The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Government of Liberia to protect NN Fellow Mae Azango and her newspaper FrontPage Africa after threats they received for a story on female genital cutting in the country. Mae faced big challenges convincing victims to talk about the practice because it is part of an ancient…
Seek Ye First the Economic Kingdom, Woman
First appeared in Liberia’s FrontPage Africa newspaper March 1 Africa’s first post-independence president, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, urged colonial Africa to “seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else shall be added onto you.” Nkrumah was alluding to the biblical verse, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these…
High Number of Teenage Pregnancies Holds Liberia Back Say Experts
Baby Blessed wriggles and wails in discomfort in his young mother’s lap. Winnie pulls out her breast to feed her sick child and quiet his cries. She looks out at the swampy backyard behind her home as if she would rather be any place other than here. By Mae Azango. Originally published in FrontPage Africa…
“I Am Gay” The First Liberian Homosexuals to Talk to the Media Say Life is Hard
Names in this article have been changed to conceal the identities of gay persons mentioned. Jerome, 16, strides like he is a supermodel on a runway. He has a slender body, and his hair is cut short. The fashionable teen is wearing denim jeans. A white polo T-shirt bathed in dragon designs reveals his bare…
NN Reports First Interviews With Gay Men in Liberia
NN fellow Wade Williams and photographer Chase Walker have published the first interviews with openly gay men in Liberia. The story was published as gay rights activists have been attacked and faced death threats in the country. The reporting took considerable bravery on the part of our reporters, the interview subjects and FrontPage Africa editor…
NN and FrontPage Africa Feature Liberia’s First Interview with Homosexuals
At New Narratives we believe discussing issues in a public forum is the first step to finding solutions that will protect the rights of all people. For that reason we are proud that are reporter, FrontPage Africa editor Wade Williams has done the first interviews with gay Liberians to run in the country’s press. Prior to…
NN Executive Director to Present at African conference on Media Development
New Narratives Executive Director Prue Clarke will present on a panel discussing business models in African media at the Commonwealth Sierra Leone Media and Development conference in Freetown January 25-27th, 2012. Prue will discuss New Narratives’ innovative approach to media business model building and the work of Columbia University students on the topic, supervised by…
Liberian President Faces Tough Second Term
By NN fellow and FrontPage Africa editor Wade Williams MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will be sworn in for her second term this Monday but the 73-year-old Nobel laureate begins her six-year term under a heavy cloud. An acrimonious election campaign against the main opposition party, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), was…
US government gives $50K to Liberian rape clinic featured in NN reporting
The THINK rape clinic in Monrovia, featured in New Narratives reporting on child rape, has been granted $50,000 by the US embassy in Liberia to keep up their outstanding work. A 3-year-old rape victim walked into the clinic when NN was reporting there in 2010. Said clinic supervisor Elizabeth Kekula: “We tell leaders that tiny children…
Clarence Jackson NN Fellow, Editor-in-Chief, Radio Gbarnga
Clarence Jackson is Editor-In-Chief at Radio Gbarnga and Regional Coordinator of the Press Union of Liberia for Bong, Nimba and Lofa Counties. He has been a journalist for more than fifteen years. Clarence is a prolific journalist whose reporting focuses Politics and Governance. He has also worked as correspondent from Central Liberia for several institutions…
Robtel Neajai Pailey Alum
Robtel Neajai Pailey joins New Narratives as our first Opinion Writing Fellow. Robtel’s opinion pieces appear in FrontPage Africa and her commentaries air on radio stations across Liberia. Robtel was recently named one of the Top 99 Foreign Policy Leaders Under 33. Born in Monrovia, Liberia, Robtel is an activist/writer who spent her formative years…
Chase Walker Photojournalist, Court Artist
Chase Walker is New Narratives’ resident photojournalist. He works at FrontPage Africa newspaper and website where he is head of the graphic department and is responsible for the layout and design of the newspaper. He also regularly contributes political and social cartoons. Chase’s photographs for New Narratives have appeared in publications around the world. Chase…
New Narratives fellow Mae Azango becomes the second Liberian woman to win a US reporting grant.
FrontPage Africa reporter Mae Azango has been selected as one of four African journalists to win a prestigious grant from the U.S.-based Pulitzer Center to cover reproductive health issues. Mae will join 3 other African journalists awarded the grants at the International Conference on Family Planning in Senegal from November 28 – December 3. The…
Rose Kebbeh Kaiwuh Alum
Rose Kebbeh Kaiwuh is a journalist and presenter with Truth FM and RealTV in Monrovia. She hosts three programs FOCUS ON WOMEN, a program that looks at issues affecting women in Africa and the world at large, CONSUMERS WATCH, a program that digs out expired and and contaminated products on the Liberian Market and MOVIE…
Water and Sanitation Problems Plague Monrovians
It is often said in Liberia: “to spoil it is easy but to build it is hard.” So is the case with water and sanitation here. The 14-year civil war destroyed much of the water supply and sanitation facilities. People escaping brutal battles in the heart of the country relocated to Monrovia—overcrowding the city’s slums…
Liberia’s Teen Moms Have it Hard
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,…
NN in the New York Times
Photo by NN photography coach Glenna Gordon MONROVIA, Liberia — Election officials announced on Thursday that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s only female president, had been re-elected by an overwhelming margin this week in a runoff vote that was marred by an opposition boycott. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said she would pursue…
SLAMMING THE GIRL POWER: What Went Wrong for Liberia’s Women at the 2011 Polls?
By FrontPage Africa editor and New Narratives fellow Wade Williams Gloria Musu Scott sits behind her desk at the Capitol Building. The senator from Maryland County is in the process of clearing her office to return to her former life as a lawyer. She is among many women who lost their seats following our country’s…