-Home of the Dead and the Living
This Cemetery or graveyard yard has been in ruins for many years, desecrated and turned into a safe haven for drug addicts and other criminals.
Once a dignified home of the dead, it eventually turned into the home of the living.
Disadvantaged young men and women doing drugs and committing other crimes, burst into the graves, sleep in them and made babies there, but it seems the landlord, meaning the Liberian Government, is about to ask these illegitimate tenants out.
The Government through the Monrovia City Corporation, has embarked on massive rehabilitation works to restore the dignity of this historic graveyard where some of the Country’s prominent citizens and leaders, including first Liberian President, Joseph Jenkins Roberts and former and slain President, William Richard Tolbert, were buried.
It is not the first time that the Liberian Government has undertaken rehabilitation works at the historic cemetery. During the administration of former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the Monrovia City Corporation then headed by Madam Mary T. Broh, undertook a similar project, but did do well enough to stop the intrusion of criminals into the graveyard.
Established in in the 1820s concurrent with the early Americo-Liberian settlements that formed the basis of the nation's founding.
It functioned as Monrovia's primary cemetery for over a century, interring many of the country's elite, including presidents Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia's first head of state from 1848 to 1856, and William R. Tolbert Jr., whose 1980 assassination amid political upheaval marked a pivotal moment in Liberian history
During Liberia's civil wars from 1989 to 2003, the site endured desecration as concrete tombs provided cover for combatants and became impromptu graves for fallen fighters, exacerbating structural damage from prior neglect.
Post-conflict, the cemetery has devolved into a forested wasteland overrun by refuse, vegetation, and transient occupants, reflecting broader challenges in urban maintenance and historical preservation in the region.
Recent initiatives, including a 2024 proposal by the Tourism Ambassador to convert it into a secured national memorial park, aim to restore its dignity and accessibility for public commemoration.
Meanwhile, while the current administration embarks on rehabilitation works at the Cemetery, the Government’s plan on whether to convert it into a memorial park or something else, remains unclear.
