The Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia: Tragedy and Challenge

Liberia is a West African country whose history is intricately tied to America's past and Africa's future. Unique in its origins as a colony for resettling free blacks from the United States, the nation nevertheless experienced a progressive centralization of state power closely resembling the typical postcolonial political order in Africa.
Amos Sawyer is himself a part of Liberian history. As president, and before that as a political scientist and a citizen active in academic and civic affairs in his country, he has seen events there from an extraordinary perspective. In this deeply engrossing book, he describes how autocratic control emerged from a tradition of patrimonial authority, with the prerogatives of governance persistently centralized and concentrated in the hands of successive presidents. This pattern of autocracy, which was not in itself despotic, culminated in the military dictatorship of Samuel K. Doe. Ultimately, the country threw off tyranny only through cruel civil conflict.
What happened to the idea of Liberia, when settler society encountered indigenous West African cultures and, abroad, faced unsteady support of its national autonomy from the United States and the European powers? Dr. Sawyer traces the evolution of the Liberian social order from the time of colonization in the early nineteenth century. He recounts the struggles of successive generations of Liberians to form a republic and establish trade, to incorporate indigenous groups into the new nation, and to stand up to the threat of foreign domination--the last often appearing as economic exploitation by private concerns.
The Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia illuminates the political process that over the course of six generations brought about the personalization of authority in Liberia; and it links that system of personal rule to the highly centralized structures of the postcolonial state--overbearing, restrictive, and predatory. The book concludes by exploring the future of self-governance in Liberia and all of postcolonial Africa. The authenticity of Dr. Sawyer's experience and the clarity and validity of his thought make this book indispensable for anyone concerned about the fate of freedom in Africa--and the world.