Ethnic groups · pre-1822 and continuing
Grebo people
The people of Cape Palmas, with a layered civil and military constitution.
Biography
The Grebo occupied Cape Palmas and the Cavalla river mouth at the southeastern corner of the country. Their towns had a remarkably articulated constitution: a civil head (the wodo baa), a war leader, age grades with defined military and civic duties, and a council whose deliberations bound the town. Grebo traders worked both the coast and the Cavalla, and Grebo resistance to later settler expansion was organised, literate and sustained.
Historical significance
One of the sixteen principal peoples mapped in the atlas; Kru (Niger–Congo) in language, with an economy built on age-grade militia and canoe trade.
Timeline
- pre-1500Grebo towns established around Cape Palmas
- 1834Negotiations with the Maryland settlers
On the map
Associated with Cape Palmas towns. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Dunn, Beyan & Burrowes 2000; missionary records
Suggested reading
- Dunn, Beyan & Burrowes (2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia.