William Tubman - Africa's Pioneer Big Man

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

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For those not aware, way before the formation of South Africa, Liberia ran an apartheid state.  There were the Liberians(freed slaves) and the natives(mere spectators of the goings on).  The apartheid came with all the bells and whistles, including massacres here and there.  Additionally Liberia was involved in slave trading, until way after it had been abolished in other parts of the world.

Tubman was the 18th President.  His was an interesting administration.  He opened up Liberia to the "participation of natives" while at the same time, entrenching himself as dictator for life.  Put another way, he brought the benefits of a modern state e.g. access to education, infrastructure, legal protections to the wider Liberian populace beyond the 5% settler minority that had ruled for decades; over a hundred years. 

It was now theoretically possible for a native to run for public office like the Presidency.  Even though in practice there were major barriers put in place by the minority rulers.

When he had eliminated all credible opposition, the politics became somewhat curious.  In 1959, his opponent was a church organist, W.O. Davies-Bright.  Bright declared in his campaing plafform not being particularly opposed to the continuation in office, of President Tubman, this venture of mine ... is purely sportsmanlike, and is in response to the ardent desire of Dr. Tubman for fair and friendly competition.

Bright used a sheep as his symbol, for illiterate voters and received 55 votes, including Tubman's.

This comes from the book Another America: The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It

[RV Pundit]

Interesting. Sounds like a good read.

[Reticent Solipsist]

Liberia was always an interesting case with power alternating between the descendants of roughly 300 black American settlers - the Americo-Liberians - who had set up an independent republic in 1847. If Kenyans think the 39 years of KANU one-party rule was too much, the True Whig Party, controlled by the same incestous elite, held office from 1877 to 1980 - more than 100 years. A select few - basically a ruling aristocracy - the Barclays, the Kings, the Tubmans, and later Tolbert, lorded it over the black native Liberians, whom they regarded as a different, inferior race.

As they say, when you push folks to the corner, they're apt to push back. Hence it came as no surprise that one Master Sergeant Doe, who was what the Americo-Liberians derisively referred to as a 'country boy', easily rose to power on that night, April 12, 1980.

I will check out the book, Windy City Assassin.