Five things Donald Trump should know after he praised Joseph Boakai’s ‘good English’

US President Donald Trump has praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for talking “good English” and requested him the place he went to high school.

What Trump may need missed is that Liberia shares a singular and long-standing reference to the US.

English is the nation’s official language and plenty of Liberians converse with an American accent due to these historic ties to the US.

It might have been this accent that Trump picked up on.

Listed below are 5 issues to know concerning the West African nation:

Liberia was based by freed African-American slaves in 1822 earlier than declaring independence in 1847.

Hundreds of black People and liberated Africans – rescued from transatlantic slave ships – settled in Liberia in the course of the colonial period.

Former US President Abraham Lincoln formally declared Liberia’s independence in 1862 however the nation retained a number of US heritage and it remained within the American “sphere of affect” in the course of the colonial interval.

As a consequence of this integration, Liberian tradition, landmarks and establishments have a robust African-American affect.

Ten of Liberia’s 26 presidents had been born within the US.

The descendants of those freed slaves, often known as Americo-Liberians, dominated the nation for greater than 100 years.

This was resented by some indigenous Liberians and the final president from that neighborhood, William Tolbert, was overthrown and killed in a coup in 1980.

They account for a couple of quarter of the inhabitants, according to the Britannica website, which says greater than two dozen languages are spoken within the nation.

President Boakai is from the Kissi ethnic group and so would have spoken that as his mom tongue, earlier than studying English at college.

Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, was named in honour of America’s fifth President, James Monroe, who was a robust supporter of the American Colonization Society (ACS).

The ACS was the organisation answerable for resettling freed African-People in West Africa – which ultimately led to the founding of Liberia.

Not surprisingly the early structure of town was largely influenced by American-style buildings.

Many streets in Monrovia are named after colonial American figures, reflecting town’s founding and historic ties to the US.

Town’s principal hospital known as the John F Kennedy Medical Middle (JFKMC), named after the previous US president.

The flag of Liberia intently resembles the American flag. It options 11 alternating crimson and white stripes and a blue sq. with a single white star.

The white star symbolises Liberia as the primary impartial republic in Africa.

The US flag, compared, has 13 stripes representing the unique 13 colonies and 50 stars, one for every state.

The Liberian flag was designed by seven black girls – all born in America.

Timothy Weah, the son of Liberia’s former President George Weah, is an American skilled soccer participant who performs for Italian soccer membership Juventus in addition to the US nationwide group.

The 25-year-old ahead was born within the US however started his skilled profession with Paris St-Germain in France, the place he gained the Ligue 1 title earlier than shifting on mortgage to the Scottish group, Celtic.

His father, George, is a Liberian soccer legend who gained the Ballon d’Or in 1995 whereas taking part in for Juventus’s Italian rivals AC Milan. He’s the one African winner of this award – and went on to be elected president in 2018.

Liberia produced Africa’s first elected feminine president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

She was elected in 2005, two years after the nation’s bloody civil warfare ended, and served as president till 2018.

Johnson Sirleaf has a robust American background as she studied at Madison Enterprise School and later went to Harvard College the place she graduated as an economist.

She has obtained worldwide recognition and accolades for sustaining peace throughout her administration.

Her story is pitted with exceptional feats of defiance and braveness.

In 2011, together with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karmān, she gained the Nobel Prize for Peace for her efforts to additional girls’s rights.

In 2016, Forbes listed her among the many strongest girls on this planet.

Overseas Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti denied it was a clumsy second, saying there was a “lack of information” around the globe concerning the languages individuals converse in Africa, which she described as a “multi-lingual continent”.

“Liberia occurs to have the American-English intonation and I consider President Trump heard one thing acquainted in the way in which President Boakai spoke, which is totally different from the way in which others converse on the continent,” she instructed the BBC’s Newsday programme.

“We weren’t offended in any respect,” she stated, including that away from the TV cameras, there was a dialogue of the 2 nations’ shared historical past.

However there was a blended response amongst different Liberians.

Accountant Joseph Manley, 40, instructed the BBC that Trump ought to have been correctly briefed earlier than assembly Liberia’s chief.

“Liberia has at all times been an English-speaking nation. Our president represents a rustic with a wealthy academic custom.”

For human sources skilled Henrietta Peter-Mogballah, the US president’s shock at Boakai’s eloquence displays a broader downside about world ignorance with regard to African nations and its peoples.

“From journey experiences and observations, most residents of different nations exterior Africa have no idea so much about African nations,” she stated. “The few that know a bit of, their minds are clouded by narratives of warfare, poverty, and lack of schooling.”

Nonetheless lawyer and politician Kanio Gbala agreed with the overseas minister that there was no insult meant.

“I consider President Trump’s comment was a real praise on President Boakai’s command of English,” he instructed the BBC. “There is no such thing as a proof of sarcasm. Studying it as disrespectful could replicate political agendas.”