Liberia – Geography

Liberia is located on the West African rainforest covered coast. The 570 km long coast itself is an offshore coast with lagoons and sand barriers that block the rivers. In some places, the mangrove-covered lagoons are interrupted by rocky clumps that form conceals. Here are the country’s few natural ports, including at the capital Monrovia. Within the lagoons is a 15-40 km wide coastal plain with cultivated savannah, which gradually goes into the rainforest-covered upland formed by low-lying bedrock with deep river valleys. Resilient mountain areas remain as insel mountains and ridges. At their peak, they reach the Nimba Mountains to the north.

The climate is tropical-humid with rainy season from April to November. Most precipitation (4600 mm) falls in the coastal zone, which is exposed to the prevailing southwest winds. During the dry season blowing the dry Harmattan from the Sahara and can reach out to the coast.

Population

Liberia is an extremely poor and chaotic country for many years; actual censuses have not been a high priority and the demographic conditions are only poorly known. By far the largest part of the estimated 2-3 million. includes the indigenous African population, divided into 16 ethnic groups. In addition, half a hundred thousand descendants of freed American slaves, immigrants from other West African coastal states and small groups of American, European, Lebanese and Indian businessmen. The African-American descendants (Americo-Liberians) who continue to speak English with American accent have constituted an economic and political upper class, while the indigenous peoples have lived secluded as self-sufficient farmers or as extremely low-wage laborers in the rubber plantations, up to the present day under slave-like conditions. kpelle in the central and northern part of the country as well as the bass, kru and gola further south. About 250,000 were killed during the civil war, and 1 million were killed. fled to neighboring countries.

• Countryaah: Do you know how many people there are in Liberia? Check this site to see population pyramid and resident density about this country.

Business and Economics. Agriculture is the dominant industry with approximately 80% of the workforce; before the Civil War, 5% was in the mining sector, and very few in the industry. The soil is mainly grown in small-scale farming with production for own consumption and the local market, especially rice, cassava, vegetables and palm oil. Firestone’s huge rubber plantation has played an important role since its establishment in 1927, and natural rubber remained the country’s most important export product until the 1960’s. Other export crops were coffee and cocoa.

Mining. In the 1950’s, the country’s first iron ore mine was opened in the Bomi Hills, and a railway was built there. The mine was depleted in 1977 and the entire plant closed. In the 1970’s, history repeated itself with Swedish-owned LAMCO’s mine in the Nimba Mountains, and Liberia was for a number of years among the world’s largest iron ore exporters. For both projects, they were largely unaffected by the Liberian community, let alone contributed to local development. By way of example, the Bomi railway had already been engulfed by the lush rainforest even before the Civil War. Locally, gold and diamonds are extracted from river sediments; Revenue from this has helped to fund various civil war groups.

Actual industry is virtually absent; in Monrovia, a few small businesses produce soap, etc. for the local market. The energy supply is based on firewood, imported oil products and the hydroelectric power plant on the Saint Paul River; however, the dam was sabotaged in 1990.

The infrastructure is poorly developed and concentrated in the few coastal towns and mining areas. In 1989, road connections inland were supplemented by a main road from Monrovia to Freetown in neighboring Sierra Leone, part of the West African coastal road project from Mauritania to Nigeria. Liberia’s merchant fleet is formally the world’s second largest (after Panama), but it is solely due to the country’s extremely lenient ship registration law (convenience flag), which is administered by a US company with a mailbox address in Monrovia. Like the foreign mining companies and rubber plantations, this business has also had no positive impact on the country’s development.

Before the Civil War, Liberia was one of the least developed countries in the world. Later, the situation has gotten even worse: the population has fled, the fields are not sown, the mines are closed, roads and railways destroyed, and thousands of soldiers, including many children, are mutilated.

Liberia – language

Liberia – language, Official language is English. There are over 30 Nigerian Kordofan languages ​​spoken in the country, including the west Atlantic kisi, the man- language kelpel and the mugger- language grebo. The main lingua franca is Liberian pidgin-English, mandinka and vai. For culture and traditions of Liberia, please check allunitconverters.

Liberia – religion

Liberia – Religion In Liberia, both animistic religion and Christianity and Islam occur. The traditional religion, which is dominated by the secret societies poro and true respectively. men and women, practiced by approximately half of the country’s population. Christianity, represented by various churches, is associated with the Americo-Liberian elite, which, however, has also founded a number of Masonic Laws and organizations that counter traditional traditional cults. Islam is primarily related to the Mandinka people who have settled in Liberia in recent times.