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Monrovia Mon Amour: Travels in Liberia
As Charles Taylor begins a 50-year sentence for his role in the brutal civil war in Liberia, Theodore Dalrymple’s memoir of a visit to the country, and its capital Monrovia, makes fascinating reading.
Founded in 1822 as a refuge for freed African slaves from America, Liberia is a curiosity which became a catastrophe.
For well over 100 years, it was a civilised and relatively prosperous country under the rule of Americo-Liberians, but it was thrown into chaos in 1980 when Samuel Doe led a revolution of those considering themselves ‘natives’.
The incumbent president was murdered in his bed, and his cabinet ministers paraded naked through the streets of Monrovia before being summarily executed by firing squad on the beach.
Doe – a brutal and incompetent tribalist (also, say some, a cannibal) – was himself overthrown by Charles Taylor in 1990.
Dalrymple arrives in Monrovia the following year, where giggling Liberians show him a videotape of Doe’s torture and murder at the hands of Taylor’s rival, the majestically self-titled Brigadier-General Field-Marshal Prince Y Johnson. In the film, Johnson – now a Liberian senator – calmly sips a Budweiser as the naked Doe’s ears are hacked off. Unsurprisingly, Dalrymple forms the professional opinion that Johnson is a psychopath.
Monrovia was once a peaceful and reasonably ordered city; now, it has been almost completely sacked. Burnt-out cars are everywhere; doors have been chopped up for firewood; rubble lines the streets, with the vandalism forming a systematic attempt to destroy every vestige of the old regime (and, the author speculates, of civilisation itself). The destruction of the university and library, for instance, seems to be little more that the revenge of the ignorant upon the educated. In a local hospital (once the pride of West Africa, now long ruined and abandoned), the professor of surgery’s office has been ransacked, and medical books and papers have been ripped up; in another, infant welfare records have been smeared with faeces. In the wrecked Centennial Hall, the body of a beautiful Steinway grand piano lies on the floor, its legs senselessly sawn off. In a Lutheran church, Dalrymple finds the floor covered in the blood silhouettes of 600 Liberians massacred by Doe’s soldiers.
Dalrymple – who achieves the near-impossible by making a book about such barbarism at times amusing – lays much of the blame for what happened at the feet of Western intellectuals and their African counterparts.
Monrovia Mon Amour is a profoundly moving and interesting book about a country which is little-understood and less visited.
Founded in 1822 as a refuge for freed African slaves from America, Liberia is a curiosity which became a catastrophe.
For well over 100 years, it was a civilised and relatively prosperous country under the rule of Americo-Liberians, but it was thrown into chaos in 1980 when Samuel Doe led a revolution of those considering themselves ‘natives’.
The incumbent president was murdered in his bed, and his cabinet ministers paraded naked through the streets of Monrovia before being summarily executed by firing squad on the beach.
Doe – a brutal and incompetent tribalist (also, say some, a cannibal) – was himself overthrown by Charles Taylor in 1990.
Dalrymple arrives in Monrovia the following year, where giggling Liberians show him a videotape of Doe’s torture and murder at the hands of Taylor’s rival, the majestically self-titled Brigadier-General Field-Marshal Prince Y Johnson. In the film, Johnson – now a Liberian senator – calmly sips a Budweiser as the naked Doe’s ears are hacked off. Unsurprisingly, Dalrymple forms the professional opinion that Johnson is a psychopath.
Monrovia was once a peaceful and reasonably ordered city; now, it has been almost completely sacked. Burnt-out cars are everywhere; doors have been chopped up for firewood; rubble lines the streets, with the vandalism forming a systematic attempt to destroy every vestige of the old regime (and, the author speculates, of civilisation itself). The destruction of the university and library, for instance, seems to be little more that the revenge of the ignorant upon the educated. In a local hospital (once the pride of West Africa, now long ruined and abandoned), the professor of surgery’s office has been ransacked, and medical books and papers have been ripped up; in another, infant welfare records have been smeared with faeces. In the wrecked Centennial Hall, the body of a beautiful Steinway grand piano lies on the floor, its legs senselessly sawn off. In a Lutheran church, Dalrymple finds the floor covered in the blood silhouettes of 600 Liberians massacred by Doe’s soldiers.
Dalrymple – who achieves the near-impossible by making a book about such barbarism at times amusing – lays much of the blame for what happened at the feet of Western intellectuals and their African counterparts.
Monrovia Mon Amour is a profoundly moving and interesting book about a country which is little-understood and less visited.
179 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 31, 2012
34 people are currently reading
163 people want to read
About the author
Theodore Dalrymple
98 books624 followersAnthony Malcolm Daniels, who generally uses the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is an English writer and retired prison doctor and psychiatrist. He worked in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries as well as in the east end of London. Before his retirement in 2005, he worked in City Hospital, Birmingham and Winson Green Prison in inner-city Birmingham, England.
Daniels is a contributing editor to City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, where he is the Dietrich Weismann Fellow. In addition to City Journal, his work has appeared in The British Medical Journal, The Times, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, The Salisbury Review, National Review, and Axess magasin.
In 2011, Dalrymple received the 2011 Freedom Prize from the Flemish think tank Libera!.
Daniels is a contributing editor to City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, where he is the Dietrich Weismann Fellow. In addition to City Journal, his work has appeared in The British Medical Journal, The Times, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, The Salisbury Review, National Review, and Axess magasin.
In 2011, Dalrymple received the 2011 Freedom Prize from the Flemish think tank Libera!.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 4, 2018
Short, but good. Dalrymple's travel books are my favourites of his.
August 7, 2013
Monrovia Mon Amour is a wonderfully descriptive, though highly tragic and depressing in topic, non-fiction account of a doctor’s adventures in civil war torn Liberia. His initial account and description of the capital Monrovia is very objective and analytical in style; like a doctor reviewing for a class the symptoms which killed a man, no emotion except for a fascination with those symptoms. I actually thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which gave another view point for which I could use as a comparison and contrasting description of those of children.
Every description that is given is so descriptive as to carry you away to devastated Monrovia just like any well written fiction novel; except this is real. One of the best description examples comes from the literal –pardon the language- shitting on of hospital records that leaves the poor doctor in shock. This in contrast with what he sees in the very same hospital; the remnants of civilization living in a portion of its wards and trying to hold on to some semblance of domestic life with clean living and decorations. An American built hospital he later encounters leads him to lament upon the ignorance of such a gift and the sorrow of such a place now in ruins. This is an incredibly enlightening tale that is a must read, especially in order to better understand some of the situation in Liberia during its civil war. I would certainly pair this with Son of a Gun as a means of furthering knowledge as well as a form of understanding-builder. I would probably not put this in the hands of middle school students due to language though.
Every description that is given is so descriptive as to carry you away to devastated Monrovia just like any well written fiction novel; except this is real. One of the best description examples comes from the literal –pardon the language- shitting on of hospital records that leaves the poor doctor in shock. This in contrast with what he sees in the very same hospital; the remnants of civilization living in a portion of its wards and trying to hold on to some semblance of domestic life with clean living and decorations. An American built hospital he later encounters leads him to lament upon the ignorance of such a gift and the sorrow of such a place now in ruins. This is an incredibly enlightening tale that is a must read, especially in order to better understand some of the situation in Liberia during its civil war. I would certainly pair this with Son of a Gun as a means of furthering knowledge as well as a form of understanding-builder. I would probably not put this in the hands of middle school students due to language though.
November 28, 2012
Dr. Dalrymple comes through as usual. He has mentioned his travels in Africa in his other books and in "Monrovia Mon Amour" he goes into depth regarding his experiences in Liberia.
He does an excellent job exploring the interaction of tribes. If you do not understand the tribal relationships, you will never fully understand how Africa works.
Dalrymple provide insightful analysis regarding the cause and effect of international meddling with local affairs.
He does an excellent job exploring the interaction of tribes. If you do not understand the tribal relationships, you will never fully understand how Africa works.
Dalrymple provide insightful analysis regarding the cause and effect of international meddling with local affairs.
June 2, 2020
I don’t want to take anything away from its merits, but this is a very depressing book.
It is hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that cultural values matter more to civilization than anything else and that African values are notably inferior to those of any other culture. It is not due to chance, or the legacy of colonialism, that Africa is the perpetual cesspool of the world. It is the result of its inhabitants’ wretched values, their corruption, tribalism, indolence and backwardness.
Liberia is a recent example of this. It was founded by black Americo-Liberians in 1847 and governed largely according to Western values through 1980. It was a notable success story, by African standards, during this period. In 1980, the government was overthrown by a "native" regime with the African values that are more typical of the continent. Within a few years, the economy collapsed and the country slid into chaos and civil war. A huge percentage of its population was slaughtered or displaced and the country was utterly destroyed by its own people, reverting practically back to the stone age. Even their African neighbors were appalled by the carnage and destruction.
This is altogether too commonplace throughout the history of Africa (see also Zanzibar to Timbuktu). This book is simply Dr. Dalrymple’s grim postmortem of one recent example.
It is hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that cultural values matter more to civilization than anything else and that African values are notably inferior to those of any other culture. It is not due to chance, or the legacy of colonialism, that Africa is the perpetual cesspool of the world. It is the result of its inhabitants’ wretched values, their corruption, tribalism, indolence and backwardness.
Liberia is a recent example of this. It was founded by black Americo-Liberians in 1847 and governed largely according to Western values through 1980. It was a notable success story, by African standards, during this period. In 1980, the government was overthrown by a "native" regime with the African values that are more typical of the continent. Within a few years, the economy collapsed and the country slid into chaos and civil war. A huge percentage of its population was slaughtered or displaced and the country was utterly destroyed by its own people, reverting practically back to the stone age. Even their African neighbors were appalled by the carnage and destruction.
This is altogether too commonplace throughout the history of Africa (see also Zanzibar to Timbuktu). This book is simply Dr. Dalrymple’s grim postmortem of one recent example.
February 22, 2025
If the internet existed as it does now 30 years ago, Theodore Dalrymple would've been the world's foremost conservative ideologue. The words most closely associated with him are witty and prolific. The guy's pen has been on fire since the 1980s which is crazy. He writes books and columns for publications even today.
There are two types of intelligence. One is the normal intelligence across the spectrum. Right from retard to savant. But there's another kind of intelligence, it is incelligence. It is when you are functionally dumb for all intents and purposes but somehow have esoteric knowledge of the most inconsequential part about practically anything. The sky's the limit for incels.
And that's why for some reason I know about the history of Liberia(A teeny tiny patch of real estate somewhere in Western Africa) and have a second-hand understanding of the First Liberian Civil War (1989-96). This is the subject matter of this book.
But the world made a little bit more sense when I discovered why the Liberian flag looks eerily similar to the American flag. It used to bug me. It was because during the Slavery years in the United States, there was a group of politicians who said the Black population has become too much and they will end up ruining the culture and ethos of America. Some of the Blacks got deported back to America in this way. And this is the origin story of Liberia.
The first batch of Americo-Liberians(as they were known) could speak English and drafted a constitution taking inspiration from the American constitution. And then 200 years later it all went to shit. Theodore blends symbolism and Civil War imagery to tell the story.
Pretty fun read but only read it in the spirit of leisure
There are two types of intelligence. One is the normal intelligence across the spectrum. Right from retard to savant. But there's another kind of intelligence, it is incelligence. It is when you are functionally dumb for all intents and purposes but somehow have esoteric knowledge of the most inconsequential part about practically anything. The sky's the limit for incels.
And that's why for some reason I know about the history of Liberia(A teeny tiny patch of real estate somewhere in Western Africa) and have a second-hand understanding of the First Liberian Civil War (1989-96). This is the subject matter of this book.
But the world made a little bit more sense when I discovered why the Liberian flag looks eerily similar to the American flag. It used to bug me. It was because during the Slavery years in the United States, there was a group of politicians who said the Black population has become too much and they will end up ruining the culture and ethos of America. Some of the Blacks got deported back to America in this way. And this is the origin story of Liberia.
The first batch of Americo-Liberians(as they were known) could speak English and drafted a constitution taking inspiration from the American constitution. And then 200 years later it all went to shit. Theodore blends symbolism and Civil War imagery to tell the story.
Pretty fun read but only read it in the spirit of leisure
March 23, 2019
Interesting...if you are looking for facts about Liberia. Which I am.
November 25, 2023
Dalrymple is a treasure
Dalrymple tells it like it is. I have enjoyed every one of his books that I've read. I highly recommend them all.
Dalrymple tells it like it is. I have enjoyed every one of his books that I've read. I highly recommend them all.
November 1, 2025
Excellent travel book. Great details from his interactions with locals in obscure places.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews