Mid Unit Post

Photo By: Mike Fiechtner
This photo of Liberia is significant because it is where the original image was taken. Liberia is a country on the West African coast and was one of the more stable African countries before the civil war took place in 1989. Liberia is also very poor and was once known as one of the prosperous black republics in the 1950s.

Photo By: Internation Committee of the Red Cross

This photo was taken by a news photographer named Chris Hondros during Liberia's 14-year civil war. The man in the photo is Joseph Duo, a Liberian commander who had just finished firing a rocket launcher towards the enemy during battle. Hondros snapped the photograph as Duo jumped in the air and gave a war cry. The image then became famous and was placed in magazines all over the world. It became a symbol of the prolonged conflict taking place in the country of Liberia.

 

Photo By: smiletiger

These Liberian soldiers relate because the Liberian soldier in the original piece is named Joseph Duo and is the focal point of the artwork. The Armed Forces of Liberia is now as the AFL and has origins traced back to a militia that was formed by the first black colonists in what is now Liberia.  It was founded as the Liberian Frontier Force in 1908, and retitled in 1956.

Photo By: Davor Pavelic

The first Liberian Civil war was an internal conflict in Liberia that lasted from 1989 to 1997. This killed over 200,000 people and eventually led to the involvement of the Economic Community of West African States and of the United Nations. The peace did not last long, and in 1999 the Second Liberian Civil War broke out.