Corporate Colonialism in Liberia

Abstract

In 1972, Walter Rodney wrote, ‘It is common knowledge that Liberia was an American colony in everything but name’. As evidence, Rodney cited the ballooning profits of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. Between 1940 and 1965, the Ohio-based tyre manufacturer exported 160 million dollars’ worth of rubber from Liberia, while the Liberian government received only 8 million dollars in revenue. Firestone controlled huge swathes of Liberian land, following the 1926 concession agreement that granted the company a 99-year lease over one million acres. The Firestone Natural Rubber Company still owns the world’s largest rubber plantation in Liberia. Significantly, the company also secured its future by tying the 1926 agreement to a 5 million dollar government loan, ensuring the US government would step in to protect its interests. Thus, the interests of the Liberian government became inextricably linked to Firestone’s fortunes. Gregg Mitman traces the origins and development of this American ‘corporate colonialism’ in Empire of Rubber: Firestone’s Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia. As the author explains, the book is a slice of American corporate history viewed from the perspective of Liberia, rather than a history of Liberia itself. Mitman, like other researchers, has been unable to access the Firestone archive, but he has carefully surveyed a wide range of relevant archival material from the US, Britain, and Liberia, as well as all the relevant secondary literature. Interview material enhances the account of life on the plantations, as does judicious use of photographs. More narrative history than academic intervention, the book puts forward a strong case against Firestone, highlighting the economic, legal, and cultural impact of its massive land grab. The subtitle deliberately evokes the ‘Scramble for Africa’ that saw vast territories of the continent’s land divided up into colonies by European powers, only Liberia was famously unlike other colonies. The inception of the modern Liberian state can be traced to a small number of Black American settlers, despatched to Sierra Leone in 1820 by the American Colonisation Society. The next year, representatives of the society purchased around 140 acres of land further south. The settlement was inspired by hopes of Black self-determination in Africa, but also served as a means for white segregationists to exile free and manumitted Black people from the US. In 1847, the settlers declared their independence from the American Colonisation Society and established Liberia as an African republic. Independence left Liberia with few resources and competition between European empires constantly threatened its existence. Neighbouring British and French colonial governments demanded that Liberia ‘develop’ its