Trump praises Liberian leader on English - his native tongue

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump complimented the president of Liberia Wednesday on his English-speaking skills -- despite English being the official language of the West African nation.

Trump was hosting a White House lunch with African leaders Wednesday, and -- after brief remarks from President Joseph Boakai -- asked the business graduate where he had picked up his linguistic know-how.

"Thank you, and such good English... Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated?" Trump said.

Boakai -- who, like most Liberians, speaks English as a first language -- indicated he had been educated in his native country.

He was facing away from the media, making his countenance hard to gauge -- but his laconic, mumbled response hinted at awkwardness.

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.

US engagement in Liberia began in the 1820s when the Congress- and slaveholder-funded American Colonization Society began sending freed slaves to its shores.

Thousands of "Americo-Liberian" settlers followed, declaring themselves independent in 1847 and setting up a government to rule over a native African majority.

The country has a diverse array of indigenous languages and a number of creolized dialects, while Kpelle-speakers are the largest single linguistic group.

Boakai himself can read and write in Mendi and Kissi but converses in Liberia's official tongue and lingua franca -- English.

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© Agence France-Presse