Grain Coast

Related to Grain Coast: Bight of Benin

Grain Coast,

W Africa, former name of a part of the Atlantic coast that is roughly identical with the coast of modern Liberia. In the 15th cent. "grains of paradise," i.e., seeds of the melegueta pepper, became a major export item; hence the name Grain Coast.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Grain Coast

a section of the littoral of Liberia, between capes Mesurado and Palmas. The coast is low, flat, and of a lagoonal type. Equatorial rain forests and mangrove thickets are the predominant forms of vegetation. The Grain Coast acquired its name from its trade in Malaguetta pepper—”grains of paradise.”

Mentioned in ?

Guinea

References in periodicals archive ?

Formerly known in Europe as the "Grain Coast," the Republic of Liberia officially declared its independence on July 26, 1847.

Her husband, Bishop Nelson, is founder and presiding prelate of Grain Coast Ministries Inc., which owns and operates the Willimae C.

Pastor recalls life in Liberia, her native land; Boakai-Nelson accompanies Rotary foundder to meetings

Portugal's king, Alfonso V, established a monopoly over the Grain Coast trade of pre-Liberia in 1460, as clarified in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas signed by Portugal and Spain.(8)

Transatlantic trade and the coastal area of pre-Liberia

If any segment of the population has been the target of resentment, it is the Americo-Liberians, the descendants of freed slaves who migrated from the United States to the "Grain Coast" of Africa starting in 1821 and proclaimed an independent republic in 1847.