Welcome to Patrick’s Place, a website offering a variety of resources on Liberia’s rich history and heritage.
This site will serve as the hub of a campaign to address negative portrayals of Liberian history and to counteract their harmful effects on the Liberian psyche. Entitled “Reclaim the Dream,” it is designed to do for Liberian history what Carter G. Woodson and other pioneering scholars achieved for black history in America.
The campaign will highlight many commonalities and bring to light significant accomplishments of earlier Liberians. It aims to foster greater unity, a sense of national dignity, and empathy among Liberians, regardless of ethnicity.
How can history and heritage help to heal our national rifts? To understand that idea, take a tour of the menu bar at the top of this page, from left to right.
The first three menu tabs link to examples of my research. Of these, the most significant is Kola Forest, which describes one of my books. That book, Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea, presents the history of the Liberian people before 1822. It fills a longstanding void in our understanding of our ourselves. It will also help cement our connection to previous generations, which is critical to any sense of national identity.
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