Liberian journalist hides, for reporting sexual mutilation Mae Azango is a journalist in Liberia. She’s in hiding fearing for her safety after breaking a national taboo and writing a story about a secret sect that practices female genital mutilation. (Photo: New Narratives) On March 30 it was reported thattraditional tribal leaders have agreed to…
Article on the Difficulty Faced by NN’s Reporters Covering Female Genital Cutting
Monrovia, Liberia: When Kulah Borbor’s daughter was 13 years old, she asked her mother if she could join Liberia’s secret Sande Society. Most Liberian women are members of the Sande, so her daughter’s request was nothing unusual. But Borbor, a gender-based violence officer with the West Point Women for Health and Development Organisation, immediately discouraged…
NN’s Breakthrough Reporting Prompts Liberian Leaders to Announce an End To Female Circumcision
Monrovia – Traditional leaders and government ministers have revealed a secret agreement to shut down the activities of Liberia’s secret women’s society, the Sande, for an indefinite period. The deal will see all Sande land turned over to the leaders of the Poro men’s society. A ceremony handing over the land from the women to…
Still in Hiding, Azango Welcomes Leaders Decision to End FGC
“The Costs for Girls: Why I Welcome Leaders’ Decision” by Mae Azango The sound of drums and sasa fills the air as little girls and young ladies leave the Sande Bush. They have completed the traditional bush school and sing and dance their way into this town in rural Liberia. Well-wishers from neighboring towns…
NN’s Tetee Gebro to Appear On Panel at New York Film Festival on Global Human Rights
Tetee Gebro, a reporter for New Narratives’ supported Liberian radio station SkyFM, will appear on a panel at the City University of New York’s Global Film Festival highlighting the work of documentarians and journalists covering issues relating to human and women’s rights. Tetee was one of two reporters in New Narratives’ network to do groundbreaking…
Newsweek/Daily Beast Reports on Bravery of NN’s Mae Azango
Liberian Writer Mae Azango Forced Into Hiding for Story on Female Genital Cutting by Danielle Shapiro Mar 23, 2012 4:45 AM EDT Ever since she published a front-page story about female genital cutting within a secret society of women, the Liberian journalist Mae Azango has lived in fear, and threats have sent her into hiding—but she says…
Denying Liberia’s Babies: Teen Fathers Speak
By Mae Azango “Some of these young boys are from broken homes. Sometimes it is peer pressure that causes many of the teen fathers to deny pregnancies.” But there are also other factors. – Ali Sylla, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Counseling and Restorative Dialogue in Monrovia. Nathan became a young dad…
Moving from Open Door to ‘Growth with Development’
During President William Tubman’s Open Door Policy, Liberia was averaging double-digit growth rates. Being open for business, however, did not mean growth was open to all. In the 1960s, it was claimed that we had ‘growth without development’—economic activities from large-scale foreign concessions in iron ore, rubber, palm oil, and timber did not improve the…
NN’s Mae Azango Interviewed By Radio France International
Liberian journalist urges women to speak out on excision Journalist Mae Azango Glenna Gordon By Laura Angela Bagnetto Liberian journalist Mae Azango has been forced into hiding after publishing an article in the Liberian daily Front Page Africa on the practice of female genital cutting or excision in the country. Azango, a New Narratives fellow talks to RFI’s Laura-Angela Bagnetto about…
Genital Cutting Threatens the Health of Liberia’s Women
The cultural practice of female genital cutting is rampant in Liberia, especially in the countryside. Parents send girls as young as infants to ceremonies conducted by a secretive indigenous religion known as the Sande to be cut without knowing the health risks involved. But openly talking about this secret rite of passage is taboo here. …
Amnesty International Joins Calls for Police Protection of Mae Azango and Her Sources
DOCUMENT – LIBERIAN POLICE MUST TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO PROTECT JOURNALIST AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT 13 March 2012 Liberian Police Must Take Immediate Action to Protect Journalist Mae Azango, an investigative journalist based in Monrovia, is receiving death threats after publishing a story in FrontPage Africa uncovering the practice of female genital mutilation of girls [FGM]…
From Petty Traders to Entrepreneurs in War-Battered Economy
Clothing designer Geneva Garr supervises several men crouched over sewing machines surrounded by beautifully tailored dresses hanging for customers to see. Starting up with just one sewing machine on her porch, Garr, 37, now makes 72 outfits a week. Garr says she started the business in 2005 in Accra, Ghana and moved to Liberia in…
Female Genital Cutting – Why Liberia Must Join the Rest of the World and Outlaw the Practice
An opinion piece by Tetee Karneh. See original post here. Liberia is a little country of 3.5 million people basking in the mindset that because we, unlike most of the rest of Africa, were never colonized by foreign powers, we were not infected by alien cultures. But that mindset is wrong. Liberia’s openness to strangers…
Tradition of Genital Cutting Threatens Health of Liberian Women
Ma Sabah was only 13 years old when she was taken from Gbatallah in Bong County and forced into the Sande bush for a crime her mother committed in her village in 1976. The Sande bush is where women and girls are sent to be circumcised and groomed into women ready for marriage, as culture and tradition demand. See original story…
Committee to Protect Journalists Calls on Government to Protect NN Reporter After Threats For Story on Genital Cutting
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…