The_Open_Door_deel1

FORCED RECRUITMENT OF LABOUR
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Two enclaves exist in Liberia. One is an economic enclave in
which the foreign investors dominate. The second enclave is social,
cultural, and political in character and is dominated by
a small number of families of Americo-Liberian descent. Both enclaves
depend on each other for their survival and the maintenance
of their privileged positions. Both enclaves are separated
by a big gap from the majority of the remaining population.
The political system excluded the local tribal population of
the region from any real participation in the administration and
governing of the country. A contempt for the tribal people and
their society was the basis of the system of "apartheid" which
was created and permitted the exploitation of the labour force
made up of tribal people.
The way in which the Americo-Liberian population treated the
tribal population is significantly illustrated by the Government's
official labour policy. This topic has therefore been
chosen to be included in this chapter although the history of
Liberia provides many more examples which confirm the general
remarks made above.
Slave Trade and the' Export of Labour 1830 - 1930
As the colonial Dutch and British had been doing, the Liberian
Government also engaged in the export of labour in the 19th century.
The main goal served by this "labour policy" was to provide
a Treasury, desperately in need of additional revenues,
with money.
In 1852, during the Administration of Liberia's first President,
Joseph J. Roberts, the British Government secured Liberian labourers
for its colonies in the West Indies through the intermediary
of the English firm of Hyde, Hedge and Company (38).
In 1887 Krus and Vais were recruited by the German trading company
of Woermann and by a Frenchman, Xavier Pene, who in the
same year shipped more than 1,000 tribal Liberians to Panama to
work on the construction of the Panama canal. The Liberian Government
received two dollars for each worker shipped (39). As
the mortality rate was high among these immigrant workers,"nearly
400 of them had died before the end of the year (40). This
took place during the Administration of the first Liberian President
who was born on African soil, Hilary R.W. Johnson.
In 1928 the defeated Presidential candidate of an opposition party,
Thomas J.R. Faulkner, accused the President-elect, Charles
D.B. King - who had won the elections with a landslide victory -
of'allowing slavery to exist in the Republic, and - worse - that
certain highly placed government officials were engaged in the
forced shipping of labourers to the Spanish Island of Fernando
Poo and that they had made use of the Liberian Frontier Force to
achieve this (41). (see Chapter 2)
It was not the first time since the arrival of the American black
colonists that accusations of participation in slave trade were