Total assimilation of Liberia's Indigenous population by Americo-Liberians

[walmart]

Anyway, Liberia's Indigenous population could be totally assimilated by the Americo-Liberians? In the sense of identifying as part of a single black group and being primarily English-speaking? Before someone says that Americo-Liberians never mixed with Native Africans, they are also referred to as Congo people due to an influx of freed Congolese slaves. The only instance I can think of a European group assimilating non-Europeans in the old world. Is the Zionist movement with the assimilation of the Jewish populations from the Islamic world by Ashkenazi Jews. However, both groups counted themselves as the same ethnic group. I'm not sure how you would get a similar situation in Liberia? I could see an assimilation policy similar to the Vergonha in France being attempted. I am not sure how successful that would be or if Liberia would even have the resources to attempt it.

 

[MusuMankata]

To my recollection, the Liberian government composed by Americo-Liberians did try a France-like policy of language assimilation, the problem was that the Liberian natives were extremely hostile to it, so the attempt never went anywhere.

 

[rfmcdonald]

Americo-Liberians were never interested in that sort of incorporation; they were too invested in trying to reign supreme from their coastal settlements over the peoples of the interior. It is almost like asking why Afrikaners never tried to assimilate the Xhosa.

Beyond that, well, the Liberian state lacked anything like the resources of France. How, exactly, could it have such soft and hard power?

 

[HyperMuscularDemon]

What about the Louisiana Creoles? Given that the Louisiana Creoles had much greater wealth and education, it could be possible for them to flee and establish themselves in Liberia.

 

[Jonathan Edelstein]

Anyway, Liberia's Indigenous population could be totally assimilated by the Americo-Liberians?

To start, you'd need a lot more Americo-Liberians. They were never more than 5 percent of the Liberian population, so if they began intermarrying with the indigenous Liberians (which is what would have to happen for an assimilation process to get started), the tendency would be for the indigenous peoples to assimilate them. There might be some cultural survivals, especially in literature, but they would most likely end up like the Saros or Agudas of Nigeria - upper class and with a few unique traits (the Lagos Carnival started with the Agudas) but largely part of the local culture.

The only instance I can think of a European group assimilating non-Europeans in the old world. Is the Zionist movement with the assimilation of the Jewish populations from the Islamic world by Ashkenazi Jews.

That didn't happen. Ben Gurion tried pretty hard in the 1950s, but it didn't work, and the assimilation has mostly been the other way around. Nearly everything you probably think of as Israeli culture is Mizrahi (except the part that's Palestinian, but that's a whole other conversation).

 

[rfmcdonald]

What about the Louisiana Creoles? Given that the Louisiana Creoles had much greater wealth and education, it could be possible for them to flee and establish themselves in Liberia.

Such a mass flight would imply some catastrophe in Louisiana. What possessed the Creoles to flee from America to Africa? Such a catastrophe could produce migrants, I suppose, but it would also deprive them of their financial capital if not their cultural capital.