Beyond the tension (see the "Being the other" blog post), Saturday was about community. FrontPage Africa reporter and photographer, Nat Bayjay, and I spent the day touring his neighborhood, Clara Town, which he referred to as a "slum" on the outskirts of Monrovia. We were met with so much kindness and warmth as we wandered the dirt streets, avoiding soggy puddles from this impotent rainy season. We made our way to the new soccer field donated to the community by the current president's, Ellen … [Read more...]
Being the Other
Everyone should feel what it"s like to be "the other" – to look around and find yourself in a sea of unknown, to be the one without power, at the mercy of human kind and kindness. During a soccer pitch dedication, a gift to Clara Town from the ruling Unity Party, a small group of young men were racing to the best online casino field, megaphone in hand, yelling words I couldn"t make it out through the distorting device. I saw their energy. I ran in close; I began shooting. "FUCK YOU!" Over … [Read more...]
“Gaffa girl” makes mark in rap
Having spent the last two days working on the set of a real, live reggae video, I can now add “gaffa” to my CV. I am someone with few, if any, practical visual media skills. So how did I end up on the production team for what might be the most polished music video to ever come out of Monrovia? The story starts, as the best ones always do, in the hotel bar. Exhausted after a day of media training in the sticky Liberian summer, I was trudging through the bar to the dining room when Sayeed, … [Read more...]
Hungry to vote
“Mark,” my cab driver around town Saturday, didn’t hesitate when I asked him who would get his vote for president in October or November. “Ellen,” he said, as President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson is called. Mark then produced a shiny card from his ash try — his voter registration card. He said he was going out of his way to keep it clean, because the sooner he used it, the better. Indeed, when the vote will be held is in some doubt. A referendum will determine if the vote should be pushed from … [Read more...]
Day 1 of Training In Liberia
The training sessions started today. At the end of the class, we gathered for a photo. … [Read more...]
More Political Talk Over Lunch
Long before Election Day, politics makes great table talk. This is the second installment from a best online casino political conversation we stumbled upon at the Krystal Oceanside hotel — a take on the media and Liberian politics by Amos Swaray, press and public relations director of the Congress for Democratic Change. … [Read more...]
Day 1: Get hauled off by Liberian police for taking photos
David Trotman-Wilkins, (center/back row), still can smile after being forced by Liberian police to erase two photographs he took of the new U.S. Embassy in Monrovia. Over my career, soldiers and police have confiscated my film and digital images in Cuba, Honduras, Armenia, Malawi and Uganda. But this last time when we arrived here, it was David Trotman-Wilkins who inadvertently broke the law. His transgression? Taking two photos of the currently under construction U.S. Embassy. Here"s what … [Read more...]
Liberians make some noise
Monboe by SUprof As we lunched at the Krystal Oceanview Friday afternoon, our local guide and “fixer,” Francis Nyepon, leaned over to explain the swell of noise intruding from the table some 20 feet away. Was it an argument over a gambling debt? Girlfriend issues? A dispute over how to split the bill? Soccer fans talking "smack"? “You’re going to hear a lot of this,” Francis advised. “They’re talking about the election.” When we approached them, we discovered it was an impressive … [Read more...]
