Politics Is Not for Children: Student Activism and State Repression in Liberia, 1944–1990

Abstract

This article examines students' political activism at the University of Liberia from the 1940s to 1990. This period corresponds to the presidencies of William V. S. Tubman (1944–71), William R. Tolbert (1971–80), and Samuel K. Doe (1980–90). While Liberian students during this period considered participation in political dialogues on issues affecting the nation as part of their civic responsibilities, these regimes saw student activism as threatening to the established authority and therefore took measures to suppress what they considered children's interference in adult matters. The article thus documents students' political activism and the measures pursued by political elites to dismantle it. It analyzes student political activism against the backdrop of the well-established perception among Liberians that students were children who must stay out of politics or adults' business, as politics was seen as being outside their realm. It also explores the historical and cultural roots of such perceptions by tracing it to precolonial indigenous childrearing practices (gerontocracy) and the introduction of Christian conceptions of the role of youth in society by American missionaries starting in the nineteenth century.