The political economy of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia

Extending the boundaries of ‘urban society’: The urban political ecologies and pathologies of Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa

“…However, although Liberia was nominally independent, it was nevertheless dominated by foreign (mostly American) interests. The modern nation-state of Liberia was founded by manumitted slaves who settled in the area previously referred to as the Grain Coast (Howard, 2017; Kieh, 2017). This group of settlers referred to as Americo-Liberians came to politically dominate the indigenous peoples already living there.…”

“…Consequently, Americo-Liberians pursued a mission of ‘civilizing and Christianizing’ the indigenous populations (Beyan, 1991; Kieh, 2008, 2012; Liebenow, 1969; Sawyer, 1992; Wreh, 1976). Over the years, settler colonialism privileged the descendants of the repatriated Africans in every sphere – political, cultural and economic (Kieh, 2008, 2012, 2017; Sawyer, 1992). the consolidation of power by Americo-Liberians in the nation's capital of Monrovia led to alienation and disenfranchisement of the indigenous peoples who remained relegated to rural areas outside the centre of political economic power and were as such neglected by the political and capitalist elites.…”

“…These power dynamics based on a central government largely staffed by Americo-Liberians meant that the nation's developmental trajectory rooted in internal colonization of the hinterland would eventually resemble other colonial, extraction-based economies of the Global South. In particular, the Liberian import/export sector came to be completely dominated by foreign firms (Kieh, 2017). A notable example was the U.S.-based Firestone Rubber Company, who in 1926 negotiated a lease agreement with the Liberian government that resulted in the leasing of a million acres of land for 99 years at an incredibly low rate (DuBois, 1933).…”

“…As a result of these predatory capitalist practices, Liberia faced conditions similar to other export-driven economies dependent upon raw material extraction and facing increasing national debt and pressures to introduce structural adjustment policies. This historical trajectory led to arrangements which predominantly favoured private economic gain over investments in basic health and human needs of the Liberian public (Frankfurter et al, 2018: 90) such as the building of physical infrastructure, health care facilities, and the training of health personnel (Kieh, 2017: 89). And, if any investments in infrastructure were pursued, such as the building of roads, these construction projects would address the transportation needs of private resource extraction companies rather than serving the mobility needs of the general population, particularly those living in informal settlements.…”

“…Tensions arising from a shared colonial history of resource exploitation and predatory capitalism have resulted in political and social instability that set the conditions for dictatorships, unbridled corruption, recurrent military coups, and devastating civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Aside from the wide scale displacements they produced, civil conflicts rendered the two countries fertile ground for the amplification of Ebola spread by destroying any possibility of a public health and social welfare safety net that would have supported Liberians through the EVD epidemic (Kieh, 2017: 90). Indeed, this underdevelopment consistent with that of the rest of the continent (see Rodney, 1972) resulted in what Farmer (2015) has referred to as a ‘public health desert’.…”