The Public Execution of the President of Liberia William Tolbert and his Cabinet, 1980.

10 years before Liberia’s President Samuel Doe met his fate – also a gruesome televised torture and murder – then known as Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, he had presided over the public execution of members of the Cabinet he had just overthrown.

In 1847, with the support of US President Monroe and subsequent US Governments uneasy with the growing population of freed slaves in America, emancipated former African-American slaves settled in Africa and declared the territory the Independent republic of Liberia.

Between 1847 and 1980 the State of Liberia was dominated by the minority Americo-Liberians who then marginalized the majority native Liberians with whom they had uneasy relations with, viewing them as an ‘inferior’ race and treating them much the same as the ex-slaves had been treated in America. 

Brutal Americo-Liberian State repression, plantation quasi-slavery, economic and social marginalization of majority native Liberians led to riots and the coup resulting in Master Sergeant Samuel Doe’s National Redemption Council (1980-89).

Master Sergeant Samuel Doe overthrew President William Tolbert to become Liberia’s first native president. 

Tolbert himself was shot while he slept either in bed or in his office. Most members of his cabinet were arrested and tried for different crimes. 

At one point, the judge told the defendants to ‘Keep it short.’ He then found them guilty and recommended their execution. The gruesome execution was televised.

The ministers were marched through the streets as citizens lined up to jeer them. They were then taken to the public beach where they were ordered to stand next to the installed posts and remove their shirts. The men were tied upright to the posts. 

Soldiers then lined up to form a firing squad. After the first barrage of gunfire, only one man, Cecil Dennis, was still standing. Unlucky Cecil had flown back to Liberia only the day before the coup.

The others were dead, with their bodies slumping on the posts. Two soldiers shot Dennis with an Uzi machine gun and a pistol. The firing squad continued firing, shooting the ministers at least 60 more times.

Strangely, Doe called for Cecil Dennis to be brought to the Executive Mansion a few days after he had had him killed. It is possible that Doe had never bothered to look at the list of those to be executed or the recommendation. One anecdote has it that the court recommended the execution of 3 men but Doe, either distracted or otherwise, ordered that they all be killed.

In fact, the execution was delayed because there were not enough poles installed on the beach that day. Four men sat in the bus while the first nine were being killed.

One of the people who survived the purge was none other than, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the later President of Liberia, the first female head of state in Africa and Nobel Prize Laurette. She was Tolbert’s Minister of Finance; she believes she survived because her mother had once given Master Sergeant Doe and his men water to drink.

President Samuel Doe went on to misrule Liberians from 1980 until 1990, when he met a similar fate to that he had subjected his predecessor.

Credit image: gettyimages.com

Pictured:

1. President William Tolbert.
2. President & Mrs. Tolbert.
3. Master Sergeant Samuel Doe (right).

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