The Generation That Saw Fire

It all started in 1822 when some of our people decided to go back to their ancestors land after centuries of unspeakable ordeals in the Americas. They were inspired by the sense of Freedom and the courage of hope to reach their origin and help those who were on the continent of Africa to improve their ways of living and take their ancient civilization to another level. Even though they weren’t wealthy when they were making those decisions to go back to the continent of Africa, but they had some God fearing people in the Americas who were determined to assist them with their repatriation to their ancestors land. Several meetings were held for the preparation of their journey and West Africa was chosen as the place for their repatriation since it was one the main regions within the continent of Africa they came from. When this region was selected by those who were interested in returning to their ancestors land and those folks over sea that wanted to see them go free in peace founded an organization called “ACS” (American Colonization Society) that was responsible for their repatriation to Africa. I do believed the sole purpose of this organization was to helped all those people of African descent to settle peacefully and then start with the issue of educating the people on the continent with Western Civilization. When the plan was finalized for their exodus they were given a ship called “Elizabeth; The May Flower” that took it journey from the Atlantic coast of America to the Atlantic coast of Africa. The May Flower first arrived on the West African coast of Sierra Leone, to specify on a piece of Island called Sherbro Island in present day Sierra Leon. Because of bad weather and unpleasant environment at the time, they decided to forward their journey to the Green Coast of Africa; which is present day Liberia on a piece of island that was given the name Providence Island. This island is situated in the midst of the Dou River (Montserrado River) that was preoccupied by our ancestors from the Bassa tribe with few Dai and Gola living side by side. The Bassa are from the kwa speaking group that have their source from the ancient Ghanaian empire and they’re found mainly along the coast with different vernaculars but similar attitudes such as: singing, fishing, swimming, etc. When the May Flower arrived on the Island, the captains (Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess) decided to make that part of the continent their final destination for their voyage. They got down with our people who were on board the ship Elizabeth and then became to look around their new homeland; even though it was the land of their ancestors but they became to share tears for what had taken placed and for what was taking place. Then the aboriginals of the land (The Mamban Bassa) who were excited to welcome their brothers and sisters who were taken away for centuries but skeptical about their intention came closer. However, as time went on there were scuffles among them (The Settlers and the Natives) for reason best known to themselves; but as the saying goes: blood will always be blood. They founded a common ground by putting their differences aside for a single cause which was to integrate. When they became to emerge that was the time they name the historical site Providence Island in honor of the settlers. Then the settlers started expanding to other parts of the land especially alone the coast where the Kwa speaking people are found. For example, within the Bassa region they migrated to a piece of island that they name Edina. Because of the hospitality of the Bassa people they all became to integrate and later name half of the Bassa region Grand Bassa County with it capital Buchanan; name after Thomas Buchanan who was one of the back bones of the ACS. And was an agent on the ground at the time. On the other side of the coast where they first arrived was given the name Montserrado county with it capital Christipolis (City of Christ) but later named Monrovia in honor of James Monroe of the United States. As progress was made on the West coast, the ACS started expanding their sphere of settlement along the East coast of the Green Coast such as the Kru region and founded a county called Sinoe with it capital Greenville and then to the Grebo region with the creation of another county called Maryland County with it capital Harbor as more returnees were coming home. As the migration and integration were taking place the British and the French were determined to in cooperate the Green Coast into the scramble for Africa. With all these actions taking place, the settlers were moving ahead with the Common Wealth they did organized to governed themselves. The Common Wealth was mainly concerned about the settlers rather than the Green Coast as a whole