Cestos City – Twelve-year-old Baby Girl Yarkah is in the first grade and attends the Upper Timbo Community School in Little Liberia, Rivercess County. She shares a small chair with another girl because there are not enough seats to accommodate the school’s 200 students. The chairs have no arms. There are no desks at all….
Cestos City – Students in Rivercess County are learning less than half of the curriculum each semester because of untrained teachers and a broken pay system that forces teachers to abandon schools for days, even weeks at a time. The first of a 3-part series on Liberia’s rural schools crisis by New Narratives fellow Mae…
Supporters of FrontPage Africa editor-in-chief Rodney Sieh have launched a website demanding his immediate release. Please find a petition on the site. FrontPage Africa is New Narratives’ major partner in Liberia and has worked with us on a range of important stories that have forced action in Liberia and garnered attention around the world. Sieh…
MONROVIA, Liberia — IT’S not uncommon in African countries like Zimbabwe and Ethiopia for newspapers to be shut, and their editors jailed. But the newspaper I edit doesn’t operate in a dictatorship. We are in Liberia, the West’s poster child for postwar democracy building. Our president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is a Nobel laureate who is celebrated by…
WASHINGTON, DC: The Diplomatic Courier and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy are pleased to announce that Robtel Pailey, Opinion Columnist with New Narratives, has been recognized on the 2013 “99 Under 33,” an international list noting the most influential foreign policy leaders under the age of 33. The complete list is available at: www.diplomaticourier.com/99Under33. See…
NN is very proud of fellow and FrontPage Africa Newsroom Chief Wade William who capped a brilliant year last night by winning the German Media Development Prize for Africa at a ceremony in Berlin – on her birthday! The win follows Wade’s success in winning a prestigious Dag Hammarskjold fellowship to the UN last year…
From NN executive: We are reposting this article from July 2011 in light of the Liberian Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the $1.5m libel verdict against FrontPage Africa. During Liberia’s 14-year civil war, the press was silenced through violence. Journalists now say they are the victims of a more subtle assault. They say a…
Paying Off – The problem of bribes in the Liberian press After two civil wars, Liberian journalists are enjoying unprecedented freedoms but struggling to maintain independence. The business of news is not yet financially viable there: the media market is oversaturated, advertising is weak, and readership is low with a low-hanging ceiling—only 58 percent of the…
A Fierce Champion for Women Braves Death Threats and Job Loss She has a broad smile and open, friendly face. But Liberian journalist Mae Azango has the fierce and courageous heart of a warrior. Although she has received death threats and lost her job over her discussion of sensitive topics, she remains a staunch advocate…
Forkpah Town, Clay Ashland, Tiny Pewee Wamah tries to hold the piece of boiled cassava his mother hands to him, but his tiny trembling hands soon let go and the cassava falls to the bright red earth. The 14-month-old baby tries to find strength to cry but his voice soon fades. By New Narratives fellow…
MONROVIA, Liberia — I remember the first time I stared corruption in the face. It was 2010, and I was chairwoman of a Liberian government committee responsible for reforming the awarding of international scholarships. We discovered that a group of 18-year-old boys had forged their national exam records to become eligible for a scholarship to…
New Narratives fellow and FrontPage Africa newsroom chief Wade Williams has been awarded the prestigious Journalist of the Year award at Liberia’s annual media awards. Wade is only the second woman to win the award. The UN’s Eva Flomo won the award in 2011. Wade has been with the New Narratives program since January 2011….
[ylwm_vimeo]73421957[/ylwm_vimeo] This video was produced by Multimedia Photography and Design graduate students Jessica Suarez, Jim Tuttle and Kristina Subsara as part of freerodney.org …
The case of Ruth Berry Peal has prompted renewed calls from anti-FGC activists for the Liberian government to join that 24 other African countries that have passed laws that specifically make female genital cutting illegal. No such law exists in Liberia at present, prompting lawyers acting on behalf of clients like Berry Peal to pursue…
In January this year Ruth Berry Peal and her family thought their three year ordeal was over. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that made the Bomi mother-of-eight the first woman in Liberia to win a conviction for forceful initiation into the Sande society. Three months later Berry Peal is still separated from…
NN’s Wade Williams of FrontPage Africa speaks at a UN luncheon in New York City featuring Jeffrey Sachs during her Dag Hammarskjold fellowship. Hear speech here. From Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalists release: 2012 Annual Luncheon JEFFREY SACHS HONORED BY U.N. JOURNALISTS The Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists honored Dr. Jeffrey Sachs with their Inspiration…
Monrovia – Ah… O Say…! Ah… O Say…! (Battle Cry) We will make sure water and sanitation issues are addressed on this campus!”, Sarta S. Bawoh yells a battle cry as her followers answer, “say!” (Read original piece in FrontPage Africa here.) Sarta, 18, is running for vice president of the student council of the G….
In the wake of the international uproar prompted by death threats against NN Country Manager Mae Azango, the Liberian government has taken the unprecedented step of announcing February 6 will be “Intensifying Efforts for Elimination of Female Genital Cutting” Day. Before the breakthrough reporting by Azango in FrontPage Africa and NN fellow Tetee Gebro for…
“The boy is my neighbor’s son,” says the grandmother. “We eat and play together. They came to me begging I agreed not to go to court. That court thing can waste time and money. I just want my little girl to be all right.” – A grandmother to rape victim. Published in FrontPage Africa on…
Robtel Pailey, opinion columnist for NN and FrontPage Africa, has teamed up with NN’s photographer and FrontPage graphic designer Chase Walker, to produce a groundbreaking book designed to teach children about corruption. “Gbagba” is the story of Sundaymah and Sundaygar, two siblings who live in Grand Bassa County in Liberia. On the way to visit their…
I watched in amazement as stately Cameroonian 30-something, Mamadou Kwidjim Toure, founder of pan-African youth movement “Africa 2.0”, slipped former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo a note on the elevated stage. Overhead, two wide-screen projectors magnified this exchange to an audience of over 200 at the recent Mo Ibrahim Foundation Governance weekend in Dakar, Senegal. See…
