Remembering Samuel Doe, the First World Leader to Be Tortured and Executed on Camera

On the 9th of September 1990, Samuel Doe, who staged a violent coup and took power from the Americo-Liberians (freed slaves from the United States), became the first world leader to be tortured on camera before being executed.

The nation of Liberia was founded in 1822 as a colony for the repatriation of freed slaves from the United States, and it existed for more than a century under the government of an elite society of Americo-Liberians who essentially replicated the American South in Africa, but with themselves in the place of white people.

They pursued a deleterious policy of shutting out native Liberians, usually called “country people,” from both the political and economic spheres of the nation, using the usual methods of marginalization and nepotism. This lasted until 1980, when Samuel Doe staged a violent and bloody military coup that left him de facto head of state.

The Life of Samuel Doe

Samuel Doe was born in Tuzon, a small town in south-eastern Liberia, situated in Grand Gedeh County, on May 6, 1951. His family belonged to the Krahn people, a minority indigenous group in Liberia.

At the age of 16, he finished elementary school, and two years later, he enlisted in the Armed Forces of Liberia. He eventually rose through the ranks to become a master sergeant in 1979.

Like other indigenous Liberians, Doe detested the fact that Americo-Liberians controlled the government and economy of Liberia, but unlike others, he acted on his displeasure. In April 1980, he staged a violent coup d’état and killed then-president William Tolbert along with much of the True Whig Party leadership.

The coup set off a wave of elation among Liberia’s native population, with thousands pouring into the streets chanting anti-Tolbert songs.

Many well-meaning Liberians welcomed Doe’s takeover as a shift that would ultimately favor the indigenous population that had largely been marginalized since the establishment of the country by Americo-Liberians in 1822.

After the coup, Doe suspended the constitution and established a military regime called the People’s Redemption Council, heading the country’s military junta for the next five years. In 1985, he ordered an election — albeit fraudulent — and officially became the 21st President of Liberia, ending 133 years of Americo-Liberian political domination.

Prior to the election, Doe had publicly declared that if he lost, he would not hand over power and that the army would carry out another coup in less than two weeks.

After the general election, Thomas Quiwonkpa, a general who had been a leader of the 1980 coup along with Doe, attempted to seize power, but the attempt failed after fighting in Monrovia, during which Quiwonkpa was killed.

Samuel Doe was later sworn in as the 21st President of Liberia on January 6, 1986, becoming Liberia’s first president of “exclusive indigenous heritage.”

The period after Doe was sworn in saw an increase in human rights abuses, corruption, and ethnic tensions, ultimately leading to the start of the First Liberian Civil War.

Liberian Civil War

The Liberian civil war began in December 1989, when National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebels, led by CIA-sponsored Charles Taylor, entered Liberia through Ivory Coast to wage a guerrilla war against Doe.

The NPFL fighters were mostly drawn from the Gio and Mano ethnic groups of northern Liberia, who had been persecuted under Doe’s regime.

Taylor launched a large-scale guerrilla war against Doe, and by 1990, most of Liberia was under the control of NPFL rebels. In Taylor’s camp, a group calling itself the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) eventually broke away from the NPFL. The new militia group was led by Prince Johnson.

Prince Johnson’s militia later stormed a meeting between Samuel Doe and General Quinoo, the head of ECOMOG, at ECOMOG headquarters in Monrovia on September 9, 1990. They violently captured Doe, killing all of his team members — numbering over 80 — and shooting him in the legs.

Doe was taken to Johnson’s military base, where he was stripped down to his bloodstained white underwear. The rebels tortured him by cutting off his right ear and amputating parts of his toes and fingers. While this was happening, Prince Johnson sat watching and drinking a can of beer. His torture and execution were videotaped by his captors and broadcast on news reports around the world.

After 12 hours of torture, Doe was finally murdered. His corpse, which bore cigarette burns, was displayed naked in the streets of Monrovia and guarded by rebels to prevent his Krahn supporters from retrieving it.

Samuel K. Doe’s body was later hacked into pieces, burned, and his ashes thrown into a river.

Samuel Doe, who had once staged a televised execution of the Tolbert government, became the first world leader to be tortured on camera before being executed.

Till this day, many Liberians still blame Doe for introducing ethnic politics into the country’s governance.