7.2 Case study: religion's role in the liberian conflict

Let us embark upon a discussion of the religious and cultural dimensions of the Liberian Conflict. However, I must stress that we are not leaving behind the politics and the political struggle delineated in the history of the conflict. To the contrary, we must hold on to this information as the marriage between religion and politics in the presence of a conflict has been long established. In fact, they are the most intimate of bedfellows. This relationship can be witnessed throughout history, even today, in the conflicts of Israel and Palestine and the conflict in Ireland. Here we see the two so intertwined that it becomes near impossible to examine the conflicts and find one element without the other; religion and politics are invariably tied to each other. We also see how these inevitable links can explode in violence. And although the combination does not always produce violence and violence is certainly not only caused by this mixture, it is undoubtedly one of the causes of the Liberian conflict. It is important to note that religion does not play as large of a role in the Liberian conflict as it does in the aforementioned examples. Recently, it is has been argued that religion has a much more theoretical role in causing the conflict. Pioneered by Stephen Ellis, this theory hypothesizes that the conflict “is at least partially driven by the character of religious culture” Elkins 159 . Our paper hopes to more critically examine this hypothesis.

This paper contends that it was the abuse of religious traditions and the quest for power that were the root causes of the conflict. Men and women violated the secrecy and thus the sanctity of the traditional religions to try to acquire the power that they needed to quench their thirst for wealth and prestige. With this abuse came the weakening of religious traditions that ushered in the slow destruction of local governments. This lead to both a spiritual cause for the conflict, as well as a more tangible, political one. As the local government was weakened, the elite no longer held a monopoly over the communication with the spiritual world. This in turn caused its ability to keep the community stable and unified to weaken, thus causing conflict. The weakening of the local government also meant a centralization of power as it and the political institutions of the Liberian republic were assimilated by one another. Ellis.265 This caused both institutions to become weak. There was a total integration and penetration of rural and national power, also causing the conflict. Therefore, in an attempt to better understand these cause, this paper must take a closer look at the quest for power and the destruction and abuse of religious traditions.

As outlined above, power plays a somewhat important role in the Liberian conflict and because religion in central to the acquisition of power, it is at least partially significant in the conflict. Before we are able to delve deeper into the intricate role of religion in the conflict, we must have a basic understanding of the traditional religion. In the background of this quest for power through the Poro religion, there is another religious conflict that must be addressed that is also shrouded in an ethnic cause. When the freed American slaves settled in Liberia, they brought their own culture and religion. Most of these Americo-Liberian settlers were Christian. As they began to form their country, they began to repressive the indigenous peoples in the area. The governments refused to integrate these people into the new ‘Liberian’ society. On the basis of religion and culture, the settlers refused citizenship to the native peoples in the constitution of the newly formed Liberia. They also had no qualms about enslaving these people, even though they themselves had fought so hard against slavery. Therefore, we can see even in the roots and beginnings of the country, there is conflict framed in religion and ethnicity that continues up through the 21st century. This lack of respect between the two cultures and religions may have lead to the abuse of the traditional religion that helped cause major conflict in the 1980s and 1990s.