Hundreds of individuals assembled in rural Liberia on Friday for the state funeral of former president Samuel Doe, taking place 35 years after his assassination and highlighting the nation’s ongoing efforts for reconciliation regarding its violent history.
Doe’s horrifying torture and murder in 1990 marked a significant turning point in the two civil wars that led to approximately 250,000 deaths and devastated Liberia’s economy.
He is being honoured at his family estate in southeastern Grand Gedeh County, next to his wife Nancy, who passed away in May and will be interred there.
As the couple’s caskets—his as a symbolic representation and hers containing her remains—were gradually transported through the county capital of Zwedru in a truck adorned with bunting in the national colours of red, white, and blue, Liberians gathered along the route.
The state ceremony is being graced by President Joseph Boakai, who declared a mourning period from Tuesday to Friday this week, during which flags have been flown at half-mast.
According to a post on his executive mansion’s Facebook page, the commemorations are part of a “broader effort” to foster “national reconciliation.”
The events surrounding Doe’s death represent a notorious chapter in Liberia’s narrative.
Notorious warlord Prince Johnson, a major figure in the civil wars (1989 to 2003), appeared in a video where he was seen calmly sipping beer while watching his fighters slowly mutilate and kill Doe.
Limited concrete information exists about the fate and whereabouts of Doe’s remains after his death, although several rumours circulate.
Doe’s ascent to power was also marked by violence.
His rule from 1980 to 1990 is polarising, as many Liberians remember it as a brutal dictatorship, while others recall some of his more progressive measures with nostalgia.
In 1980, then in his late 20s and serving as an army sergeant, Doe led a coup that resulted in the assassination of President William Tolbert, the last leader from the Americo-Liberian ruling class descended from former US slaves.
Quickly establishing a regime of terror, Doe had 13 members of the government he toppled publicly executed on a beach, and his regime later jailed or persecuted many of its adversaries.
He was elected in a presidential vote in 1985, which many observers criticised for being rife with fraud.
The harshness of his regime, paired with deteriorating economic conditions and favouritism towards the Krahn ethnic group to which he belonged, contributed to his growing unpopularity.
