The Quest to Apply New Varnish To Liberia’s Image

Monrovia, Liberia - It’s difficult to look at Liberia Travel and Life magazine and not be intrigued by the idea of touring Monrovia and the breadth of this country. It’s a glossy magazine with alluring photos of eye-catching models in African-influenced fashions, captivating visions of pristine beaches and close ups of bright “country cloth,” the colorful fabric that is woven in Liberia. The magazine celebrates the wide array of goods sold at the busy marketplaces in the city, the rolling mountains of the country’s Nimba region and the stunning waves along the Atlantic at Robertsport, an area gaining attention as a world-class surfing destination.

It is a magazine that has taken on — in its nearly three-year lifespan — a task to which its owners and a growing number of business leaders here are fervently committing themselves: The development of Liberia’s image as a destination ripe for tourism, with its own blend of charm, fascination and magnificence.

It is not the simplest prospect, to say the least. More than anything, Liberia’s reputation in recent years has been shaped by images of bloody civil war, an exodus of capital and brain power coupled with a decrepit infrastructure and a level of poverty that would rival the poorest Third World quarter. America’s State Department, in its travel warnings, urges United States citizens to “plan proposed travel to Liberia carefully and to exercise caution,” adding that “basic services (e.g., public power, water and sewage, landline phones) are either limited or unavailable.” In short, it is hardly the place one might readily associate with, say, luxurious spas, stylish restaurants or trend-setting fashions.

And yet, presenting that image is precisely the aim of many here, most notably Hesta Baker-Pearson, the publisher of Liberia Travel and Life. “For the outside world, it’s important that the image of Liberia be changed. I want the world to see what we have here; that there’s more here than war,” Ms. Baker-Pearson said. Liberia, she said, is a country that for nearly two decades “experienced so much in terms of war, poverty and changes in government. I’m sure to many it looked like a country that would never stopped fighting. The country began to develop a highly negative reputation around the world. Many Liberians began to lose hope for our country, like change would never come.”

After nearly 15 years of civil war, conditions did indeed begin to settle down. And Ms. Baker-Pearson, who was born here but moved to Texas after the 1980 coup that toppled the Liberian government, made the decision to return to her homeland with her family. She decided that she would use her experiences working for newspapers and business publications in Texas and Atlanta to help create and highlight an enhanced image of Liberia. And so, her magazine presents a vivid picture of a handsome, picturesque and quaint Liberia, with fashion photo shoots at beaches and in forests. Even the magazine’s ads reflect an upbeat image of travel, art and fashion. The magazine carries ads from Brussels Airlines, Ecobank and local hotels and clothing boutiques sandwiched between articles about “11 Men of Style” in Liberia, the country’s pigmy hippos and a guide to dining in Liberia. The magazine is doing well, she said, “we’re certainly not in the red.” In fact, her company, Baker Pearson Communications Inc., recently started a new publication: Business Liberia Magazine.

“People need to see Africa, the real Africa, for what it really is,” Mr. Baker-Pearson said. “There is beauty here, there is fashion here and there is culture here. It’s important for us to feel pride in ourselves and it’s important for the outside world to look at us as a continent that is part of the 21st Century.”

Others, too, insist that Liberia is gradually, but steadily, developing its tourism infrastructure.

“I think there is certainly reason for optimism about the outlook of the tourism industry here,” said Ronald Stilting, the general manager of the RLJ Kendeja Resort and Villas and the president of the recently-formed Tourism Association of Liberia. “You see development and progress happening here now that makes it clear that the country is heading in the right direction in terms of tourism. If things continue the way they are going now, Liberia can become a strong destination for tourism and for West African conference travel.”

As evidence, Mr. Stilting points to the development of two hotel projects in the coming year or so, most notably the renovation of the once-elegant Ducor Hotel on the top of Monrovia’s Broad Street. The Ducor is being refurbished by the LAFICO, the Libyan Arabian Foreign Investment Company (the hotel was once a showplace of Liberia but was ransacked and looted by rebels during the way). Another soon-to-be completed project is the opening of a hotel adjacent to the Samuel K. Dow Stadium. They join a number of hotels that have opened in the last three or four years, including the Royal Hotel, the Cape Hotel, the Mamba Point Hotel and Mr. Stilting’s own RLJ, the upscale property opened by the company operated by Robert L. Johnson, the American businessman. “And we certainly expect others to develop,” Mr. Stilting said.

It’s also now easier for tourism to develop, Mr. Stilting and others here insist, because of the turnaround at the airport, which for years sat in disrepair and even shut down for a while. Now, Monrovia’s Roberts International Airport, with its small, bare-bones terminal, is served by several airlines, including Brussels Airlines, Kenya Airways, Virgin Nigeria, Ethiopia Airlines, Royal Air Maroc and other regional carriers. And they provide vital links for business travelers and others to get here from Europe, the Middle East and North America.

“Liberia is opening up and it has a lot to offer that people simply don’t know about,” said Menipakei Dumoe, the founder and chief executive of Wow Liberia, a company that offers tour packages that include Monrovia and Liberia’s landmark regions. “We have incredible rain forests here, beautiful hiking destinations, we have the Nimba Mountain, which is offer a breathtaking view of Liberia, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. “

Mr. Dumoe added that, despite the years of civil conflict, Liberia is in need of rediscovery by international travelers. “It’s important for people to become acquainted with the real Liberia,” he said. “They don’t know about the party atmosphere here. Liberians are a hospitable and fun loving people with a rich musical tradition. There is so much here. We just have to get the word out.”

By Jonathan P. Hicks

Liberia’s Young Singers: Breathing New Life Into the Country

Monrovia, Liberia - Rabbie Nassrallah’s mother is a businesswoman, born in Liberia’s Nimba county and a member of the Mano tribal group. His father is an Israeli businessman who partnered for years with Lebanese merchants in Liberia. By the time he was a teenager, Mr. Nassrallah had seen all too clearly the destruction, devastation and gut-wrenching trauma produced by the country’s civil war.

But through the crisis, as his family was held at gunpoint by rebel soldiers who looted their home and burned it; as he was reduced to selling small pieces of dried fish to make money; as he became a refugee within his own country, Mr. Nassrallah kept on singing and songwriting.

“I always sang, no matter what,” he said. “I always felt I had something important to say. Any chance I had to sing, I would sing.”

And that singing is paying huge dividends. Mr. Nassrallah is now one of Liberia’s best known singers. His blend of reggae and traditional Liberian music has taken him to the heights of this country’s music scene. He has sung at every major venue in Monrovia, opening and headlining at important music events here. He has performed in Nigeria and Sierra Leone. With Liberia’s lengthy civil war now over, Mr. Nassrallah — who is best known by his stage name “Rabbie Nass” – is bent on not only developing his own career, but also highlighting the work of his contemporaries in Liberia’s evolving music culture. Their music, he insists, breathes new life into Liberia.

“The appreciation for the work of young artists is gradually picking up,” Rabbie Nass said. “Things are much better than they were even a few years ago. People here are now starting to respect the work of Liberian artists — and they are starting to pay for it, too. There are a lot of young artists coming along now who are doing great things. I would really like to see all of their work get more attention outside of Liberia.”

While it may not have the caché and sales prowess of its counterparts in, say, Nigeria or Ghana, Liberia’s contemporary music scene is nonetheless showing signs of increased vibrancy and activity. There has been a growing number of music festivals here each year. More recording is being done here and radio stations are playing more of the music of home-grown musicians.

“There are a lot more music events and international concerts here now,” said Backue Tubman, who left her job as a music industry executive in New York to return to Liberia and immerse herself in entertainment and event planning here.

“The young artists here are getting more exposure; some are traveling outside of Liberia with more frequency,” Ms. Tubman said. “To be honest, the recording studios here have not been up to standard. But that is changing and more and more places are using more up-to-date, computer-based equipment. Good things are happening here.”

Indeed, some young singers have become household names in Liberia. For example, Nicholas Buigar won Liberia’s most recent “Star Is Born” competition, propelling him to local fame with his style of lush R&B singing infused with a distinctly West African flavor. He and another young Liberian singer, Sametta Morris, were finalists in the American Idol-style “Project Fame” competition in Lagos earlier this year. The competition, one of the most widely watched in West Africa, has catapulted them into high visibility. Meanwhile, Friday the Cell Phone Man (yes, that’s his actual stage name) has reenergized the appreciation of traditional Liberian among young music buyers. And Marcus Davis, who is known by the stage name of Sundaygar Dearboy, has become one of the most successful artists here, a singer whose love songs and political anthems have earned him fame even outside of the country.

Many of these young artists came of age professionally in the music industry as the war was winding down or even afterward. As a result, the nearly 15 years of civil war here plays only a peripheral role in their music. “In my music, I talk about corruption and about hypocrisy in government,” Rabbie Nass said. “I often refer to those leaders who are corrupt and about the problem of poverty.”

Whatever their message, it is clear that more Liberians are paying attention to them. And these young artists contend that a flourishing arts community offers a healthy way for Liberia to show the world that it is more than a depository of tragic reminiscences of civil war. “I’m very encouraged because, people here were not supporting Liberian artists that much just a few years ago,” Ms. Morris sad. “The country suffered for so long that people were paying attention to other issues. But if you look around now, you can see that something is going on here. Something great is happening. And that’s important for us.”

Mr. Nassrallah said he is thrilled by the place life has taken him to at last. “I am thankful for the way things have turned out for me,” he said, recalling performances in the Samuel K. Doe Stadium here, where he was greeted by an audience of 30,000 screaming fans.

“It’s the best feeling in the world,” he said, standing in the stadium named for the man who came to power after a bloody coup here in 1980. He beamed while looking on to the field in the stadium. “It’s really overwhelming. When you’re out there doing your music, you don’t think of anything else but that thrill. You don’t think about anything else. I’m in a good place right now.”

By Jonathan P. Hicks

Returning Home: The Nuanced Joy of Coming Back to Liberia

Monrovia, Liberia - He has one of the most storied names in all of Liberia. The grandfather whose name he bears was a larger-than-life figure who was the president widely regarded as the father of modern Liberia. Though his grandfather is viewed as the quintessential Liberian, William V.S. Tubman III is now readjusting to life in the country he left nearly 20 years ago, the country whose very currency carries the Tubman name.

In many ways, Mr. Tubman is very much an example of a growing trend here. More and more educated, privileged Liberians who fled during the country’s lengthy civil war are now returning home from various parts of the world, some from other West African countries – but the overwhelming majority returning from the United States.

He has returned, Mr. Tubman said, because he never considered doing otherwise. When the country’s civil strife began, Mr. Tubman’s mother did what many Liberians did in the face of the brutal conflict: they moved with their children to the United States, in their case to the suburbs of Washington D.C. He went to college at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, majoring in marketing and anthropology. He worked in guest relations at the venerable Peabody Hotel in Memphis and, then, back to the Washington area to work in guest relations for a hospital.

While his life was typically American – he loved the television show “Heroes” and he was a regular at Wendy’s and Ruby Tuesdays – he explained that he never felt comfortable with the prospect of settling permanently in the United States. “I’m shaped by America, but I was raised in a Liberian home with a Liberian mother and grandmother,” Mr. Tubman said. “I was in Maryland but raised in my culture. I ate Liberian food every day at home; I listened to Liberian music every day. We never wanted to be Americans who said that their parents were Liberian. We were Liberian.”

When he was about to turn 30, roughly a year ago, he decided that it was time to return to Monrovia. Other family members had already returned here from the States as calm settled into the country, in the aftermath of the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president of Liberia. Many came to reclaim property they had abandoned during the nearly 15 years of bloody civil war. Others came because they sought to take advantage of what they considered an exceptionally fertile opportunity for business in a country whose very foundation had been decimated. Some came because they simply longed for the home they had once known, the place to which they felt inextricably linked.

Mr. Tubman said his decision to come represented a combination of all three. When he got back, he worked in the restaurant of a cousin, training staff in all facets of hospitality. He now works as guest relations manager at RLJ Kendeja Resort and Villas, the high-end hotel property that was built here by the American businessman, Robert L. Johnson.

He said that he wanted to contribute something to Monrovia’s hospitality culture. In addition to his work at the hotel, he operates a hospitality consulting company, Star Service Solutions Inc. It is dedicated to “raising the bar in the service industry,” he said. “We screen, train and staff customer service and domestic workers. I felt I had had to come back and do something for my country.”

Liberians, like Mr. Tubman, are returning by the thousands. Their migration here effectively represents the second wave of Africans shaped by the United States returning to the shores of West Africa. Established by the American Colonization Society as a place for freed slaves in the United States to emigrate to in West Africa in 1822, Liberia was founded on the premise that these freed African-Americans would have greater freedom here. The county became an independent republic in 1847, modeled after the United States.

The descendents of the African-American immigrants formed an elite group in Liberian society that was far smaller in number than the vast population of 16 or more tribal groups here, most notably the Kru, Mende, Kissi, Gola and Bassa tribes.

Mr. Tubman’s grandfather was president of Liberia from 1944 until his death in 1971. His tenure in office was notable for the increase in foreign investments that poured into Liberia. He was also known for developing polices that were aimed at reducing the level of political friction between the population of the various tribal groups and the descendents of the freed black Americans. He was harshly criticized in the later years of his presidency for having an autocratic style that bordered on the dictatorial.

In 1980, during the administration of President William R. Tolbert Jr., a coup staged by Sgt. Samuel K. Doe overthrew the government, killing the president and plunging Liberia into a period of protracted instability (Mr. Doe was the first leader of Liberia who was not a member of the so-called “Americo-Liberian” elite. Mr. Doe was later killed and Charles Taylor took the reigns of power. Then, war broke out between rival factions within the country. Liberians left the country by thousands. Some 250,000 Liberians were killed in the war.

Their return has been greeted with a heavily nuanced welcome. Some view it as an assurance that country will regain its footing in brain power after years of war. Others here complain that their return leaves fewer resources – and pay checks – for others who remained. In a country with staggering unemployment and astounding poverty, the return of their countryman from a relatively comfortable life in the United States is not without its resentments.

But for those who have returned, being back in Liberia is not without its own pain and traumas. They are confronted every day not only by the devastation that continues to plague their beloved country, but also the memories and reminders of family members and friends who were killed in the war.

“When I first got here, I was astounded by the fact that it was a shell of what it used to be,” Mr. Tubman said. “And there is always a sense of loss. My cousin was killed in 1990 at the age of 13. Coming back really woke me up that I had lost people who were dear to me. I grieve for people who were killed and lost in the war. The reality of their death sinks into me.”

Still, he said, he had to return. “It’s where I knew I had to be. And, despite everything, I’m very, very glad to be back,” Mr. Tubman said. “It’s home.”

By Jonathan P. Hicks

Driving (and Walking) In Monrovia: Not For the Faint of Courage

Monrovia, Liberia - A major challenge in any large, crowded city is simply navigating the traffic in traveling from one place to another. But that task is decidedly more complicated in a city with no traffic lights, few to no stop signs whatsoever and just a handful of traffic agents on the roads. Imagine if all the traffic signals were disconnected and stop signs removed from, say, Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn or Fordham Road in the Bronx.

That’s the case here in Monrovia, where the impact of nearly 15 years of civil strife is most easily seen and felt in the city’s traffic. For one thing, the sheer volume of the population of Liberia’s capital has soared as rural dwellers moved en masse to seek employment in Monrovia, the country’s lone big city. The population here has more than doubled since the war, with about 1.5 million people in the capital (half of Liberia’s population now lives in Monrovia) Furthermore, the war, which ended in 2003, destroyed the hydro-electric plant in Monrovia, and rebuilding it has been a slow – if steady – undertaking. At the same time, the number of motorcycles has skyrocketed with officials suggesting that they now nearly rival the number of cars here.

All of that has made driving here an enterprise that is best not left to the faint of courage. The best preparation might well be a month of test driving on an obstacle course (or even in downtown Brooklyn, for that matter). Simply driving onto the highways and streets here — and certainly seeking to make a left turn from a major road — takes a combination of boldness, pluck and sheer bravery. Pedestrians cross roads as best they can, calculating whether they amass the speed to outrace oncoming traffic. There is no traffic light to bring traffic to a halt at an intersection and rarely is there a police officer. So, crossing the street is a highly-charged, track-and-field event for pedestrians. And the presence of potholes of every size is an extenuating challenge for Monrovia’s drivers.

There is a distinctive rhythm to creeping out to enter or make a left turn from the road – it’s the driving equivalent of the school girl poising with intense focus descend into the whirl of jump-rope. “You’ve got be very watchful,” said Michael B. Cole, a 20-year-old University of Liberia student who drives his older brother’s Volvo from time to time. “I’ve been driving since I was 13, starting with my father’s car.”

Driving in Monrovia, he added, involves the utmost in concentration, because of the pedestrians, the unpredictability of the motorcycles’ bobbing and weaving, the potholes and the water that can form small lakes in the roads during Liberia’s rainy season. “You have to always watch, always watch,” he said, while blowing his horn to alert a driver who seemed to be on a collision course with Mr. Cole’s car.

And driving here at night is an altogether advanced level of challenge. With few sections of the city illuminated by street lights, averting the scampering pedestrians in the darkness can be a potentially perilous endeavor to say the least, a virtual suicide mission for those crossing by foot. On a recent event here, the streets at one junction seems even more crowded than during the daylight rush hour and pedestrians at every turn seems to narrowly avert catastrophe.

And yet, amid the motorcycle darting, the fearless pedestrians and the incessant blaring of horns, there is an abundance of courtesy that seems to prevail. Some drivers will simply stop at an intersection to allow the elderly or young children cross. It is not uncommon for a driver, seeing the desire of another to make a turn, to slow down and flash his lights, a sign of allowance to make the turn. All of it is acknowledged with the courtesy of a wave in return.

But things are due to improve, said Miekee S. Gray, the chief of traffic for the national police. “We have plans to get many more traffic signals placed in the busy intersections,” Mr. Gray said, in an interview. “Right now we just have about 150 traffic officers on duty during the course of the day. In two years, I think you will see a big difference in the traffic in Monrovia.”

For one thing, he said that the increase in traffic signals will make it possible to reduce the number of traffic agents on the streets, freeing them to do other police activities. He said there are also plans to set up video monitoring systems that will enable the police to watch traffic around Monrovia from a command center and dispatch agents as necessary. Also, the police will conduct widespread training to better acquaint drivers with standard international traffic signs.

Also, Mr. Gray said, police officers have cracked down on enforcing seat belt regulations so intensely that most drivers now understand the importance of wearing them. And the department plans more public awareness campaigns, he said. “We are making progress and we will be making a lot more progress in the next few years,” he said. “You’ll see street lights in bigger numbers and a better flow of traffic” (To be completely accurate, there is one functioning traffic signal here now, at the Port of Liberia).

In the meantime, drivers have to make the best with conditions. “I think things will get better in time,” Mr. Cole said. “It’s a pain driving in the city. But you have to make the best of it for now.”

By Jonathan P. Hicks

A Pastor’s Determined Message of Reconciliation and Forgiveness

Monrovia, Liberia - Each Sunday morning, as he stands at the pulpit, the Rev. Joseph G. Johnson says he confronts not just a congregation. He looks into the eyes of the more than 600 people in the pews and sees both a reminder of Liberia’s difficult, heartbreaking past as well as the wonder of the human capacity for forgiveness and his country’s potential for reconciliation.

The First Baptist Church in Monrovia’s Sinkor’s section is no ordinary church, even by Liberia’s standards. To be sure, the church reflects much of the heartache of Liberia’s current challenges. Nearly 60 percent of his church members are unemployed and there is an incessant stream of congregants’ requests for money, for food and for clothing.

“When they come to church, it’s not just about hearing the message of God,” said Rev. Johnson, a slight man, who speaks quickly. “People want their needs to be met. They have no food, no money for medical bills. They are suffering sometimes with HIV and tuberculosis. They come expecting to hear form God, but in a holistic way. They want biblical answers, but they want miracles to happen.”

To the eyes of many here, the miracles are very much in evidence at First Baptist. The church is the spiritual home of a large number of the rebel soldiers whose carnage shocked the country and the world during the nearly 15 years of Liberia’s brutal civil war. And now, Rev. Johnson says, these one-time warriors now often sit in the same pews — even serve together in the very same church ministries – with some of the people they victimized before the war’s end in 2003.

Somehow, the church has helped victim and perpetrator come together in an understanding that the act of forgiveness – seeking it and granting it – is the most crucial ingredient in the healthy recovery of their war-weary country and to the individual lives of Liberians.

“When both the victims and the perpetrators come together and see each other as brothers, then you see the foundation of a reconciliation of a people,” he said. “And this is something that is not easy to do. You’re not talking about forgiving someone who forgot to pay you three dollars. You’re talking about forgiving someone who, in some cases, shot your mother, your father or your loved ones. You’re talking about forgiving someone who created a loss that cannot be replaced.”

How did all this come to be? For one thing, the historic church, which first opened its doors in 1898, is located in an area of town where a large number of former rebels eventually settled. In fact, a periodic visitor to the church many years ago was Charles Taylor, one the country’s prominent warlords who led an uprising from the Ivory Coast into Liberia to overthrow the government (Mr. Taylor later became the country’s president). The ethnic violence in the country saw one tribal group turn on another, with horrific tales of killings, rapes, looting and destruction. In all, about 250,000 people were killed during Liberia’s civil war (Mr. Taylor later stepped down and is now on trial in The Hague on 11 charges of instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscription of child soldiers during the civil war).

After the war, Rev. Johnson said, he felt it was crucial to include every facet of the community in the life of First Baptist. And the church actively sought anyone who wanted to worship, although he added that many of the former rebels felt ashamed and were reluctant attend church. Nonetheless, Rev. Johnson said he was determined to preach a strong message of reconciliation and love. Guilt, anger and any inability to forgive, he said, has to be actively purged from members of his congregation, explaining that it is “a poison” that prevents people from reaching their full potential. The church aggressively took on sports activities, family dinners, concerts and other projects aimed as getting members to work together and see each other as family rather than having them dwell on the past.

“It is, to me, a most important part of the worship experience, to see people come together,” he said. “Here, we have seen the reconciliation of people. They can come to the same church, serve together on the deacon board and as trustees together. It sends the message that in life, when we focus properly, we can achieve anything.”

Sometimes, however, the results of his outreach are disappointing. There are ex-rebels who visit the church two or three times but stop attending, Rev. Johnson said. He explained that in many cases, the former combatants feel their war crimes were too heinous to enable them to feel comfortable in a church setting for long. Still, he and five or six other senior officials at First Baptist, head out in the early evenings into the community to find the former rebels, to meet with them and encourage them to attend the church, no matter their acts and memories of the past.

“We’re trying to create a situation where everyone will feel love, no matter what they have done,” Rev. Johnson said. “Everyone feels the pain of the past. And our church should not be a place where people get fingers pointed at them for what they did – or didn’t do. We want people to feel like they are one family. We want them to feel God here.”

By Jonathan P. Hicks

The General: A Painful, Aching Rise to the Top

Monrovia, Liberia - Although she rose through the ranks to be a brigadier general in Liberia’s army, Julia K. Bono didn’t want to dwell on that accomplishment. She operates an orphanage and is now in a position of influence as an aide de camp to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia’s president. But even that level of influence didn’t seem to be what arrested her concentration.

Instead, she seemed most passionate, most achingly transparent when she discussed — over and over again – her gratitude to have survived the nearly 15 years of civil strife that rocked the very foundation of this country – and of her life.

“The war brought out the worst in people here,” she said. “I saw things I thought I would never see. I was forced to go places I had never been. And I ate things I never thought I would eat. And I did things to survive that I thought I would never do.”

Everyone here who survived the Liberian civil war, which ended in 2003, has a story of pain and of their box-seat view of unspeakable horror. But Ms. Bono’s is particularly striking. She joined the Army in her early 20s. She rose through the ranks, from sergeant, to captain, to major, to lieutenant colonel. In 1980, President William Tolbert was overthrown and killed by Sergeant Samuel Doe after widespread riots over food prices. It was a coup whose aftermath would ravage her very existence, as it did all Liberians.

By the late 1980s, the country’s economic collapse culminated in civil war when Charles Taylor’s militia, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, overran much of the countryside, entering Monrovia in 1990. Soon after, Mr. Doe was executed and the fighting intensified as the rebels splintered, battling each other, the Liberian army and West African peacekeepers.

“It became terrifying because you didn’t know who to trust. You didn’t know if the soldier next to you might actually kill you. It was complete chaos,” Ms. Bono said, explaining that tribal rivalry had infected the ranks of the country’s military, causing soldier to turn against soldier. “People lived like animals, doing whatever they felt they had to do to survive,” she said. “Young children carried guns and killed people, just for no reason. People started killing other people the way you would kill a rat or a lizard, just to be doing it.”

She recalled witnessing rebel fighters killing civilians by the dozens after looting their homes. She spoke of men who were forced to watch their wives and daughters being raped by rebel fighters. She described the scene of army officers and others captured in their homes by rebels who gorged their bodies and placed their intestines upon the front door of their homes. At one point, she said she was held by rebel warriors distrustful of any army officer. They taunted her by firing shots around her head. “They were rough with me,” she said. “But they didn’t kill me. No bullet ever touched me.”

While she escaped death on that occasion, she said, matters had become increasingly dangerous. Any neighbor, friend or even a fellow member of the army fearing their own death, might alert the rebel bandits of her whereabouts. As a senior military officer she was, after all, prized plunder. Upon hearing that her life was in danger, she fled to Liberia’s countryside with her three children. “I saw my own officers being killed,” she said. “I had to escape to survive.”

Within a few short years, her 16-year-old son, the eldest, was killed in the war, her husband had deserted her and her life was in shambles. But while away from Monrovia, she visited Buchannan, the city where her late mother had lived and had, before her death, taken in a dozen or more children left by impoverished parents or orphaned by the war. She decided to continue her mother’s mission and manage the orphanage.

Roughly 250,000 Liberians were killed in the country’s civil war and many thousands more fled the fighting. The conflict left the country in economic ruin. As peace and calm started to settle into the country founded in the 1820s by freed black Americans, Ms. Bono eventually made her way back to the capital and, as she put it, liberation from hell. In 2003, she became a brigadier general, a first for a woman. She retired from that post in 2006 and became an aide to Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf.

Today, she manages many of the arrangements and preparations for events for the president. At the same time she has expanded the orphanage that she named after her mother, traveling on weekends to Buchannan, about 90 miles from here.

Today, the Catherine Memorial Orphanage takes care of some 50 children with assistance from Christian Aid Ministries. She says she is blessed to have her life and a superb job, in a country where unemployment is staggering. “Working with the president is exciting because she is someone who really enjoys her job.

Still, she lives a quiet life, she says. She takes care of her 19-year-old son, her three-year-old grandson who is the son of her 23-year-old daughter, who lives in Canada. She goes to the Pentecostal church in the Sinkor section of Monrovia. She prays and she aches unceasingly for her dead son, she added. More than anything, she says, she thanks God throughout the day and night just to be alive.

“The sad truth,” she said, relaxing on the couch after a meal of palm butter and rice, a Liberian staple, “is that I don’t even know what this war was really all about. I don’t know if it was a political war, an ethnic war or whatever. I just know that nothing good was accomplished. I just thank God every single day for bringing me through it.”

By Jonathan P. Hicks

Liberia: In the Aftermath of War, Vibrant Newspapers Emerge

Monrovia, Liberia - In an era where most American newspapers are downsizing and fighting for survival, there seems to be no such slowdown in Liberia. On any given day on the streets of Monrovia, this country’s capital, readers have a choice of around 10 daily papers and a more than equal number of weekly publications. In fact, a new Monrovia-based newspaper made its debut here just this week: The Front Page, a well-known, web-based news site that is now printed with color photos on its cover.

In a city that is beginning to pull itself out of the devastation caused by 15 years of brutal civil strife, the presence of so many newspapers – and diverse opinions and voices – stands as a sign of encouragement about Liberia’s prospects. There are publications highly supportive of the administration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president. And there are strident voices in opposition. Some are neutral. But wherever these newspapers stand editorially, it is clear that there is a vibrant press here in the heart of an economically devastated country.

“Most Liberians are excited about the fact that, for the first time in many years, they have the opportunity to be heard,” said Joe W. Mulbah, the chairman of the mass communications department at the University of Liberia. “They have avenues and outlets where they can channel their information, where different opinions can be heard.”

Mr. Mulbah said that Liberia has one of the oldest newspaper industries in all of West Africa, explaining that journalism came to this country almost immediately after it was founded by free black Americans who landed here in the early 1800s (the first paper, the Liberian Herald, began printing in 1826).

“But the durability is difficult,” he said. “Many of the papers have collapsed because of the economic and social situation in this country. But what we’re seeing now is healthy. It’s also healthy to the government because the government gets to hear the views of several different people, including the opposition.”

During the civil conflict, which ended in 2003, many newspapers and radio stations here were shut down by the former president, Charles Taylor, leaving the media dominated by voices that were run by – or favorable to – Mr. Taylor. The state television station, ELTV, was off the air for most of the civil war and has resumed broadcasting principally as a commercial station. In the years to come, the situation deteriorated. Some editors and reporters were jailed, some killed. In the midst of the war, journalism had virtually ended here for all practical purposes.

But the industry has since rebounded vivaciously, while the quality spans the spectrum. Although most of the newspapers here are eight pages, some are somewhat thicker. Some are almost single issue papers. Some have wider offerings, with a mix of local stories, sports and economic news. Some are clearly published on a shoe string’s knot, while some are more lavish.

“It makes me feel good to see the landscape filled with journalism,” said Kenneth best, the editor of the Liberian Observer and a longtime newspaperman who was jailed several times before leaving the country and returning to reopen his newspaper in 2005.

Meanwhile, The Front Page, the new kid on the country’s newspaper block, has sizable ambitions. Rodney B. Sieh, the newspaper’s editor (and Mr. Best’s nephew), wants to eventually staff bureaus with reporters or stringers in each of Liberia’s 15 counties and include more sweeping coverage of financial news.

“I figured that Liberia needed something in the newspaper industry that was of a higher standard,” Mr. Sieh said.

In fact, Mr. Sieh is among the growing community of Liberian-born professionals who are returning to the country in the aftermath of the war. He worked as a reporter and editor for years in the United States, most recently at the Star Ledger in Newark and the Daily Record in Parsippany, NJ.

With the all the cutbacks in the newspaper industry, Mr. Sieh said, he fully expected that it would be a matter of time before he, too, would be furloughed. So he decided to return to Liberia permanently in March of this year. “The market was declining in the States and I was already online with a publication,” he said. “So, I figured with the demand being greater in my own country, why not come home and make a contribution?”

By Jonathan P. Hicks

Spotlight on Liberia’s Transformation

 

The DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy is launching its blog, “Call & Response,” with a spotlight on the West African nation of Liberia. 

The history of the Republic of Liberia is particularly unique among African countries because it’s longstanding relationship with the United States and, more specifically, black America. It was founded as a colony by the American Colonization Society in the 1822 as a place for freed slaves from the United States to emigrate to in West Africa. They were drawn by the concept that they would not be burdened by the inequality of the United States. Those freed slaves formed an elite society abd the country was official established in 1847, with t a government modeled after the United States.

After more than 125 years of stability, Liberia has been reeling in more recent history, following a military coup in 1980 that overthrew and killed the president at the time, William R. Tolbert. In the more than 15 years that followed, the country had been devastated by a crippling civil war that left hundreds of thousands of people dead and thousands more fleeing the country. 

 

Today, Liberia is recovering from the lingering effects of the civil war and related economic dislocation. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the nation’s president, has been seeking to rebuild the country since coming to office after her election in 2005.

In the coming weeks, DBC will look at how the redevelopment of Liberia is faring. Jonathan Hicks, a senior fellow at DBC and a former political reporter with the New York Times, will be in Liberia and will write regularly on his observations of life in this old West African nation.

As DBC launches its new blog, “Call & Response,” we welcome your comments and observations.