Samuel Doe

Samuel Doe

   For 10 years the sadistic tyrant Samuel Doe rules Liberia with an utter contempt for humanity. His cruelty knows no limits. This is the story of how maniacal ambition turns a vicious young soldier into West Africa's most aggressively violent dictator and how his murderous quest to dominate Liberia came to a humiliating end.

  Samuel Doe (1951-1990) was a Liberian politician who served as the Liberian leader from the year 1980 to year 1990. He enlisted in the army at the age of 18 and was a member from the Krahn ethnic group, a large rural population. He rose through the ranks to become a master sergeant in 1979. Prior to the 1980 overthrow, locals had frequently held a minimal role in the society, which was commanded by the relatives of the Americo-Liberian Pioneers; made fundamentally out of free-born black American liberated slaves, the Pioneers were the settlers who had built up Liberia during the 1820s and drove the nation starting with independence in the year 1847.

Samuel Doe (middle) 1980

  Commanding a group of Krahn troopers, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe led a military coup on the 12th of April 1980 by attacking the Liberian Executive Mansion and murdering President William R. Tolbert, Jr. His forces murdered another 26 of Tolbert's supporters in the fighting. By the end of April, a large portion of the bureau members from the Tolbert administration had been placed on trial in a kangaroo court and condemned to death. Thirteen of them were publicly executed by a firing squad on the 22nd of April at the beach close to the Barclay Training Center in Monrovia.

Cabinet Ministers lined up for execution after coup.

 After the coup, he assumed the position of general and set up People's Redemption Council (PRC) and suspended the country's constitution until 1984, when another constitution was endorsed by a referendum. In 1985 he won an election and authoritatively became the 21st President of Liberia. The political race was marked by debate as there was proof of electoral fraud. Doe had support from the US; it was a key collusion because of his anti-Soviet position taken during the long periods of the Cold War preceding to the changes in 1989 that prompted the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Doe openly supported U.S. Cold War foreign policy in Africa during the 1980s, cutting off diplomatic relations among Liberia and the Soviet Union. The United States valued Liberia as a significant ally during the Cold War, as it contained the spread of Soviet impact in Africa.

 Ronald Reagan and Samuel Doe in the mid 80s

General Thomas Quiwonkpa, who had been a pioneer of the 1980 coup alongside Doe, endeavored to seize power on November 12 1985; the attempt failed due to bad timing, the former's unorthodox strategies and failure to receive military aid from the United States brought about a disastrous failure. Quiwonkpa was caught and on November 15 was executed and mutilated by Krahn fighters faithful to Doe. His executioners at that point dissected his body and reportedly ate pieces of it. His body was openly shown on the grounds of the Executive Mansion in Monrovia not long after his passing.

Doe's corrupt and repressive government turned out to be much more oppressive after the endeavored coup, shutting down newspapers and restricting political activity. The administration's abuse of certain ethnic groups, especially the Gio and the Mano in the north (Quiwonkpa was an ethnic Gio), brought about divisions and violence among indigenous populations who up to that point had existed together generally and peacefully.

The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), a revolutionary group led by Charles Taylor, propelled a revolt in December 1989 against Doe's administration with the backing of neighboring nations, for example, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. By September 1990, Doe's powers controlled just a small portion outside the capital and was captured in Monrovia on September 9, 1990, by Prince Y. Johnson, pioneer of INPFL, a breakaway group of Taylor's NPFL. Doe was taken to Johnson's army base and tortured. His ears were cut off, and then some of his fingers and toes, following 12 hours of torture at Mr Johnson's hands he was finally murdered by torture; his body was displayed in the boulevards of Monrovia, his body was later uncovered and reburied. The exhibition of his torment was recorded and seen on news reports the world over.

Doe's corpse lying in state after his execution

  The tragic death of Doe was an early stage of the First Liberian Civil War 1989-1997 which killed more than a hundred thousand civilians becoming one of Africa's bloodiest events of the late 20th century. Dictatorship is a dangerous game, many before him suffered terrible ends. Samuel Doe remains one of the infamous repressive African dictators whose name is far from being forgotten.


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