Ethnic groups · pre-1822 and continuing
Gola people
Mel-speaking forest people of the Lofa–St Paul interior, custodians of a formidable Poro.
Biography
The Gola are among the oldest attested populations of the western forest, a Mel-speaking group whose presence long predates the Mande arrivals. Their reputation among neighbours and later among Europeans rested on the strength of their Poro, which regulated initiation, adjudicated between towns and could close the roads. Gola chiefs stood between the Vai lagoons and the Condo road inland, and Gola signatories — King Long Peter of Klay among them — appear on the December 1821 cession at Cape Mesurado.
Historical significance
One of the sixteen principal peoples mapped in the atlas; Atlantic (Mel) in language, with an economy built on iron smelting and mask carving.
Timeline
- pre-1500Gola settlement of the western forest belt
- late 18th c.Expansion toward the Dei and Vai coast
- 1950sTraditions recorded by Warren d'Azevedo
On the map
Associated with Klay. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Ducor Contract 1821; ACS 11th Annual Report 1828
Suggested reading
- Dunn, Beyan & Burrowes (2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia.