CHAPTER 1

It all started in 1822 when some of our people decided to goback to their ancestors' land after centuries of unspeakableordeals in the Americas. They were inspired by the sense offreedom and the courage of hope to reach their origin and help thosewho were on the continent of Africa improve their ways of livingand take their ancient civilization to another level. Even thoughthey weren't wealthy when they made the decision to go back tothe continent of Africa, they had some God-fearing people in theAmericas who were determined to assist them in repatriating totheir ancestors' land.

Several meetings were held for the preparation of their journey,and West Africa was chosen as the place for their repatriation sinceit was one of the main regions within the continent of Africa wherethey came from. When this region was selected by those who wereinterested in returning to their ancestors' land, those folks overseasthat wanted to see them go free in peace founded an organizationcalled American Colonization Society (ACS), which was responsiblefor their repatriation to Africa. I do believe the sole purpose of thisorganization was to help all those people of African descent settlepeacefully and then start with the issue of educating the people onthe continent on Western civilization. When the plan was finalizedfor their exodus, they were given a ship called Elizabeth: The MayFlower, which took its journey from the Atlantic Coast of Americato the Atlantic Coast of Africa.

The May Flower first arrived on the West African coast ofSierra Leone, to specify, on a piece of island called Sherbro Islandin present-day Sierra Leone. Because of bad weather and unpleasantenvironment at the time, they decided to forward their journey tothe grain coast of Africa, which is present-day Liberia, on a pieceof island that was given the name Providence Island. This islandis situated in the midst of the Dou River (Montserrado River),which was preoccupied by our ancestors from the Bassa tribe witha few from the Dai and Gola tribes living side by side. The Bassaare from the Kwa-speaking group that have their source fromthe ancient Ghanaian empire, and they're found mainly along thecoast with different vernaculars but similar attitudes, whether insinging, fishing, swimming, etc. When the May Flower arrivedon the island, the captains (Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess)decided to make that part of the continent the final destination oftheir voyage. They got down with our people who were on board theship Elizabeth and then went to look around their new homeland,although it was the land of their ancestors. They became to sharetears for what had taken placed and for what was taking place. Theaboriginals of the land (the Mamban Bassa) were excited to welcometheir brothers and sisters who were taken away for centuries, butthey were skeptical about their intention to come closer.

However, as time went on, there were scuffles among them (thesettlers and the natives) for reasons best known to themselves; butas the saying goes, "Blood will always be blood." They found acommon ground by putting their differences aside for a single cause,which was to integrate. When they became to emerge, that was thetime they named the historical site Providence Island, in honor of thesettlers. Then the settlers started expanding to other parts of the land,especially along the coast where the Kwa-speaking people are found.For example, within the Bassa region, they migrated to a piece ofisland that they named Edina. Because of the hospitality of the Bassapeople, they all became to integrate and later named half of the Bassaregion Grand Bassa County, with its capital, Buchanan, named afterThomas Buchanan, who was one of the backbones of the ACS andwas an agent on the ground at the time. The other side of the coastwhere they first arrived was given the name Montserrado County,with its capital, Christipolis (City of Christ), but it was later namedMonrovia in honor of James Monroe of the United States.

As progress was made on the West Coast, the ACS startedexpanding their sphere of settlement along the East Coast of theGrain Coast, such as in the Kru region, and founded a county calledSinoe, with its capital Greenville, and then to the Grebo regionwith the creation of another county called Maryland County, withits capital, Harper, as more returnees were coming home. As themigration and integration were taking place, the British and theFrench were determined to incorporate the Grain Coast into thescramble for Africa. With all these actions taking place, the settlerswere moving ahead with the Commonwealth they did organize togovern themselves.

The Commonwealth was mainly concerned about the settlersrather than the Grain Coast as a whole. The first governor of theCommonwealth was Thomas Buchanan of the United States, whowas representing the ACS on the continent of Africa. As the settlers'issues were primarily concern about the Commonwealth, someof the settlers suggested that few indigenous be included in thegoverning process of the settlements; therefore, few indigenous werebrought into the affairs of the Commonwealth. The natives that werebrought in were never given executive or administrative position butwere appointed to accomplish local tasks like communication andother traditional issues that were beyond the reach of the settlers.When the Commonwealth started becoming successful, the settlersstarted building schools, hospitals, and churches in other parts ofthe country, especially along the coastlines of the Commonwealth.Because of constant intrusions and violations by other powers at thetime upon the Grain Coast, representatives from various settlementsincluding members from the ACS came together to declare theCommonwealth (the Grain Coast) as an independent nation on thecontinent of Africa. With all the meetings that were going on forthe declaration of independence, the majority of the population (thenatives) were excluded from the founding of the nation. Even thoughsome of them were around to occupy space, the rest of them wereconcerned about what was going on in their regions. From 1822 to1847, the drama did reach its climax, and the resolution was thedeclaration of independence.

Eleven ladies came together and designed our flag after thestate of Texas's naval flag, and other documents were designed inconnection with the United States to keep the connection betweenthe new nation and its godfather. The eleven stripes represent theeleven designers of the flag, the white in our flag represents thepurity of heart, the red represents the bravery of our people, the bluefield represents the dark continent at the time, and above all else,the lone star represented the only independent nation to be at thetime with the exception of Ethiopia. This is the design of our flag.Then here comes the seal of the prospective republic. The Atlanticocean in our seal represents the route our people used to go back tothe land of their ancestors; the ship within our seal represents themeans of transportation our people used from across the Atlantic;the dove flying above the sky with the sheet in its mouth representsdiplomacy, peace, how the new nation that was to be born was goingto communicate with its neighbors and other nations of the worldin peace and harmony; the palm tree within our seal representshow rich our soil is with natural resources; the plow and the shovelrepresent how we are going to excavate the...