Liberia's Thanksgiving: Why an African Nation Gives Thanks in November

An 1883 law and a yearly proclamation

The legal basis is short. Liberia's Ministry of Information says an 1883 statute declared the first Thursday of November each year a National Thanksgiving Day, and every year the sitting president issues a proclamation naming the day.

In 2025, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai proclaimed Thursday, November 6, a national holiday. The proclamation called on residents to gather in their places of worship and give thanks. That puts Liberia three weeks ahead of the United States, where Congress fixed Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November in 1941, according to the National Archives.

Where it came from

The holiday arrived with Liberia's founders. The U.S. State Department's Office of the Historian explains that the American Colonization Society was founded in 1816 by white Americans who wanted to resettle free Black Americans in Africa. The first group of 88 settlers sailed in 1820, and Liberia declared its independence in 1847.

Those settlers and their descendants, known as Americo-Liberians, brought American customs with them, Thanksgiving among them, NPR reported in 2021. Brenda Brewer Moore, an educator who traces her family to those settlers, told NPR that the two countries' versions have drifted apart over two centuries.

How Liberians mark the day

Church comes first for many. Elwood Dunn, a former national orator of Liberia and a retired political science professor, told NPR's Here and Now in 2013 that people go to their places of worship, mostly Christian churches, where fresh fruits of the harvest are brought in and auctioned after the service. Then families go home and feast, though not on the American scale.

It depends who you ask. Moore remembered church services that ran for hours when she was growing up. Some families hold barbecues, hers rests and watches movies, and younger Liberians, she said, are likely to spend the day at the beach with friends. Some see it as a holiday the settlers imposed, which is why Moore said its American roots are often a point of contention.

The meaning has shifted with the country's history too. In 2013 Dunn said Liberians had a decade of peace to be thankful for after the civil war.

What's on the table

There is no traditional Thanksgiving meal, Moore told NPR; her own kids often end up with pizza and popcorn. When Liberian families do gather for a big meal, she said, jollof rice is the dish people love, cooked with vegetables and several meats such as prawns, chicken and pork. A pot with only one meat, she joked, is considered a poor man's food.

So the turkey is an American habit, not a Liberian one. If you are cooking the American version this November, start with our classic roast Thanksgiving turkey and finish with a Southern sweet potato pie. More birds are in our turkey hub, and the full spread is in our Thanksgiving recipes.

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