Abstract
Most analysts argue that Charles Taylor’s victory in 1997 was a certainty. Not to have secured an outright victory would have meant Taylor ‘doing a Savimbi’ by heading back to the bush to regroup for total war.2 A negotiated settlement and victory via the ballot box gave Taylor the symbolism of leadership: legitimacy. However, while Taylor seems to have secured a power base in the Executive Mansion (the presidential palace in Monrovia), the long road to national reconstruction and accommodation is paved with difficulty as attempts are made to rebuild a country whose physical infrastructure and social and political fabric has been destroyed.
Following our years of national tumult, it is all too proper that we reassure all our citizens … that under this administration, there will be no witch-hunting; there will be no recriminations meted out against any citizen or group of citizens by anyone … To my former worthy opponents, we extend the hand of friendship and an invitation to join in this awesome task of rebuilding the nation, and to ensure the future for ourselves and generations yet unborn … In our quest to heal and to soothe the pains of the Republic, national reconciliation remains the key.
President Charles Taylor, Inaugural Address, 2 August 1997.1
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Notes
For a history of Liberia, see E. Dunn and Tarr S. Byron, Liberia: A National Polity in Transition, Methuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1988; J. Gus Liebenow, Liberia: The Quest for Democracy, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987; M. Lowenkopf, Politics in Liberia, Stanford, CA: The Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1976; and A. Sawyer, The Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia: Tragedy and Challenge, San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies, 1992.
W. Ofuatey-Kodjoe, ‘Regional Organisations and the Resolution of Internal Conflict: The ECOWAS Intervention in Liberia’, International Peacekeeping, vol. 1, no. 3, Autumn 1994, p. 267.
M. Lowenkopf, ‘Liberia: Putting the State Back Together’, in W. Zartman (ed.), Collapsed States: The Disintegration and Restoration of Legitimate Authority, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1995, p. 101.
For an insight into Charles Taylor’s war economy, see W. Reno, ‘Reinvention of an African Patrimonial State: Charles Taylor’s Liberia’, Third World Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 1, 1995, pp. 109–20.
D. Davies, ‘The Security Dilemma’, West Africa, no. 4196, 28 September–11 October 1998, p. 716.
See J. Butty, ‘The Task of Economic Rebuilding’, West Africa, no. 4175, 24–30 November 1997, p. 1839 and ‘Liberia: President found US$17.000 in national coffers’, Panafrican News Agency, 21 August 1997 (www.africaindex.africainfo.no/Update/archive/Liberia/index.htm).
The US dollar, the old ‘JJ Roberts’ dollar and the Amos Sawyer ‘Liberty’ dollar introduced in April 1991. B. Ankomah, ‘Knives out for Taylor’, New African, No. 366, September 1998, p. 18.
V. Tanner, ‘Liberia: Railroading Peace’, Review of African Political Economy, vol. 25, no. 75, March 1998, pp. 142–3.
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Ero, C. (2000). Dilemmas of Accommodation and Reconstruction: Liberia. In: Pugh, M. (eds) Regeneration of War-Torn Societies. Global Issues Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62835-3_11
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