) or of any other ethnic group in Liberia. The same source added that the Gio are reputed for their ritual masks which, according to Gio popular beliefs, conceal supernatural powers or attribute such powers to those wearing the masks.

Further information on Gio culture and animist beliefs, as well as information on the treatment of those who leave the tribe, could not be found among the sources consulted by the DIRB. For information on indigenous religions in Liberia, please refer to the attached excerpts of Liberia: A Country Study.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

"Rather than a dismal failure as is the prevailing opinion, Liberia is an astonishing success." – Dr. Frederick Starr, Chairman, University of Chicago Anthropology Department, 1913.

DR. FREDERICK STARR went to Liberia in 1913 to see for himself whether the country was a complete failure as was the popular conception. His curiosity was further picqued when earlier on a steamer to the Congo, they passed Cape Mesurado and the Kru boys working on the vessel pointed out to him their homeland and how fond of it they were. Starr’s masterful work LIBERIA: DESCRIPTION, HISTORY, PROBLEMS has been ignored by academic circles in deference to less scholarly, more slanted and propagandist works by J. Gus Liebenow and others.

Gbarpolu is one of the fifteen counties of Liberia. The county is located in the northwestern part of the country. Gbarpolu county has a surface area of 9,689 square kilometers and a population of 83,758 according to 2008 data. County was established in 2001, and its capital is Bopolu. Gbarpolu is divided into six districts. Gbarpolu is the newest county in Liberia.

The districts of Gbarpolu County, with their 2008 populations, include:

Belleh District (17,288)
Bokomu District (10,460)
Bopolu District (18,298)
Gbarma District (15,972)
Gounwolaila District (8,115)
Kongba District (13,625)

The Gola Forest straddles the border between Liberia and Sierra Leone and is home to diverse species of importance to the country. In Sierra Leone, the forest is incorporated into the Gola National Forest, and because of the unity of the forest with Liberia, considerations of conservation must consider a collaborative management with Liberian inhabitants as well.

Within the Liberian portion of the forest reside four clans: the Sorkpo Clan in Porkpa District, the Tonglay and Zuie clans within Kongba district and the Jawijah Chiefdom. There are 24 villages within the Liberian portion of the forest, most of which are accessible by road, but several accessible only by footpath. Residents of these remote villages use footpaths to bring their commodities and services to the other towns with motor roads.

Leadership within the community is purely by traditional authorities, but centers of such authority are very few in relation to the number of temporary mining camps. The landlord-stranger system is the main means to regulate activities of migrants to the forest (mainly miners), but the system is currently weak due to town being distance and limited roads, transportation and communications. Some chiefs are not correctly installed or properly elected and therefore lack authority amongst disgruntled illegal miners.

Most of the original Gola inhabitants became refugees during the First Liberian Civil War and were slow to return and reassert control of their villages. The war had lasted for over fourteen years, a time too long for people who have had several relocations to return to their former communities. With the coming of the Western Cluster in the community, many of the people are expected to return to their original communities, as many could begin finding employment. Others will have time to begin other agricultural activities that might contribute to loss of biological diversity.