In Part 1, we sketched the basic shape of the relationship – the founding myth, the strange intimacy, the blind spots, the dependency, the pride. In Part 2, we stay with the same question but get more concrete: what does “US influence” actually look like when you’re living it?

We talk about how power travels – through money, through institutions, through culture, and through habits of thinking you barely notice until you try to name them. We also look at the ways Liberians have navigated that influence with intelligence and pragmatism, not just as victims of history.

This is not always a neat picture, which is the point: it’s messy, layered, sometimes contradictory. Liberia’s relationship with the US isn’t simply a story of control; it’s also a story of imagination, strategy, and people working with what’s in front of them.

If you’re new to the series, Liberia: Remembering the Future is a set of short, informal backgrounders – rigorous on the facts, but conversational in tone. Aaron brings the grounded expertise; Gerry brings the outsider’s questions and a long memory of how Liberia is usually talked about.

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