Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents excerpts of several online articles about the long used colloquial referent "Congo" or "Congo people" in Liberia, West Africa.
The Addendum to this post presents information about Sierra Leone's Creole people.
The content of this post is presented for linguistics and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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ARTICLE EXCERPTS
(These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.)
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americo-Liberian_people
"Americo-Liberian people or Congo people or Congau people in
Liberian English,[2] are a Liberian ethnic group of African-American,
Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African descent. The sister ethnic group of
Americo-Liberians are the Sierra Leone Creole people, who share similar
ancestry and related culture.[3] Americo-Liberians trace their ancestry to
free-born and formerly enslaved African Americans who emigrated in the 19th
century to become the founders of the state of Liberia. They identified there
as Americo-Liberians. Some African Americans following resettlement in Canada
also participated as founding settlers in Sierra Leone and other Recaptive
repatriates settled in present-day Côte d'Ivoire.[3]
Although the terms "Americo-Liberian" and "Congo" had distinct definitions in the nineteenth century, they are currently interchangeable and refer to an ethnic group composed of the descendants of the various free and ex-slave African-American, Caribbean, Recaptive and Sierra Leone Creoles who settled in Liberia from 1822.
The designation 'Congo' for the Americo-Liberian population came into common usage when these African Americans integrated 5,000 liberated Africans called Congos (former slaves from the Congo Basin, who were freed by British and Americans from slave ships after the prohibition of the African slave trade) and 500 Barbadian immigrants into the Americo-Liberian hegemony.[4] Americo-Liberians rarely intermarried with indigenous West Africans.[5]
Although Western literature and discourse in the United States and United Kingdom use the term "Americo-Liberians", this term is outdated and in common parlance the majority of Liberians (including the Americo-Liberian people themselves) and neighboring West Africans such as Sierra Leoneans refer to the Americo-Liberian people as "Congo" or "Congau" people.[2]"...
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Excerpt #2
From https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/02/19/Overview_19.pdf
"Liberia
...Main minority groups: Kpelle 487,400 (15.2%), Bassa 347,600
(10.9%), Gio (Dan) 150-200,000 (4.7-6.3%), Kru (Klao) 184,000 (5.8%), Grebo 222,000 (6.9%), Mano
185,000 (5.8%), AmericoLiberians/Congo People 160,000 (5%), Loma 141,800
(4.4%), Krahn 126,400 (4.0%), Kissi 115,000 (3.6%), Gbandi 100,000 (3.1%), Gola 99,300 (3.1%), Vai
89,500 (2.8%), Mandingo 45,400 (1.4%), Mende 19,700 (0.6%), Kuwaa 12,800 (0.4%), and Dei 8,100
(0.3%)
[Note: ,,,Total population est of 3.2 million is taken from the 2007 CIA World Factbook, as is the estimate for English speakers and total for Americo-Liberians/Congo People. For most ethnic groups, figures are taken from Ethnologue numbers stemming from various years: Kpelle (1991), Bassa (1991), Gio (1993), Kru (1991), Grebo (1991 for two sub-groups, 1999 for two others, and 2000 for a fifth), Mano (1995), Loma (1991), Krahn (1991) Gola (1991), Mandingo (1991), Kissi (1995), Vai (1991), Gbandi (2001), Mende (1991), Kuwaa (1991), Dei (1991).]
[…]
The Americo-Liberians, who are descendants of freed slaves
that arrived in Liberia as of 1821, make up an estimated 5 per cent of the population, of whom half are
descended from US slave origin and half from the Caribbean, as well as a number of ‘Congos', slaves
freed before they made the Atlantic crossing. Increasingly, all Liberians with origins outside
of the region are lumped together and called ‘Congos'. There are also a sizeable number of Lebanese,
Indians, and other West African nationals who make up a significant part of Liberia's business community.
Under Liberia's constitution, non-Africans are excluded from citizenship."...
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Excerpt #3
By Helene Cooper, April 6, 2008
…."In Liberia, we are called the Congo People my family and the rest of the descendants of the freed American blacks who founded Liberia back in 1821. It is a somewhat derogatory term, used by the native Liberians after Britain abolished the slave trade and started seizing slave ships leaving West Africa and returning the captives to Liberia and Sierra Leone, whether they came from there or not. Since so many of the slave ships entered the Atlantic from the mouth of the massive Congo River, the native Liberians called the newcomers Congo People. Because the newly freed captives were released in Liberia at the same time that freed blacks were arriving in Liberia from America, all newcomers became known as Congo People.
We got the native Liberians back by calling them Country People far more derogatory, in our eyes.
[…]
Sugar Beach, 1974
EUNICE CAME TO SUGAR BEACH on a hot, muggy afternoon. After Mommee put out the word that her 8-year-old daughter needed a live-in playmate, Eunice’s mother, a Bassa woman of little means, was quick to respond…
For all that Eunice’s mother would miss her daughter, this wasn’t really much of a decision. Native Liberians routinely jumped at the chance to have their children reared by Congo families. And in Liberia in 1974, it was the chance of a lifetime to leave a poor Country family and move in with the Coopers."...
-snip-
[edited August 20, 2021]
This essay also includes the author's memory from the mid 1970s when her school teacher divided the students between those pretending to be "Congo people" and "Country people" to depict a historical battle which the Congo people won. That battle was celebrated annually from 1916 until 1980 as "Matilda Newport Day".
This memory documents that the terms "Congo people" and "Country people" were used in a school setting in 1974.
According to online material that is quoted in this pancocojams post, the term "Congo people" has been used in Liberia since the early 19th century to refer to those formerly enslaved but freed people from the Central African Congo region who were settled in the new nation of Liberia. I'm not sure when the term "Congo people" began to be used as a referent for all "Americo-Liberian" people and other free or formerly enslaved people who settled in Liberia.
Here's information about "Matilda Newport Day".
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_Newport#:~:text=Matilda%20Newport%20(%20c.,she%20lit%20from%20her%20pipe.
"Matilda Newport (c. 1795–1837) was an Americo-Liberian
colonist and folk hero. She is known for her actions in 1822 when she is
alleged to have defended the settlement Cape Mesurado with a cannon she lit
from her pipe. She is a controversial figure in light of the tensions between
Americo-Liberians and native Liberians. The historical accuracy of the account
has been challenged. A national holiday in her honour, Matilda Newport Day, was
celebrated annually on 1 December from 1916 until it was abolished in 1980."
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Excerpt #4
From http://www.peacebuildingdata.org/research/liberia/about-liberia Understanding Liberia
"For much of its 164-year history, Liberia has enjoyed a
special status among Africa’s nations. Founded in 1847 by freed slaves from the
United States and the Caribbean, it was Africa’s first independent black
republic, and people across Africa considered it both an inspiration and a
beacon of hope. Nevertheless, the relationship between the African-American
arrivals, known as Americo-Liberians or “Congo” people,[1] and the many ethnic
groups already present in Liberia, bore many similarities to European
colonialism in the rest of Africa....
1] The term “Congo people” or just “Congo” was commonly used first in Sierra Leone and later also Liberia to describe the non-native black settlers, due to the large number of slaves originating from the Congo basin, who arrived in these countries after the British naval forces captured slave ships to release their human cargo. They were later also joined by other settlers of African origin from the West Indies. Neighboring Sierra Leone was where “Black Poor” from Britain were being “repatriated” in as early as 1787, most of whom were former American slaves who sought refuge with the British during the American Revolution. This prompted the American Colonization Society to attempt to find a safe haven for the first group of freed American slaves in Sierra Leone, but eventually drifting further south to settle in 1822 at today’s capital Monrovia, named in honor of US President James Monroe. Until recently, the Americo-Liberians were considered, or at least considered themselves, distinct and superior to the original Congos and others of African origin, which explains their aversion to the collective term Congo used by “native” Liberians. See Ellis, Stephen (2007). The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimensions of an African Civil War. New York: New York University Press; Cooper, Helene (2008). The House at Sugar Beach. New York: Simon & Shuster."
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Excerpt #5
From https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/liberia-created-former-slaves-fading-into-history-180959503/ "These Abandoned Buildings Are the Last Remnants of Liberia’s
Founding History"
The world created by former slaves in Liberia was a cruel
paradox for more than 150 years
By Clair MacDougall; Photographs by Glenna Gordon, July/August 2016
..."William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman, Liberia’s longest-serving president, [is] known
for his 27 years of autocratic rule beginning in 1944.
[…]
Tubman was born in Harper [Liberia] but his paternal grandparents were slaves
in Georgia. They were released in 1837 by their wealthy mistress, Emily Tubman
of Augusta, and sent to Liberia, founded in 1822 by the American Colonization
Society to serve as a haven for the once enslaved. But instead of creating a proverbial land of
liberty that made a clean break from their brutal past, the settlers—called
“Americo-Liberians” or, if they were Africans who had been trafficked but not
to the United States, “Congos”—lorded over the “natives,” denying them
political rights and acting like the slave masters they’d escaped. They forced
natives to labor in the fields and on rubber plantations, and taxed communities
for merely existing. Well-off settlers donned hoop skirts and tailcoats, opened
Masonic lodges and built Methodist churches in a conscious effort to emulate
the American South. Tensions between Americo-Liberians and natives smoldered
for decades, and though Tubman’s administration granted natives the right to
vote, among other benefits, the conflict exploded nine years after he died,
with a violent coup led by the native soldier Samuel Doe, ending the
Americo-Liberians’ dominance.”…
-snip-
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tubman
William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman (November 29, 1895 – July 23, 1971) was a
Liberian politician. He was the 19th President of Liberia and the
longest-serving president in the country's history,[2] serving from his
election in 1944 until his death in 1971.
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Excerpt #6
From https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/nov/14/mississppi-liberia-legacy-west-african-colony/ "From Mississippi to Liberia: The Living Legacy of America’s
West African Colony" [November 2018]
..."[former Liberian soldier George] Bull mulled over the differences between
"Congo people," a colloquial term sometimes used to describe
descendants of Americo-Liberians, or at least those who give that
appearance.
"Like you," he told me when I asked about the term. "Congo people are extra because they have money, and they appear different, they speak different—they speak like Americans." Bull further described them as upper-class people who don't want people to pass by their yards, so they live in gated compounds.
Bull's mother is of the Mano tribe, and his father is Gio. Bull got his last name when his dad lived with "Congo people" and adopted their surname in the 1960s. As what he calls a "pure native," Bull sees himself in [current Liberian president George] Weah's rise.
"Native people wanted typical Liberians to become
president," he said. "Nobody could stop George Weah because we would
do everything for him to win. All the natives are behind him ... for now."...
-snip-_
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Weah
"George Manneh Oppong Weah ... born 1 October 1966)[3]
is a Liberian politician and former professional footballer who is currently
serving as the 25th President of Liberia, in office since 2018. Prior to his
election to the presidency, Weah served as Senator from Montserrado County.
Often regarded as one of the world's best football players, he played as a
striker in his prolific 18-year professional career, which ended in 2003.[4] He
is the first African former professional footballer to become a head of
state.[5]
Weah was born and raised in the Clara Town district of Monrovia.[16] He is a member of the Kru ethnic group, which hail from south-eastern Liberia's Grand Kru County, one of the poorest areas of the country."...
ADDENDUM: SIERRA LEONE'S CREOLE PEOPLE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone_Creole_people
"
Like their Americo-Liberian neighbors and sister ethnic group in Liberia, Sierra Leone Creoles have varying degrees of European ancestry due to the close historical relations between the ethnicities through decades of indenture, slavery and sexual abuse, and voluntary unions and marriages in North America. Some have Native American ancestry as well. In Sierra Leone, some of the settlers intermarried with other English or Europeans. Through the Jamaican Maroons, some Creoles probably also have indigenous Jamaican Amerindian Taíno ancestry.[3] The Americo-Liberians and the Sierra Leone Creoles are the only recognised ethnic group of African-American, Liberated African, and West Indian descent in West Africa. The Sierra Leone Creole culture is primarily westernized. The Creoles as a class developed close relationships with the British colonial administration; they became educated in British institutions and advanced to prominent leadership positions in Sierra Leone under British colonial rule. Due to this history, the vast majority of Sierra Leone Creoles have European first names and/or surnames. Many have both British first names and surnames.
The vast majority of Creoles reside in Freetown[4] and its surrounding Western Area region of Sierra Leone.They are also Christian.[5] From their mix of peoples, the Creoles developed what is now the native Krio language, a creole deriving from English, indigenous West African languages, and other European languages. It has been widely used for trade and communication among ethnic groups and is the most widely spoken language in Sierra Leone.[6]
It has been debated whether the Oku people are Sierra Leone Creoles. On one hand, scholars like Gibril Cole consider the Oku people to be Creoles,[7] while others such as Olumbe Bassir and Ramatoulie O. Othman distinguish between the Oku and the Sierra Leone Creoles: The latter are a mixture of various African ethnic groups with some European and Amerindian ancestry, who brought Western culture with them and absorbed more from British colonial officials. By contrast, the Oku are principally of Yoruba descent and have traditionally maintained strong Yoruba and Muslim traditions. They also have more traditional African culture, and widely practice formal polygamy and, to a significant extent, practice female genital mutilation.[5]
The Sierra Leone Creoles settled across West Africa in the
nineteenth century in communities such as Limbe, Cameroon; Conakry, Guinea;
Banjul, Gambia; Lagos, Abeokuta, Calabar, Onitsha, Nigeria; Accra, Cape Coast,
Ghana and Fernando Pó, Equatorial Guinea.[8] The Krio language of the Creole
people influenced other pidgins such as Cameroonian Pidgin English, Nigerian
Pidgin English, and Pichinglis.[9][10] As a result of their history, the
Gambian Creole people, or Aku people of the Gambia,[11][12] the Saro people of
Nigeria,[13][14][15] and the Krio Fernandinos of Equatorial Guinea,[16][17][18]
are sub-ethnic groups or partly descended from the Sierra Leone Creole people
or their ancestors."...
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