Catholic Prelate Monsignor Robert Tikpor has traced the roots of ethnic conflict in Liberia dating back to the period before the coming of the settlers.     Monsignor Tikpor said in Liberia, before the settlers came to found Liberia, there were frequent intertribal wars; especially, during the two hundred years(1619-1816) when slaves were captured and collected from among the tribes fighting each other. The outspoken Catholic Prelate said before slavery began, these intertribal wars were fought over land, wealth and other matters that were offensive to one or the other tribe.

Giving an example, Monsignor Tikpor said there was a war between the Bassas and Kpelles noting that people knew about these wars from the maxims often repeated by the Bassas like “Glewetae Dju Dje a Kpah Kpeletoh” and again “Zainkpa da mehn Kpeleh da Coatin Kpo.,” “We wouldn't have known about these wars but for the maxims that have come down to us. In the first maxim, the Bassas are saying that Glewetae was a little man who was so small in body that the children saw and thought that he was one of them. So they invited him to join them and go against the Kpelles, but he displayed such warlike deeds that his deeds were cited for generations yet unborn to emulate. His heroic feats became themes for a ballad to him since then,” Monsignor Tipkor said.

He noted that in the second maxim,” Zainkpa is dead and so the kpelle man has worn coat. Zainkpa was a kpelle man who was captured by the Bassa warriors and he was disowned by his own kinsmen, but the Bassas honored him, as a brave captive and they kept him. However, Monsignor Tipkor said in order to retaliate against his own people, Zainkpa swore to his ancestral spirits that any Kpelle man who ever crossed his path would be captured and sold into slavery. Father Tipkor said from Zainkpa's death, this ballad was sung and began to spread far and wide among the Bassa people.

Delivering the 163rd Independence Day Oration yesterday in Sanniquellie, on the theme “In National Unity, we will stand” Monsignor Tipkor said these intertribal wars were not limited to tribes and tribes because when the settlers came, there were wars between them and some ethnic groups. He cited a battle that was fought between the combined forces of the Dey, Vai and Mamban Bassa and the ethnic groups and the settlers at Fort Hill on December 1, 1822. “In that battle, Matilda Newport is alleged to have been the heroine, and until sometimes very lately did her alleged exploits have come to be questioned by some Liberian historians,” he said.

The Catholic Prelate also cited the war between the Grebos and the Settlers in Maryland County in the early 1900s of which very little is known. He also spoke about the Kru War declared on the settler in 1915-1918 called the Sasstown War when the leader of that war Juah Nimley was captured and brought to Monrovia, never allowed to return to his native Sasstown. Monsignor Tipkor said the February 26 incident in Lofa County in which little Korpu Kamara was killed, and which sparked into ethnic clashes between members of the Lorma tribe and their counterpart, the mandingo tribe is another example.

He noted that these points are for Liberians to be aware that there were wars between the indigenous inhabitants even before Liberia was established in 1847 and among them and the settlers. Father Tikpor said ritualistic killings of innocent children remain another evil conduct outside of ethnicity that continues to besmear the national character. “We hear frequently about these happenings but there have been no reports made by government as to what has been done to the perpetrators of these heinous acts. Liberians need to be reminded that it was these very acts that caused the hangings of prominent citizens in Harper City in 1979,” he added.

Meanwhile Monsignor Tikpor said, “We have our national reputation and integrity to restore our economy to strengthen and stabilize and finally our moral conscience to reexamine and reform.” He said, “Corruption like an unwanted weed must be uprooted out of this country or it might cover the whole land.”