‘Colonized’ settler colonialism: Franka Vaughan, Sarah Maddison, ‘Thinking through the history of Liberia’s formation with settler colonial theory’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

‘Colonized’ settler colonialism: Franka Vaughan, Sarah Maddison, ‘Thinking through the history of Liberia’s formation with settler colonial theory’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2025

05Apr25

Abstract: The formation of Liberia in the nineteenth century as a resettlement for freed and formerly enslaved Black Americans represents an intriguing puzzle in the articulation of the distinction between postcolonialism and settler colonialism. The small West African country is sometimes lumped together with the now postcolonial African countries that underwent structural decolonisation in the twentieth century. In many narratives, Liberia is even heralded as one of two African countries whose formation as a modern state is not defined by colonialism. By contrast, we reject both narratives through a re-theorisation of Liberia’s history as a settler society established by freed and formerly enslaved Black Americans who, we argue, acted as settler colonists even though they had themselves once been enslaved as Black people in the United States. This article argues that analysing Liberia’s formation through the lens of settler colonial theory sheds new light on the structures of inequality that continue to shape the lives of Liberians today. Understanding Liberia as a unique settler colonial project pushes the boundaries of settler colonial theory and provides the framework with a more transnational and transcultural lens.

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