The President of Liberia Speaks Good English Because English Is His National Language

It's unlikely to be the decisive factor in the mid-term elections, but President Trump went through a mini-scandal after he noticed that Liberian President Joseph Boakai spoke "good English." He even asked the president where he went to school, apparently unaware that English is the national language of Liberia.

While the average person probably doesn't need to know that, the president probably should, and so quite a bit of fun was made at the president's expense. Now, though, many want to know why Liberians speak English. Here's what we know.

President Trump was apparently unaware of this, but Liberia's origins actually date back to the United States. The country was founded by freed enslaved people in 1822 and then declared independence in 1847. During the colonial era, thousands of freed Black people and Africans who had been liberated from the transatlantic slave trade ultimately settled in Africa, which is why the country's national language is English.

Ten of Liberia's 26 presidents have been born in the United States, and the country remained in the U.S.'s sphere of influence throughout the colonial era. These Americo-Liberians, as they came to be known, came to be resented by the country's indigenous population, and the last president to come from American lineage was overthrown in a coup in 1980. They remain about a quarter of the country's population, however.

More than two dozen languages are spoken in Liberia, according to Britannica, and President Boakai comes from the Kissi ethnic group, and would have spoken that language growing up before learning English in school.

While it's unclear how much of this information Trump knew before going into his meeting with Boakai, it's fair to say that the Liberian president did have to learn English in school, although it is a common language in his country.

Because it was founded by formerly enslaved American people, Liberia shares a lot of unique similarities with the United States. The flags of the two countries are almost identical, with the many stars in the left corner of the U.S. flag replaced by a single, larger star on the Liberian flag. The stripes on the Liberian flag are also thicker, and there are fewer of them, but other than those differences, the flags bear a close resemblance to one another.

Additionally, the nation's capital, Monrovia, was named after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States. Monroe was a passionate advocate for colonization. The early architecture of the country also features many buildings that were modeled on American styles.

Given that shared history, Liberia is somewhat unique among African countries in the nature of its relationship with the United States. What's also true, though, is that many world leaders speak English for one reason or another, even if it's not their country's national language or one that they grew up learning.