Peace Building and Security...Da Kakata Women's Area

Last week, I had the opportunity to travel outside of Monrovia into the more rural counties.The purpose of the trip was to monitor two projects Search for Common Ground is currently working on with funding support from UNWomen. The project was part of UNWomen’s goal to enhance the number and quality of community level initiatives that are geared to advancing women’s rights. Five rural communities were chosen, and basic one room meeting spaces were constructed. These Women Empowerment Centres, as they are being called, were built with the intention of providing women a safe space to meet, as well as a space that they can have basic literacy and micro-finance training.

Women Empowerment Centre in Kakata

Peace Hut

We were able to visit two of the centres and the contrast in the strength and authority the women had in each community was vastly different. In the first community, the women have been organizing themselves since the war. In fact, the women of Kakata played a very critical role in bringing peace and security to their community. Since the end of the civil war in 2003, these women have continued to fight against abuse and GBV that has plagued their community.They built a Peace Hut where they will take accused community members who they have arrested to be put on trial. If the women find the accused guilty and feel that charges brought against him were serious enough, they will take him to the local authorities to have a legal trial, otherwise they will determine as a community what punishment he should face. Now both men and women in the community come to the women of Kakata to help resolve conflicts and you can really see how much respect and authority they have earned.

The powerful community leaders of Kakata

In contrast, the second community we visited the women are still very suppressed and constrained by their traditional roles. Many of them complained that they were not able to regularly attend the literacy and microfinance trainings because their husbands did not want them to leave the children for two hours, three times per week. Unlike the women in Kakata, who have started a communal savings fund that can be used by women in their community to finance business ventures. The women in the second community have not managed to start any kind of savings fund. From our brief meeting with the women, it seems that many infrastructure problems are hindering their ability to mobilize and build their capacity and strength.

I believe the first issue is road access. The current road to their community is very poor and has been further destroyed recently after a mining company came in to do some exploratory surveying and did not fix the damage caused by their large trucks. No one in their community has transportation so they rely on motorbike taxis, which they must call to come from the nearby town. Because of the road conditions and the isolated location, no school or clinic has been built in the village, so the women are relying on a local midwife who is older and whose health is deteriorating. There are loads of children in the village (possibly due to lack of sexual education, birth control and decision making power the women have) and no school available. This means the women have an increased burden of caring for the children all day long in addition to their agricultural duties.

My hope is that in the final report SFCG can make the recommendations to the Ministry of Gender and UNWomen to put pressure on the local county representative, so funding can be allocated to fix the road. With better access to the village, perhaps they will be able to attract a local teacher and mobilize the community to advocate to have a school built. In the meantime, SFCG is going to put the leader of the Kakata women (Ma Annie) in contact with the women’s leader from the second community. She is one hell of a powerful force, so I hope that it can bring some strengthen and inspiration to these women!

Political Party Slogans Part 2

I don’t know how I managed to forget in the last blog post - commentary on one of the most brilliant political slogans of all time (This puts Obama’s pop art CHANGE slogan to shame, he should really get in touch with Ma Ellen’s peeps for this next election).

Take a look at this…really take a minute to take it all in!

I have to tell you, when I first saw this poster up around the city I thought “Now that is really playing dirty, why would you publicly refer to your political opponents as a Monkey or Baboon? In staff meetings, behind closed doors name calling I’m sure is completely appropriate and possibly even encouraged by publicly?” It seemed like political suicide to me, but here in Liberia it is just considered clever PR.

For those of you who have been studying up on Liberian English, you might be able to decipher the “wait small” part of the message. Or perhaps those who have spent time living and working in West Africa, or just have a lot of general animal knowledge might be able to work out the entire slogan all on your own.

But if you were anything like me when I first read this poster, most of you are probably thinking what the *&#! does that mean?!

So let me break it down. The Monkey represents current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and she wants the country to know she is still working very hard for Liberia. It is particularly important for her to acknowledge this point because back in 2005, during the last election she publically announced that she would only run for office once. For those of you who are thinking, “How typically, another African leader promising to bring change and reform in only one term now decides they need more time – before you know it we have another Momard Gaddafi on our hands”. I think we should cut Ma Ellen a little slack.

First of all the woman is 72 years old, if she is elected for a second term and serves for the next 6 years, something tells me at 78 years of age she will be in the mood for a little well deserved R&R (retirement and red wine). Secondly, although 6 years may seem like a long term to those of us who have the privilege of living in a stable peaceful democracy, it really isn’t that much time when you are trying to rebuild a country that has had ever fiber of its social fabric violently destroyed for 14 years. 6 years is pretty much long enough to beg the international community to forgive your massive debts, start the rebuilding and vetting your security sector, fix roads so you can actually access the communities you are trying to rebuild and get some of your kids back into schools. 6 years is not long enough to electrify the country (I heard yesterday only 1% of Liberia is electrified, more on this later), provide safe drinking water, rebuild clinics and make sure your population is not just scrapping by on $1USD per day. In summary, the Monkey or Ellen is asking for a little more time so she can really get things done!

The Baboon is her political opposition, and here is the best part… baboons are notorious in the animal kingdom for stealing bananas or other fruits from monkeys instead of gathering their own. In other words, Ellen does not want the political opposition to come and “steal the fruits” of her labour, or more specifically to undo some of the progress and work that here administration has accomplished in this last term.

Wait Small is the Liberian English way of saying wait for a short time, or just a little while. So she is asking that Liberians reelect her so she can finish the work she is doing, and the opposition…well they only have to wait another 6 years before they can have their turn to lead Liberia.

My fellow Canadians - I know what you’re thinking…how can this be used by the Conservatives in the next election? The answer …it just can’t. The trick about calling yourself a monkey publicly, is that you have enough credibility that people don’t already call you a monkey behind your back; you can see how this would pose a problem for Harper!

A lyrical look at Liberia

Check out this great self -made YouTube -Da My Area Music Video!

Political Party Slogans….Da UP Area

Perhaps one of the problems with Canadian politics is that campaigning in Canada has no creative flare. In our fast-pace media driven society we want to be entertained and nothing says entertainment like great political slogans!

In my first blog post I started to explain why I decided to name this blog 213 – Da My Area. To recap the 213 is the country code for Liberia and Da My Area is a brilliant political slogan adopted by the Unity Parties' P.R team for this election.

When I arrived in Monrovia one of the first things I noticed was the political signage all over the city. The Unity Party posters are particularly noticeable (not only because they have the largest budget for marketing) because they have strategically placed their posters on major state buildings all over the city, for example on the football stadium the poster reads;

Sports and Recreation
Da Their Area

On the court house;

Law and Order
Da Their Area

On the Ministry of Gender;

Women’s Rights
Da Their Area

As a newbie here I didn’t fully grasp the brilliance of this campaign slogan, naive I assumed that using Liberian English was Mamma Ellen’s PR teams way of showing her solidarity with the people. It wasn’t until one of my roommates kindly explained to me that Da My Area was recently a number one hit song in Liberia. Most of the songs that become top 40 here in Liberia are Nigerian artists but this song is pure Liberian. At just over 7 minutes long it is the perfect campaigning beat to be blasted in the back of pickup trucks driving through the city with your political supporters decked out in your specially made campaign lapa (more on local dress later).

At 72 years of age you have to give Ma Ellen some serious street cred, catchy and creative political marketing…Da her area!

A quick lesson in Liberian English

It might seems simple, but get yourself in the back of a taxi cab with three other Liberians who are engaged in political debate and your might think otherwise!

As my Liberian English starts to improve (and my Canadian English goes down the toilet) I will test out some of my newly acquired language skills in my blog posts – have fun trying to decode my writing!!

Election Time…

“You thief, you gone cheat that girl, youes go’n ta hell!” I am squeezed in the back of a shared taxi in Monrovia on my way back from day two of my internship with Search for Common Ground in Liberia. This is my second time taking a shared taxi without one of my Liberian colleagues; this morning I took one to the office, or at least I thought I did until I got out my 30 LRD to pay the guy driving and he refused the money. I never really got the whole story, but I think a nice Liberian family that was on the way to drop Mom off at work took pity on the confused white girl standing on the corner in the rain and decided to give me a lift, so I guess technically this is maybe my first real shared taxi ride!

I’m squashed in with three other people, loads of bags and we are all dripping wet. We have started along the same route I traveled yesterday with my colleague, Tanima so I recognize all the landmarks; only today we run into a political rally so the rush hour traffic is especially bad, the cab driver decides it is going to be too difficult to stay on the main road so he takes a side street. It doesn’t take long until I am completely turned around and don’t know what direction the convent is in, this was not part of the plan, although I am quickly learning that in Liberia “having a plan” might be the worst idea of all. I am under strict instructions from Tanima that I should not ask how much money it costs to go from one point to the other, rather I should just hand over the crumpled 50 LRD she told me it would cost to get home. Unfortunately, I am feeling pretty lost and know it is probably best if I ask the driver to take me directly to the convent so I don’t get too lost in a part of town I am not familiar with yet.

“Excuse me but how much to go all the way to Mumba Point, St. Teresa’s Convent?” “Ten USD” is the driver's reply. I know my total cab far home should cost me about $.90 so a few extra blocks to the convent should not cost 10 times the amount, I am really being taken to the cleaners. Before I have a chance to start to negotiate the women in the front seat lays into the driver calling him a thief and ever other name in the book; many which I don’t understand because her Liberian English is strong and the sayings unknown to me at this point. What I do gather from the interaction is that this woman is sick and tired, tired of the corruption, the lying and the cheating.

After being here for a week, I gather most Liberian’s are tired of conflict and I don’t blame them; 14 years of civil war, for many young Liberians conflict is all they have known. Liberian’s have seen every thread of their social fabric deteriorate; the loss of life was high and the loss of trust and security even higher. However, since the signing of the peace accord in 2003 (much thanks to the strong will of the women of Liberia; I highly recommend the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell for a very insightful depiction of this time in Liberian history) and the election of the first female head of State in Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2005, the country has been stabilizing and rebuilding.

The gains that have been made are slow and small, but they are coming nonetheless and now with elections scheduled for next month on October 11, 2011 the country is buzzing. There are those who feel that President Sirleaf has had her time to make contributions to the rebuilding of Liberia. There are others who are still concerned about the fragility of the country and worried that many of these gains could easily slip away if the head next head of state is “not correct,” as Liberians would say. Of course, there is also the other important factor of all the international connections and networks Mamma Ellen was able to build during her many years of international work with the IMF and the UN, this has contributed significantly to her ability to persuade the international community to forgive Liberia’s debts and start to reinvest in the country.

This past Saturday I was able to attend the Unity Parties political launch (Mamma Ellen’s Party) in Monrovia, the excitement and energy in the crowed was palpable. I have been trying to read the newspapers daily since I arrived and the media has painted the picture that President Sirleaf’s followers tend to be part of the older, well-educated elite. What was great about going to the rally on Saturday was that it was clear people from all aspects of society are supporting the reelection of President Sirleaf and the Unity Party. It was especially amazing to see so many women, both young and old out on the streets, raising their voices loud and engaging in the political process freely and confidently; Mamma Ellen may be the first female head of state in Africa but I certainly hope for the sake of African women and women everywhere she will not be the last.

Liberia…Da my *current area

Most of you who are taking the time out of your very busy lives to read this blog are likely already aware they I am currently in Monrovia, Liberia doing an internship with Search for Common Ground.

For those of you who I did not have the opportunity to see or communicate with these past few months during my brief sojourn to Canada here is a quick rundown:

What: A 3 Month internship with Search for Common Ground

Who: Search for Common Ground is an international conflict transformation and peace building NGO seeking to transform adversarial conflict into cooperative action.

Where: Liberia. Not to be confused with the Liberia in Costa Rica (easy to make that mistake, especially since I was just living in C.R), we are taking about West Africa here neighbours with Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

And why does that sound so familiar…You have probably heard the name Charles Taylor, currently on trail at the Hague for crimes against humanity (ironically enough he is being charged with crimes committed in Sierra Leone although he made time for committing his fair share of atrocities here in his home land).

Why: This past year I was in Costa Rica doing a Masters in Gender and Peace Building from the United Nations Mandated University for Peace. Although, I learned a tremendous amount from this experience I did not want to complete my Masters without having experienced first hand what post conflict rebuilding looks like in action.

What else… Liberia is about to hold its second democratic elections since the signing of the peace accord back in 2003, on October 11, 2011. 2005 marked the first round of elections, when the first women head of state was elected in Africa. Incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is currently running for her second term.

Want the Coles notes version of Liberia’s extremely complex and tumultuous history, might I suggest Google and Wikipedia. Not satisfied with the Coles notes? Here are a few good reads:

This Child Will Be Great LP: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
Author: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood
Author: Helene Cooper

Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008 Film)
Director: Gini Reticker
Oh and why is this blog entitled 213 – Da my area? Well for those of you who are interested in contacting me while I am here 213 is the area code for Liberia.

Da my area…it will all start to make sense in the upcoming posts.

As a small aside – I apologize if some of the posts I make are delayed from the time of writing, the internet situation here is precarious at best!