Cabinet ministers lined up for execution after a coup d'état in Liberia, 1980

 

On April 12, 1980, Samuel Doe led a military coup that killed President William R. Tolbert, Jr. was murdered. Twenty-six of Tolbert's supporters were also killed in the fighting. Shortly after the coup, government ministers were publicly paraded around Monrovia in the nude and then summarily executed by a firing squad on the beach.

The military coup is still surrounded by mystery. Apparently, its preparations did not go unnoticed, which is surprising, given the fact that there was considerable political tension there as well as the well-staffed US Embassy in Monrovia (over 500 people).

The events had taken them all by surprise. Samuel Doe was not a publicly known figure in Liberia before April 12, 1980. The situation changed soon after that date.

The military takeover was a bloody affair, dubbed 'a revolution' by 18 enlisted men of the Armed Forces of Liberia, who, under William R. Tolbert's government was toppled.

The 66-year-old President was brutally assassinated by private soldier Harrison Penoh, who was later proven to be mentally unstable. Before the end of the month, the entire Cabinet was tried and sentenced to death – with no right to be defended by a lawyer and no right to appeal the verdict.

Ten days after the coup Cecil Denis (Foreign Minister, the man on the right in the first photo) and twelve other government officials were taken to a beach, one block south of the Barclay Army Barracks, west of the Executive Mansion, and The zealous indigenous Liberian citizens were murdered in front of a screaming crowd. It was a scary scenario.

Cecil Dennis faced death very bravely, staring down at his murderers as he awaited his fate. When he prayed before being shot, a soldier shouted, “You lie! You don't know God!”.

After the order to fire was given, a drunken executioner may have hit him in the wing, but other bullets missed him completely, and followed him into the Atlantic Ocean. He was the only person who remained alive after the first volley of bullets.

Eventually two more soldiers approached and sprayed Cecil with Uzi and pistols at close range, hitting him in the face, body and head until he died. Each man was later shot with an additional 50 or 60 bullets by intoxicated soldiers.

This coup marked the end of Americo-Liberian rule, which had lasted since independence. Liberia was a colony initiated by a private organization based in the US called the American Colonization Society.

ACS There was a group composed of evangelicals and abolitionists who felt that because of racism against freed slaves, newly freed slaves would have more freedom in Africa. Therefore they established this colony independently of the American government.

In other words, white Americans were afraid of the increasing number of freed slaves and thought it best to send them to Africa. The British had started doing the same in neighboring Sierra Leone. The freed slaves and their descendants became known as Americo-Liberians.

Indeed, Americo-Liberians knew very little about the African culture of their ancestors before they became slaves. He had European-American education and knowledge. So they ran the colony as some kind of little America in Africa.

Which ironically included enslaving and oppressing the natives. Liberia was also expelled from the League of Nations because of slavery.

There were regular rebellions and riots. When Doe took power and executed Tolbert and his supporters it marked the end of Americo-Liberian rule. Doe was eventually tortured and killed on camera when Prince Johnson and Charles Taylor launched a military campaign against her. Eventually, Charles Taylor was elected and then a second Civil War began to dispose of him.

A decade later, the faction's leader Prince Y. Doe was captured by Johnson in Monrovia. Doe was taken to Johnson's military base and tortured before being killed and exposed naked on the streets of Monrovia.

His ears were cut off, then some of his fingers and toes; The next day the rest of his body was cut up, cooked and eaten. The spectacle of his torture was videotaped and seen in news reports around the world.