The Little Shift In The Big Picture

Runding the bottom corner of the West Africa11 hump, one hovers off the coast of the tiny Republic of Liberia. But not for long-as Portuguese navigators, Blackbirders, and Farrell Line captains have learned. The ponderous swell of the Atlantic is driven by an on-shore wind that never dies. As remorseless as the Atlantic chewing away at the unbroken shoreline, is the country beyond-West Africa, where white meets black, where desert blends to bush to impenetrable jungle, where elephants chomp the foliage of young trees. This is a land from which the tsetse fly has driven the cattle, and the root crops grow big and voluptuous above the ground and are shrunken and barren of nutrient below. This is the environment of Liberia which is elbowing an iron ore market for itself on crowded shelves. Liberia is an anomaly in Africa. It was the first republic on the continent in modern times, having been established in 1848. While most of Africa was benefiting from the investment of foreign capital under colonial regimes, Liberia was going it alone. To be sure, Liberia was aware of foreign activity as hunks of territory were lopped off by neighboring French and English colonies. Today the country is about 43,000 sq miles, the size of Tennessee, which, in the language of exploration men, is a workable size unit.