Rivers & landmarks · geological; inhabited for millennia
The Nimba Range
The forested massif on the north-eastern frontier, sacred to Mano and Gio communities and rich in iron ore.
Biography
Nimba rises above the surrounding forest as a chain of grass-topped ridges, home to endemic species and to a body of tradition treating specific peaks and groves as inviolable.
Its ore was known and worked locally long before it was industrially assayed in the twentieth century; the smiths of the Mano and Gio country drew on it.
Historical significance
A reminder that the Liberian interior's resource wealth was known, used and religiously governed by the people who lived on it.
Timeline
- pre-1500Mano and Gio settlement of the Nimba slopes
- pre-1822Local iron working from Nimba ores
- 20th c.Industrial mining begins
On the map
Associated with Nimba County. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Johnston, Harry (1906). Liberia.
- Schwab, George (1947). Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland.
Suggested reading
- Schwab (1947).