Buchanan (Liberia)

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Buchanan
Buchanan (Liberia)
Buchanan
Buchanan
Coordinates 5 ° 53 ′  N , 10 ° 3 ′  W Coordinates: 5 ° 53 ′  N , 10 ° 3 ′  W
Basic data
Country Liberia

region

Grand Bassa
ISO 3166-2 LR-GB
height 10 m
Residents 34,270 (2008)
founding 1832

Buchanan is the third largest city in the West African Republic of Liberia . The port city, known before the civil war as an export port for iron ore exports, is located about 70 kilometers southeast of the capital Monrovia on Waterhouse Bay , a prominent section of the Liberian Atlantic coast . Buchanan is the capital of Grand Bassa County .

history

The city of Buchanan is named after Thomas Buchanan , an eminent governor of the American Colonization Society . Today's city developed on the so-called Kru coast initially from settlements that were founded in 1832 by free, mostly African-American settlers from the United States and the Caribbean as the nucleus of a planned colony. In June 1835 the neighboring colony of Port Cresson was attacked and wiped out by insurgents from the Grebo people , who besides the Kru had inhabited this area for centuries. The surviving settlers fled to Buchanan. A group of African American Quakers from Pennsylvania also dared to found a colony at this time, which they called Bassa Cove . When these settlers were also targeted by raids, they all decided to join the main colony of Liberia on April 1, 1839.

The city of Buchanan is the birthplace of Daniel Edward Howard , the 16th Liberian President (1912-1920). Furthermore, the football player Samuel Wowoah (* 1976) was born in Buchanan.

Buchanan was expanded as a trading and administrative center. The fishing port was also used to ship goods produced in the hinterland - mostly oil palm products and coffee - to Europe and the USA.

Cityscape

The city of Buchanan consists of three parts:

  1. the original city foundation from the 19th century
  2. the industrial area around the ore port - now largely dismantled track and loading facilities for iron ore, plus a train station, a small airfield and warehouses
  3. the LAMCO factory settlement, center of the Swedish colony in Liberia.

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