Kingdoms & polities · pre-1822 and continuing
Kwi Nyon and the Grebo town council
The layered civic government of the Grebo towns: age-grades, a council of elders, a war-headman and a ritual high priest.
Biography
A Grebo town was governed by an assembly of adult men organised into age-grades (sedibo, the fighting grade, and its seniors), presided over by the wodo baa or headman and advised by a council of elders. Above them stood the Bodio, a ritual officer hedged with prohibitions who embodied the town's covenant with its land.
Decisions required consensus reached in open palaver, sometimes over days. Executive power was deliberately weak; ritual and moral authority were strong.
Historical significance
A functioning republican constitution on the Liberian coast, older than the one written at Monrovia in 1847 and entirely independent of it.
Timeline
- pre-1822Age-grade government established in the Grebo towns
- 1834Encountered by the Maryland settlers at Cape Palmas
- 1968Analysed in detail by Jane Martin
On the map
Associated with Cape Palmas. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Martin, Jane J. (1968). The Dual Legacy.
- Moran, Mary H. (2006). Liberia: The Violence of Democracy.
Suggested reading
- Moran (2006), ch. 2.