13/03/2026
The story begins in 1822, when the American Colonization Society established the first settlements along Liberia’s coast. Over the decades, these settlements grew, and Liberian political authority slowly spread inland. By 26 July 1847, when Liberia declared its independence, the young republic laid claim to vast territories, including what would later become northern Lofa. Yet the interior of West Africa was changing fast. European powers were carving up the continent during the Scramble for Africa, and even the most remote forests of Sorlumba would soon feel the impact.
On 8 December 1892, in Paris, representatives of the French Third Republic and Liberia signed a boundary treaty. Liberia was represented by Baron von Stein, minister resident and plenipotentiary, while France sent Gabriel Hanotaux, minister and plenipotentiary, along with Haussman, chief of colonial affairs at the French Foreign Office. The treaty set new inland boundaries from the Cavalla River, with France renouncing old coastal claims in exchange for clearly defined limits and a small indemnity to Liberia. At the time, Joseph James Cheeseman, Liberia’s 12th President, presided over a nation under intense diplomatic pressure, having inherited unresolved frontier disputes with France and Britain.
By 1907, under President Arthur Barclay who had been Secretary of State under Cheeseman and took office in January 1904, fresh negotiations were needed to redraw parts of the frontier. Barclay led talks with his Secretary of Foreign Affairs Frederic E. R. Johnson and Liberian chargé d’affaires J.P. Crommelin. France was represented by Gustave Binger and Soulange Bodin. These discussions recognized natural markers like the Makona River, providing practical points where old geometric lines had failed. The agreements were ratified in 1908, with a supplemental arrangement on 13 January 1911 confirming the border after joint commissions walked the forests, climbed the ridges, and placed markers along the Makona and other waterways, forming the modern Guinea Liberia boundary.
For decades, Sorlumba’s people moved freely across these forests, trading, farming, and hunting, largely untouched by the lines that diplomats had drawn. But as populations grew and land became more valuable, disputes naturally emerged over ownership.
History echoed again on 9 March 2026, when Liberian residents of Sorlumba witnessed Guinean soldiers crossing into areas recognized as Liberian territory. Communities sounded the alarm, reaching county and national authorities. Liberia’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Francis Sakila Nyumalin, quickly led a delegation with Lofa County representatives to meet Guinean officials in Guéckédou, reaffirming the boundaries long agreed upon by treaties. Yet it did not materialise until the young people took the matter into their bare hands.
Moral Lesson: The Young people who stood their grounds today needs to be freely recruited to the Armed Forces of Liberia 🇱🇷 they are qualified 100% . It pays have the courage to stand before the Guinean military while our Soldiers were hiding
Below is Liberia’s Land Deed
