MONROVIA – The lyrics of ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Ma Susu’ – albums by the late Tecumsay Roberts – live on in the minds of many Liberians. An icon of the music scene when he was killed in 1990 at age 39, Roberts was bigger in Liberia than Michael Jackson. This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline as part of a…
GANTA, Nimba County – No one hearing “rogue! rogue! rogue!” in the middle of the night in a community in the city of Ganta stays asleep long. This story first appeared on The Daily Observer as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Instead, people rush out with machetes to find the culprit. When…
MONROVIA – The conversation about setting up a War Crimes Court in Liberia has intensified in the last 18 months. This is partly due to a push by local and international advocates for accountability, finally, for the brutality that claimed the lives of 250,000 Liberians. They’ve seen an opportunity in the election of President George Weah,…
Liberia’s music industry will mark a poignant moment this weekend. It is 28 years since musician Tecumsay Roberts was gunned down. Witnesses say the killer was General Samuel Varnii acting under the command of Prince Johnson. This story first appeared on Power TV as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Liberian musicians will…
GANTA, Nimba County – If Nimba’s most famous son, Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, is to be believed, this is one county that will not back the growing call for a war crimes court. This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. “My people believe I am a hero…
They may be the most unlikely group of people expected to support the push for a war crimes court in Liberia. More than 100,000 of them, now former combatants, laid down their weapons at the end of the civil wars in 2003. Now some of them say justice must be served. This story first appeared…
BLOH TOWN, River Cess – For Elizabeth Byamue, 63, the horror of the day that destroyed her world has never gone away. This story first appeared on River Cess Radio and Bush Chicken as part of a collaboration for the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. “I can still remember – it was on a Friday when the…
Monrovia – Joseph S. Kannah Jr. was just five years old when his father was allegedly gunned down by Prince Johnson’s forces. More than 28 years on, Kannah, whose father Joseph S. Kannah Sr. was the Assistant Minister of State for Logistics, is yet to locate his father’s remains for burial. This story first appeared on…
They may be the most unlikely group of people expected to support the push for a war crimes court in Liberia. More than 100,000 of them, now former combatants, laid down their weapons at the end of the civil wars in 2003. Now some of them say justice must be served. This story first appeared…
Monrovia – A new survey on social cohesion and reconciliation (SCORE) has found that majority of Liberians do not support amnesty for perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, the survey revealed that majority of Liberians seek apology, the truth and compensation from perpetrators as preconditions for amnesty. This story first appeared on FrontPageAfricaOnline as part…
The Regional Resource Governance in West Africa (ReGo) Programme, funded by German Development Cooperation and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, strengthens the investigative skills of 34 local journalists in three countries to report on the impacts of the mining sector and contribute to a well-informed public debate. Reporting on the mining…
NN’s Mae Azango and Prue Clarke write on the role of good journalism in breaking the taboo around female genital cutting in Liberia that led to its eventual ban for the Columbia Journalism Review. PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF left office in January with a tremendous, if overdue, parting gift for the girls of Liberia….
“I like to talk to the common people, I don’t like politics.” Mae Azango sits on the edge of her bed in her old home that is wedged in a rocky enclave between the gray United States embassy and the modern apartments occupied by expatriate workers in Mamba Point, the poshest part of Monrovia, Liberia….
New Narratives reporters covered the trial of Mohammed Jabateh, convicted of immigration fraud in a Philadelphia court in October 2017. Reporters Tetee Gebro, Jackson Kanneh, James Harding Giahyue provided extensive reporting in Liberia and in the court and Liberian community in Philadelphia. Court art was also done by NN visual artist Chase Walker. Please see…
If you’re going to the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Johannesburg please come and join us for the launch of “African Muckraking: 100 Years of African Investigative Journalism” edited by Anya Schiffrin, Anton Harber and George Lugalambi. The book features groundbreaking work by our Mae Azango, introduced by our Executive Director Prue Clarke and by Liberian journalist legend…
The Tearing Down of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will leave office in January as one of the most celebrated African leaders of recent memory — outside of Liberia, that is. The first woman elected to lead a government in Africa, she has presided over a period of peace…
Monrovia – The new year will see two new training and reporting projects kick off for Liberia’s top journalists. The continuing collaboration between New Narratives Liberia and the Thomson Reuters Foundation will offer journalists the chance to learn about extractives industries and gain ongoing editorial and financial support to report on the mining, forestries, oil…
First off, a confession: even as the oil industry in Liberia made a lot of news in our country in the years from 2010, as a practicing journalist I knew very little about it. Like most of my peers, all I ever knew reporting on the sector came at the mercy of the National Oil…
Monrovia – On June 19 this year, two men—Varnie Sarjue and Jusue Vannie – spent the night in the office of GMT Fishery in the Bong Mines Bridge community outside Monrovia. Both men were guarding the company’s properties, and on that fateful night Sarjue brought with him his girlfriend, Garmeh Howard. They put on a…
It stands one storey tall and is painted in radiant orange and green but that is not what makes Emma’s Fashion perhaps the most noticeable building at V.O.A. Junction on the Roberts International Airport highway. What makes it stand out is 16 solar panels attached to two opposite sides of its roof, providing the modern…
As almost all of the oil companies are shutting down operations in Liberia, we look back at what one of the biggest companies Chevron, is leaving behind as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program in Liberia. This is a special radio production on Radio Gbarnga bringing to the spotlight the impact of Chevron’s Corporate…
