Between empire and colony: American imperialism and Pan-African colonialism in Liberia, 1810–2003

Abstract

Both Liberia and the USA make their independence from the imperial/colonial systems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries an integral part of their national identities. Despite an upsurge in the use of the term ‘American Empire’ since the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the American government has firmly identified itself as a republic with no colonial ambitions. Liberia, dubbed ‘Africa's oldest republic’, has similarly fashioned a national self-image of freedom and independence. This article uses the concept of Colonialism without Colonies to critically evaluate these claims, and further open up questions about the nature of imperialism in contrast to colonialism.

Keywords:

• Liberia
• America
• colonialism without colonies
• imperialism
• empire
• colonization

Funding

Support for this article was provided in part by the Bayreuth Academy of African Studies.

Notes on contributor

Christine Whyte is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the Centre for the History of Colonialisms at the University of Kent, UK. Previous to this she was a Research Fellow at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies. Her research focuses on the emancipation of enslaved children in Africa, colonization in West Africa and the abolition of slavery.

Notes

1. Special to The New York Times (1990), section World http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/21/world/some-liberians-accuse-the-us-of-betrayal.html (retrieved 30 May 2013).

2. Conservative pundits used the phrase approvingly to buttress support for future intervention, for example, see Boot (2001), while left-wing critics argued that new US neo-con policies had given the anti-capitalist movement ‘an anti-imperialist edge’ (Callinicos, 2002). With a more politically neutral approach to the topic of empire, military analyst Andrew Bacevich demonstrated how the US government's exercise of power in the twentieth century had been building towards the construction of a global empire (Bacevich, 2002).

3. For example, Philip S. Golub wrote that ‘A new imperial doctrine is taking shape under George Bush.” in “Westward the course of Empire”, Le Monde Diplomatique: English Edition, September 2002. However, some commentators were at pains to point out that this assertion of American military might in the name of global progress and security dated back to the nineteenth century, see for example, Beaumont (2002).

4. Interview with Donald Rumsfeld, 28 April 2003, Al-Jazeera TV.

5. See, for example, the Liberia Past and Present website; http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/ and the BBC's Liberia country profile; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13729504.

6. For example, the Board of Managers of the ACS resolved on 8 November 1830 that settlers should be encouraged to found Temperance Societies to encourage abstinence from alcohol, ‘Temperance in Liberia’ in The African Repository and Colonial Journal, Volume 6, 1831, p. 333.

7. There had been an earlier scheme, organized by the Providence African Society, which failed to send any emigrants at all. See, The Providence African Society's Sierra Leone Emigration Scheme, 1794–1795: Prologue to the African Colonization Movement.

8. The Nat Turner rebellion took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. Despite the fact that the rebellion itself was violently put down in a few days, white militias were organized and new laws were passed prohibiting the provision of education for enslaved people. Slave rebellions had occurred throughout US history and in the Caribbean, and the exaggerated threat of rebellion was used and manipulated to promote draconian racist legislation.

9. In his article Brandon Mills explains how Liberia's declaration of independence set out ‘Negro’ ancestry as a prerequisite for citizenship and property ownership in Liberia in direct opposition to the US government's failure to uphold the rights of African Americans as citizens.

10. Osterhammel (2010) uses the term ‘internal colonialism’ to describe this kind of structuring of ‘centres’ and ‘peripheries’ within national boundaries.

11. The gradual expansion of Liberia and its increasing number of settlements can be seen in the Library of Congress's Maps of Liberia, 1830–1870 Collection: http://www.loc.gov/collection/maps-of-liberia-1830-to-1870/about-this-collection/ (retrieved 11 August 2014).