Chief Suah Koko with bracelet

Today in Liberia there is a town, a clan and an entire chiefdom named in Suah Koko's honor. They reflect the status of Suah Koko as a powerful chief, diplomatic negotiatior and healer in Liberia.

During the early decades of the 20^th century, Liberia was divided between coastal Liberia and  hinterland Liberia. The African Americans (commonly called Congoes in Liberia), who first came to West Afirca in the 1820s through the American Colonization Society, occupied a stretch of 40 miles from the littoral Atlantic coastline from Grand Cape Mount in the Southwest to Cape Palmas in the Southeast. The "hinterland" occupied the area of the interior beyond this 40 mile stretch. While the Congoes ruled coastal Liberia, various indigenous Chiefs  ruled the hinterland. The Congoes interacted with hinterland indigenous people through commerce and trade.  But the European conquest of Africa after the Berlin Conference (1884-85) forced Liberia to adopt European methods of effective occupation and control. A military (the Liberia Frontier Force, LFF) was organized in 1908 to carry out this mission.