Liberia
Capital: Monrovia · West Africa
Africa's first republic, where indigenous Mande, Kru and Mel cultures — with their Poro and Sande societies — interweave with Americo-Liberian settler history.
Ethnic communities
- KpelleLargest group; Poro/Sande initiation societies
- VaiInventors of the indigenous Vai syllabary (1830s)
- KruLegendary mariners of the Atlantic coast
- Grebo, Bassa, Gio, ManoForest societies with strong mask traditions
More communities of Liberia
- Bassa — Coastal farmers with own Vah script tradition
- Grebo — Southeastern coast warriors of mask federations
- Gio (Dan) — Mask carvers of the Nimba border forests
- Mano (Mah) — Northern forest kin of Dan ritual arts
- Loma — Poro heartland along the Guinea line
- Kissi — Rice farmers of the tri-border stone figures
- Gola — Ancient forest people — Sande society's deep roots
- Gbandi & Belle — Northwestern forest farming communities
- Krahn (Wè) — Southeastern forest mask societies
- Mandingo (Manya) — Muslim traders threading every market town
- Dei & Mende — Coastal and border communities of old chiefdoms
- Americo-Liberians — Settler-descended founders of the republic's institutions
Languages
Major languages: Kpelle, Bassa, Vai, Kru languages, English
Language families: Niger-Congo (Mande, Kru, Mel)
Historical kingdoms & states
- • Kingdom of the Vai
- • Condo Confederation
Heritage sites
- • Providence Island
- • Sapo National Park
Cultural highlights
Deep-dive community profiles
Dan (Yacouba)
The forest people of the Ivorian west — carvers of the serene, polished masks that Modigliani's generation studied, keepers of the leopard society, the stilt-dancers who tower over festivals, and a culture where every mask is a spirit with a name and a temper.
Open deep profile →Kpelle (Guerzé)
Liberia's largest people — rice farmers of the forest interior whose Poro and Sande societies school every generation, whose 'moot' house-palavers became a model of restorative justice, and whose talking drums carry the forest's news.
Open deep profile →Mende
The rice-farming people of Sierra Leone's forested south whose Sande and Poro societies school every generation, whose Sowei mask is the only known African mask danced by women, and whose chiefs and orators shaped the modern state.
Open deep profile →