Having children early may seem like an adventure for many teenage girls, but most soon discover that this choice leads to lasting consequences. The high rate of teenage pregnancy increases the economic burden of Liberia by creating generation upon generation of very poor families. The majority of teen moms live at home with their parents,…
Alumni
A Picture Is NOT Worth a Thousand Liberian Lives
I squirmed when I saw the photo online of a female protester in her crisp white T-shirt, with ruby red liquid dripping down her neck and face. There were other photos in a series. One man lay on the naked carpet of a room, surrounded by the living, his thin vertical body lifeless. Another man…
Liberians Can’t Afford Staple Rice
If a Liberian hasn’t eaten rice at least once during the day, then he will tell you that he really hasn’t eaten. But our staple food is becoming more expensive, as global food costs are skyrocketing. This is angering many Liberians, who say they’re going hungry as a result, and putting a strain on the…
Liberia’s Working Women Plagued by Sexual Assault and Harassment
Vera was working for an NGO when a supervisor made sexual advances while the two were in his office. She remembers worrying she would not be strong enough to push him away. “He asked me to stand up and said ‘Kiss me’. I said no, then I tried to get up. He pulled me to…
Will Liberia’s Women Support “Ma Ellen” again?
Women make up about half of the total registered voters in Liberia, according to the National Election Commission. They made up slightly more than half of voters in 2005. That is almost certainly what propelled Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to become the first woman elected president of an African nation. Does Ma Ellen have the women’s…
Obstacles cleared for Liberia’s runoff poll
Liberia is looking anxiously toward the country’s Nov. 8 runoff election between President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and challenger Winston Tubman. Tubman had threatened to boycott the poll, charging that the director of the National Election Commission had rigged the first-round results in favor of Johnson Sirleaf. A boycott would have created the possibility of instability in…
Workers Protest Broken Promises by Foreign Palm Oil Company
More than two years ago the government of Liberia signed an agreement with Malaysian oil palm giant Sime Darby. As part of the $800 million dollar deal, Sime Darby pledged to build workers housing and hospitals and send their children to school. In a collaboration between New Narratives and Sky FM, Tetee Gebro visited the…
Warlord now Kingmaker? Prince Johnson’s support of Ellen angers his own party
All is not well within the National Union For Democratic Progress, Since the endorsement of the Unity Party a move which serves as a catalyst for delivering Vote-Rich Nimba County to Incumbent Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf by the Party’s Standard Bearer Senator Prince Johnson has caused a stir in the party. The man dubbed by many as…
The Morning After Is Only the Beginning
I knew I had to be home on October 11. Although it would mean blowing my modest student budget for a few months, I bought the cheapest ticket I could find from London to Monrovia. And despite well-intentioned warnings from those whom I love most, I came back to cast a ballot for the first…
Is former warlord Prince Johnson fit to rule?
Surrounded by bodyguards, Prince Yormie Johnson swaggers with confidence toward a meeting hut in the center of his large Monrovia compound, decorated with brass figurines and farm animals. The Liberian senator and former warlord is among the 16 candidates vying for the presidency in the Oct. 11 general elections. Johnson, 52, already behaves like a…
Nobel Peace Prize winner Johnson Sirleaf runs for re-election
Just days before winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stood on a makeshift stage at the jam-packed Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia. She launched into a rousing campaign song. Singing “Ellen’s got the Mansion Key” to cheering supporters, Johnson Sirleaf appeared confident that she would win a second term as Liberia’s…
Despite Stiff Opposition to 2nd Term Bid, Sirleaf Vows To ‘Do it Again’
Standing on a makeshift stage hooked on to two trucks at the jam-packed Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf seems assured by the crowd assembled for her party’s launch that she will win a second term. “Ellen’s got the Mansion Key,” she sings amid cheers from her supporters. Johnson Sirleaf is…
Broken Promises of Foreign Palm Oil Company Anger Locals
Two years ago the government of Liberia signed an $800 million dollar concession agreement with Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby to cultivate 220,000 hectares of land. In the agreement, the company promised to build schools and clinics and provide workers with decent housing. More than a year later workers are living in the shells…
Is Liberia Losing the Battle on Water and Sanitation?
A Diary from World Water Week, Stockholm, Sweden “We run the risk of losing the battle on water and sanitation in many cities around the world, and that is a fight we cannot afford to lose.” These are the words of Anders Berntell, Executive Director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), one of the…
She Na Fini Yet ‘O: Why Ellen Is the Only Choice on October 11
There was a lot “spoiled” about Liberia in January 2006, when a woman draped in regal gold, with a glitter of hope in her eyes, took the podium, offering a promise of renewal. Monrovia roads had pot-holes the size of bomb craters, and the streets were littered with dirt and debris. Rural roads were barely…
‘No Vote For Ellen In Nimba’: Candidate Prince Johnson Claims Referendum Victory
The flag bearer of the National Union for Democratic Progress, NUDP, Nimba County’s senior Senator Prince Y. Johnson says, he will make sure that President Johnson-Sirleaf does not get any vote from Nimba County. Senator Johnson addressing a number of issues over the weekend said President Sirleaf has lost the confidence of the people of…
Dangerous Pregnancy: Unsafe Abortion a Problem for Liberian Teens
Monrovia – Pale and weak, Pauline Kule was rushed to the James N. Davis Memorial hospital in July because she had been bleeding profusely. The 19-year-old swallowed 15 pills hoping to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. A ninth-grade student, Kule says she was afraid her father would withdraw his financial support if he found…
Doctors Blame High Number of Child Burns on Parental Ignorance
Two-year-old Rosetta Fokpa lies on her back, left foot raised in the air. A pretty little girl with braids, she cries bitterly. Boiling water scalded her legs, exposing a layer of fresh pink skin. It happened a week ago but the little girl is still in terrible pain. Fokpa’s mother says the child stepped into…
Jumpstarting Liberia’s rubber industry
BUCHANAN, Liberia — The sun is high over the Buchanan Renewables nursery, a green expanse of 400,000 tiny seedlings. Theresa Doe hunches over one seedling, grafting a Malaysian clone that will produce a high-yielding rubber tree. “It’s my living,” she says, her eyes fixed on the plant. Doe and some 500 employees of this Canadian…
LIBERIA: VERY RICH, OR VERY POOR
MONROVIA—It is after 8 o’clock in the evening on the Barnersville estate, a low-income housing project on the outskirts of the capital of Liberia. The entire area is dark. A few candles illuminate small shops along the road. A path leads to Kollie Yard, a cluster of faded whitewashed houses surrounding a sand pit. The…
‘Dry Bones Cry’ Time to Bury Liberia’s War Dead?
Two white stars painted on the basketball court at the Lutheran Church on 15th Street are all that mark the buried remains of more than 500 people killed in the infamous 1990 massacre here. On that July night, Liberians fleeing for their lives thought they had found a safe haven in the church compound. Surely,…