Charles Taylor and Liberia

Ambition and Atrocity in Africa’s Lone Star State

Colin Waugh

Campaigner, insurgent, arms dealer, warlord, commodity trafficker, elected president, international fugitive and finally prisoner, Charles Taylor sought to lead his native Liberia to change but instead destroyed it in a frenzy of violence, greed and uncontrolled personal ambition. In the process he threw much of Liberia’s neighbouring region into turmoil for over a decade, finally facing judgment in The Hague for his role in the Sierra Leone conflict.

In this remarkable and eye-opening book, Colin Waugh draws on a variety of sources, testimonies and original interviews–including with Taylor himself–to recount the story of what really happened during these turbulent years. In doing so, he examines both the life of Charles Taylor, as well as the often self-interested efforts of the international community to first save Liberia from disaster, then, having failed to do so, to bring to justice the man it deems most to blame for its disintegration.
 

Contents

• Introduction
Part 1. The Land of the Freed
1. Foundations of a Settlement
2. The Spirit of Liberia
3. Confronting the Old Order
Part 2. From Dictatorship to Anarchy
4. Sergeant-in-Charge: Samuel Doe’s presidency
5. Doe’s Decline, Taylor’s Travels
6. Charles Taylor’s War
7. The Pantomime of Peace
Part 3. Power in Greater Liberia
8. Greater Liberia: Prospering and Assimilating
9.. Sierra Leone: Liberia’s Sister Revolution
10. Election Victory and the Taylor Presidency
Part 4. Fallout from a Revolution
11. A Government Embattled
12. Relations with the United States
13. Liberian Legacy
14. Justice a la Carte
• Bibliography
 

About the Author

Colin M. Waugh grew up in Scotland and was educated in the UK before pursuing careers in writing and publishing, financial markets and international post-conflict work. The latter led him to live and travel in over twenty countries in Africa over the past two decades. In 2004 he wrote Paul Kagame and Rwanda, a career narrative of the current President of Rwanda. He currently lives in London, and recently has served on the advisory board of Columbia University’s Institute of African Studies and as director of Lombard Street Associates in London.