highly polished pieces. The Gio and some of their neighboring tribes in Liberia and in the Ivory Coast, where they are known as the Dan and Guéré, make delicately carved miniature masks which are given to children destined for high office in the Poro secret society.

A long tradition of crafts is present among all tribal groups and provides one of the channels for artistic expression. Tools, household utensils and clothing are made to be aesthetically pleasing as well as utilitarian, and artisans often achieve a high degree of artistry.

Some groups have become known for their work in a particular craft or for their use of a particular material. The Vai are known for their delicate filigree work in gold and silver jewelry; the Mandingo, for their leatherwork, similar to that found in the regions north and south of the Sahara; and the Gio, for their tradition, now extinct, of casting iron and brass into jewelry and other ornamental articles. The casting of brass and other alloys into small, intricately detailed sculptures was practiced by all the peoples in a belt stretching across the forest region of West Africa, with eastern Liberia as its western extremity. Some of the castings found in Liberia show considerable similarity to the well-known Benin bronzes of Nigeria.

In many parts of the country the walls of houses and other buildings are gaily decorated with drawings done in charcoal and chalk. The drawings are crude reproductions of men and animals engaged in ordinary daily activities and are sometimes set off by decorative borders.

All the tribal peoples have a rich treasury of folk literature transmitted orally from generation to generation. There are numerous legends and epics about tribal ancestors and great warriors, myths of the supposed origins of families and tribes, and legends explaining social customs or natural phenomena, such as fire, thunder and lightning, the sun, the moon and the stars. Moral and cautionary tales and proverbs point out the virtues of good behavior. Problems, riddles and puzzles while away the time. Most folk tales are quite similar to Aesop's fables and to the stories about Reynard the Fox, with animals and insects as central characters. Some of this folk literature has been translated into English and published by the government's Bureau of Folkways and by private individuals. The invention in the 1840's of an alphabet for the Vai language by a Vai, Dualu Bukere, is considered an outstanding achievement of African creativity and has facilitated the accumulation of a substantial body of Vai literature in the original, which has been used in their tribal schools.

Many of the elite write poetry and prose for their own pleasure. Some of their work is printed or published locally, but little of it is known outside the country. In his 1964 inaugural speech, President Tubman enumerated Edward W. Blyden, Abayomi Karnga, Edwin Barclay, F. A. Price, Ernest Yancy, Doris Banks Henries, C. L. Simpson, Roland Dempster, Nathaniel Richardson, Van Richards,

Emmanuel Erskine, Bai T. Moore and E. O. Fahnbulleh as Liberians who have contributed to literature and art through their stories, poetry, plays, memoirs and textbooks on history. He also urged the people to awaken to their responsibility to make recognized contributions to the creative arts. To uncover and stimulate writing talent, an annual writing contest is held among secondary school students.

The publication in 1963, with United States Government assistance, of a collection of Bai T. Moore's poetry entitled Ebony Dust was hailed in Monrovia as an important contribution to world literature. Some of the poems included in the collection have appeared in anthologies of African writing published in Germany and Italy. Most of Moore's poetry is extremely personal, inspired by events in his life-a beautiful sunset, a dramatic experience of an admired person. Much of it takes its theme from African life and culture.

Few Liberians have engaged in scholarly activity. The medical, agricultural and ethnographic research carried on in the country is done largely by foreigners. Among the Liberians whose work in scholarly fields is known are: Benjamin J. K. Anderson, who in 1874 published an account of his explorations of the Liberian hinterland which is considered by many a classic of exploration literature; Abayomi Karnga, whose history of Liberia, published at the turn of the century, was long considered the standard work on the subject; Momolu Massaquoi, who lectured and wrote on his own Vai tribe; and Bai T. Moore and S. J. M. Johnson, who have done ethnographic work for the Bureau of Folkways.

The outstanding Liberian intellectual was Edward W. Blyden, one of the first African nationalists. In his prolific writings in the last quarter of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth centuries, he presented his ideas of the existence of a distinct African personality with its own identity and values, capabilities and accomplishments, history and promise for the future. Thus he voiced almost a century ago the concepts of négritude and of "African personality," on which so much of current African thought is based.

Starting in about 1960 a number of prominent Liberians, including President Tubman himself, began to express concern over the lack of artistic and intellectual activity in the country and to propose steps to remedy the situation. Cultural nationalism on the rest of the continent has begun to stimulate a hitherto absent interest on the part of the educated elite in the cultural heritage of the people, most notably the traditional forms of creative expression.

The Bureau of Folkways was established and placed first under the Department of Interior and then in 1962, under the Liberian Information Service. The Bureau has published the first volume of a series entitled "Proverbs of Liberia" in English, and the Information

Service in May 1963 inaugurated broadcasts of traditional Liberian music which might be put on records if popular demand is sufficient. A cultural center outside of Monrovia, in the form of a tribal village representing the architectural styles of the major tribes, houses traditional artisans producing their goods for sale to tourists and local inhabitants. It also has facilities for traditional dancing and other forms of entertainment by members of the various tribes. All of these cultural projects suffer from shortage of funds. A UNESCO expert whose task was to collect art objects throughout the country and establish a small museum in Monrovia resigned in early 1964 out of frustration over the lack of means and cooperation in the execution of his task.

CHAPTER 10

RELIGION

More than half the population in 1964 still adhered to a tribal religion, and of the rest there were probably more Moslems than Christians. Nevertheless, a number of official and semiofficial documents and statements referred to Liberia as a Christian state.

The Protestant political and social elite tended to assume that Protestants would continue to dominate the country and that the future of most of its people now pagan lay with Protestant Christianity. The Constitution, however, stipulated that no specific Christian church be given preference by the state and provided for the free exercise of any religion. Moreover, there was to be no religious test for civil office or for the exercise of any civil right. The ruling group made a public point of friendliness to Islam, of appreciation of Roman Catholicism and its contributions to the country and of tolerance and even support for most sects of Christian origin.

In the late 1950's local Christians and some missionaries-the United Christian Fellowship Conference (UCFC)-issued a general critique of the status of Christianity and the work of the churches in all segments of the population. They were concerned with support for the churches, a trained and independent ministry, and the social situation and orientation of the churches.

Although Christian missionaries have been active for more than a century, and some Islamic influence was felt in the area before the coming of the settlers, neither Christian or Moslem effort had much success among the tribal population until well into the twentieth century. Moreover, many who called themselves or were counted as Christians or Moslems still held traditional beliefs and engaged in traditional practices at mid-century.

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND ORGANIZATION

In the absence of a detailed census and of clear definitions of categories of religious membership, data on the numbers and regional and ethnic distribution of various Christian denominations and of Moslems are fragmentary and often unreliable.

Usually mission groups place those they influence in two classes: full members (or communicants) and constituents. The latter are those to whom the gospel has been preached but who have yet to meet