Ziaty+Family+-+Liberia

Chapter 2

Ziaty Family · Beatrice (Mother) Jeremiah, Madela, Darlington (Sons) · Lived in Monrovia, Liberia in the Krahn Tribe

Liberia History · Liberia was founded in 1821 by Americans as a colony for freed slaves. · It was ruled by white Americans until 1847. · In 1847 it became Africa’s first self-governed republic; ruled for the next 130 years by the Americo-Liberian minority (3% of the population ruling 2.5 million people) · In 1980 Americo-Liberian rule was ended by Samuel Doe who killed the president and made himself the new leader. · Doe was from the Krahn Tribe which was a small percentage of the population, backed by Americans. · Soon other tribes revolted against the Krahn leader. The Gio tribe led by Charles Taylor eventually took over Monrovia (the capital of Liberia) and cut off water, food, and medicine. They also killed, terrorized, and looted the city in 1990. More than 150,000 died. · A second attack was made on Monrovia and the Krahn in 1996. · Taylor eventually came to power in 1997 but fell out of favor with the U.S. because of war crimes.

Ziaty Family Relocation · The family lived in the section under Krahn control during the civil war until 1996. The men came for her husband wanting money because they thought he had access to government money. She then escaped with the two younger boys and her husband was killed. · They began walking east toward the Ivory Coast border where they scavenged food, hitched rides, and finally got to a refugee camp after ten days. The older son Darlington eventually made his own journey to join them. · The family built a mud shelter and applied for UN resettlement. · They spent five years in the camp with little food, no education and the constant threat of the kids being recruited into war. · On September 28, 2003 they traveled to Abidjan on the Ivory Coast, to NYC, and then to Atlanta and Clarkson. · The family lived in an apartment and the mother worked at the Ritz Carlton as a made in Atlanta. · After she was mugged she became even more obsessed about keeping the children safe and didn’t let them outside.