A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

Chapter Four. Background on Liberia and the Conflict
slaves from the Americas and the Caribbean, free-born African-Americans, and Africans captured
from slave ships on the high seas. 10
This latter group, also known as Americo-Liberians, settlers, or Congo, 11 forms one of the 17 generally
recognized sociocultural groups in Liberia. 12 The other 16 groups include indigenous Africans based
on cultural and linguistic similarities, specifically the Gbandi, Bassa, Gio, Dei, Gola, Grebo, Kissi,
Kpelle, Kru, Kuwaa (Belle), Loma, Ma (Mano), Mandingo, Mende, Vai, and Krahn. 13 According
to Liberian historians, “intermarriage, modern education and westernized Christianity, Islam and
other foreign influences have blurred some of the distinctions” between these sociocultural groups. 14
These indigenous groups arrived in Liberia in waves beginning in 6000 B.C.E. and have crossborder
ties with similar ethnic communities in other West African countries. 15 The last group to
arrive was the Americo-Liberian settlers in the nineteenth century. 16 Liberia also has a significant
Lebanese community. People of Lebanese descent, and all other people of non-African descent, are
not permitted to hold Liberian citizenship even if born in Liberia. 17
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