The Dutch were among the earliest Europeans to take interest in the Liberian coast and its inhabitants and were also probably the first whose interest extended beyond strictly commercial transactions.

The history of relations between the Netherlands and the territory, which has since become the Republic of Liberia, goes back to the beginning of the 17th century when the Dutch sailing ship “White Dog” reached the Liberian coast in 1614. After spending two weeks at Cape Mount, the ship sailed on the Cestos River and then to the Kru coast and Cape Palmas. At all these places the Dutch sailors traded red cloth, knives, iron bars, coral beads and brass kettles for ivory, pepper, rice and some gold, returning with 400,000 lbs of rice and pepper and some 1,000 lbs of gold. Above all, however, the “White Dog” took back the first written report of scientific value on West Africa to reach Europe. Compiled by Samuel Braun, a Swiss born German physician in the service of the Dutch it contained fascinating, graphic descriptions of the Liberian coast and its inhabitants and of social, political, cultural and economic conditions prevailing at the time from Cape Mount to Cape Palmas. It also contained what would now be described as the first feasibility studies on trade between the Netherlands and Liberia.

The next ‘in depth’ report on the civilization of some of the Liberian tribes, including the Kru, the Vai and the Gola, also came from a Dutchman, the physician and geographer Olfert Dapper. His descriptions of the social structure of some Liberian tribes, warfare initiation ceremonies and other tribal customs were the most objective published in Europe up to that time.

Some 40 years later, in 1701, another Dutchman, Jan Snoek, visited the Liberian coast and reported that Rio Sestgre (River Cess) port was by far the most important in the country. His ship, ‘Johanna Jacoba’, had called at Cape Mount, Cape Mesurado, the Junk River, The Cestos, the Sangwin River, Baffu Bay, Sinoe, Settra Kru and Cape Palmas. At Cape Mesurado where Monrovia is now situated, Snoek found only two small villages consisting altogether of some 20 houses. The Cestos, on the other hand, had not only the largest population but also an abundance of rice and pepper. Rice, Snoek reported, was grown on such a scale that sufficient surplus stocks were available to load a whole ship’s cargo within a very short time. The Dutch sailor noted among other things that the Vai people were industrious farmers and salt producers. They were also very honest and theft between them was punished with death.
 

Dutch soldier of the early 17th c.

Dutch sailors of the early 17th c. Sir Harry Johnston, 'Liberia', 2 vols. (New York, 1906). (click picture to supersize)

Olfert Dapper:
New Description of Africa (1668)

Musée Dapper, Paris, France
The museum is named after Olfert Dapper, the XVIIth century Dutch humanist and author of one of the first books on Africa.
The Dapper Foundation, established in Amsterdam in 1983, opened a musem in Paris in 1986 presenting two or three African art exhibitions a year.

"Dapper naît à Amsterdam, vers 1635, dans un quartier populaire ; il est baptisé à l’église luthérienne en janvier 1636. En mai 1658, il est inscrit à l’université d’Utrecht. Deux ans plus tard, il signe « doctor medicinæ ». Mais rien ne prouve qu’il ait reçu une formation médicale. Contrairement à ses contemporains, il n’a fait reproduire aucun portrait dans ses livres." (Dapper.com)

More on Elmina (English)

More on Elmina (Dutch)

Dutch contributions to Liberia’s Development

Following the voyages of the earlier Dutch seafarers whose reports on the Liberian scene, useful as they were, related necessarily to what they had observed in coastal areas, it was Swiss zoologist in Dutch employment, Johan Büttikofer, who carried out some of the most important field studies in the interior of Liberia between 1880 and 1882 and again in 1886 and 1887. The results of his research, published in two volumes at Leiden in the Netherlands in 1890, under the title of ‘Travel Pictures of Liberia’, contained not only descriptions of many species of animals but also what were said to be the first reliable maps of the central and western regions as well as valuable information on geographical, ethnographical and other scientific data. His contribution to the understanding of geographical, climatic and even geological conditions in the interior of the country, as well as that of the outstanding Liberian geographer Benjamin J.K. Anderson, were acknowledged by 20th century researchers.
 

Stamp commemmorating the State visit of President William V.S. Tubman to the Netherlands (1956). (click picture to supersize)

Büttikofer, J., 'Reisebilder aus Liberia - Resultate Geographischer, Naturwissenschaftlicher und Ethnographischer Unntersuchungen Während der Jahre 1879-1882 und 1886-1887', two volumes (Leiden, 1890). 

Büttikofer was born in Ranflüh im Emmenthal and studied biology at Berne (Switzerland). In 1879 he joined the staff of the Royal Zoological Museum in Leiden, becoming curator between 1884 and 1897.
Between 1897 and 1924 he was Director of the Zoological Garden at Rotterdam. After his retirement he settled in Berne.
 

The discovery followed an agreement concluded in 1931 under which a syndicate from the Netherlands obtained from the Liberian Government the right to carry out geological explorations in various parts of the country. The Dutch syndicate was interested mainly in gold and diamonds. But in the course of their explorations, the team of Dutch geologists sent by the syndicate came across a series of ridge dominated by a high cliff of reddish rock which geologist H. Terpstra immediately recognized as a valuable reserve of ore of unusual purity. The deposit, known as Bomi Hill, turned out to be one of the richest in the world, averaging 66 to 68 per cent of pure iron and comparable only to the famous Kiruna deposit in Sweden.

Engelbert van Bevervoorde, the chief mining engineer of the William H. Muller Co. of Rotterdam showed considerable interest in the deposit and negotiations for its exploitation were initiated with the Liberian government. Later, the project was shelved, largely because its realization would have required investments beyond the means of the Dutch syndicate. For though the deposit was only 64 km from Monrovia, it was located in a sparsely populated and virtually inaccessible area, with neither port nor road facilities available to ship the ore.

In 1935, another Dutch group, the Noord Europeesche Ertz en Pyriet Maatschappy, commonly known as NEEP, became interested in the Bomi Hill deposit and undertook extensive geological surveys in the next two years, involving 6,500 ft of drillings and the building of access roads to the area. However, the clouds of World War II were beginning to gather and the Liberian government feared that the strategically important ore might eventually find its way into the arsenals of Nazi Germany.

It was in 1945, that an American group, headed by Col. Landsdell K. Christie, obtained the concession to the ore. The access road built by the Dutch was not longer serviceable, but the American group made extensive use of the data and experience accumulated by the original Dutch team. Some of its members, including Hendrik Jordense, made important contributions to the Christie venture.
 

Benjamin Anderson, 'Journeys to Musadu', Narrative of a Journey to Musardu the capital of the Western Mandingoes Together with Narrative of the expedition despatched to Musahdu by the Liberian Government under Benjamin J.K. Anderson in 1874.

Also see:
Background to Liberia’s iron ore mining sector:
The Holland Syndicate
The Dutch Muller Company
The Dutch NEEP Company

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