Trump praises English-speaking Liberian Prez Boakai for his ‘English'; internet says ‘no sugar coating to his ignorance'
After Boakai gave brief remarks, Trump curiously asked where he had learned to speak English so well. He said, "Thank you, and such good English... Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated?"
To this, Boakai indicated he had been educated in his native country. "In Liberia?" Trump asserted. "Yes sir," Boakai said. As he was facing away from the media, it was difficult to read his expression — but his brief, mumbled reply hinted at awkwardness.
Despite his discomfort, Trump, who was surrounded by French-speaking presidents from other West African nations, kept digging.
"It's beautiful English. I have people at this table can't speak nearly as well," he said.
Boakai. a business graduate, can read and write in Mendi and Kissi but converses in Liberia's official tongue and lingua franca -- English.
Liberia was founded in 1822 as a colony for free Black Americans, the brainchild of white Americans trying to address what they saw as a problem - the future for Black people in the United States once slavery ended. English is Liberia's official language, though multiple Indigenous languages are spoken there as well.
The country has a diverse array of indigenous languages and a number of creolized dialects, while Kpelle-speakers are the largest single linguistic group.
US engagement in Liberia began in the 1820s when the Congress- and slaveholder-funded American Colonization Society began sending freed slaves to its shores.
(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)
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