I’ve been working on a series of photos about teenage girls in Liberia. More soon, and for now, this one. Ruth at church.

One of my favorite books when I was young was Harriet the Spy. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising – it’s about a dorky girl who writes down everything she sees in a notebook. Hmm. I liked it because I could identify with the character. I was, and still am, a dorky girl who writes down everything in a notebook.

This weekend I visited a youth center in Monrovia with a group of teen age girls. It had a small library filled with books donated by Americans about Americans. A few of the girls flipped through the offerings: Jacob Have I Loved, Nancy Drew, the Babysitters Club. They didn’t seem too interested.

It made me sad. I wished they were reading books about Africans, books about girls like them. There’s no paucity of books about Africa. And maybe if donors bought text books locally instead of donating books their children discarded, then the publishing industry in Africa would grow and authors would have more incentive to write.

Alanna at Blood and Milk explains this phenomenon better than I ever could:

Bad development work is based on the idea that poor people have nothing. Something is better than nothing, right? So anything you give these poor people will be better than what they had before. Even if it’s your old clothes, technology they can’t use, or a school building with no teacher.

But poor people don’t have nothing. They have families, friends – social ties. They have responsibilities. They have possessions, however meager. They have lives, no matter what those lives look like to Westerners… the focus should be on getting more of what they need – not some of whatever we can find.

On Old Road in Congo Town, a neighborhood in Monrovia, I went through an alley, and then through another, to a compound hidden inside what seemed like never ending compounds. A bunch of teenagers were meeting inside for a youth group, and this little girl watched in awe. She couldn’t wait to join. But I hope she waits a bit to grow up.

Question: What happens when you give kids in IDP camps in Northern Uganda digital cameras?
Answer: Visual magic.

Question: What else happens?
Answer: the photos can be used to spark discussion and critical thinking exercises among the participants and can be used as tools to advocate for funding for school fees and other expenses.

Learn more about the project at the Displaced Communities site, run by Eric Green.

Putting digital cameras in the hands of poor African youth, while a modest initiative, highlights the way that information technologies alter the self-image of those who use them, especially in the developing world. “I felt special with a camera,” Achan says. When other children, and even adults, followed her around while she snapped photos, “I felt important,” she recalls.
–G. Paschal Zachary

To me, blogging about working as a journalist in Africa is often as important (if less lucrative) than working as a journalist in Africa (which is also not lucrative). My blog is an outlet for the stories that don’t work in the mainstream media, photos that don’t make the wire, and thoughts about daily life that otherwise wouldn’t see the light of day.

Based on how many other Africa journalists also blog, I’m guessing I’m not alone in this.

I’d like to make a sort of ongoing list of foreign correspondents in Africa who blog. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section and eventually I’ll put out a revised full list, complete with your suggestions.

In no particular order, they are:

In Nairobi, Nick Wadhams
In Kigali, Jina Moore
In Khartoum, Andrew Heavens
Also in Nairobi, Derek Kilner
All over the place, David Axe
In Zambia, Aaron Leaf
In Nigeria, Wil Conors
All over the place, G. Paschal Zachary
In Nairobi, and elsewhere, Shashank Bengali
In Nairobi and elsewhere, photojournalist Micah Albert
In Nairobi and elsewhere, Rob Crilly
In Nairobi and elsewhere, Steve Bloomfield
In Monrovia, Myles Estey
In Abidjan, Pauline
In Congo and elsewhere, photojournalist TJ Kirkpatrick
In Nairobi and elsewhere, photojournalist J Carrier
In Cairo, photojournalist and editor Ben Curtis
In Congo and elsewhere, unnamed author of African Heros

And also,
Formerly all over Africa and still writing about Africa, Alex Belida
Formerly in Kampala, now in Mexico City, Alexis Okeowo
JHR folks
Frontline folks

The next big thing on magazine covers should be this lovely lady from a village in Bong County, Liberia.

Last Thursday, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf testified about her role in Liberia’s civil wars before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Here’s a sampling of media coverage:

Liberian Times: “I have absolutely not supported any warring factions” – President Johnson tells the TRC

AP: Liberia’s President Apologizes to the Nation

Reuters: Liberia’s Present says once backed warlord Taylor

All three reporters attended the same event and wrote different headlines and included different text in the body of their stories. I’m glad that different outlets are covering this, but question how each headline implies such incredibly different accounts of what happened.

This morning, I discussed this with a colleague whose office I’m sharing. His opinion: Ma Ellen didn’t tell all – but – she shouldn’t. The country is fragile and doesn’t need anything that could spark more unrest.

For now, I’m not sure which to believe or what to think, so I’ll just share a bit of the text of each story.

Liberian Times:

“I have absolutely not supported any warring faction and none of them can say I supported them, “she said.

But the President admitted she was a sympathizer of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), saying, “like thousands of Liberians, I was a sympathizer, but that did not make me a member.”

She was testifying at the ongoing public hearing of the TRC at its headquarters in Sinkor.

President Johnson-Sirleaf said that in 1990 she met Mr. Charles Taylor, the leader of the defunct NPFL at his headquarters then in Gborplay, Nimba County, but said she discovered that Taylor did not seem to be somebody who had a clear vision of what he wanted to do.

She said during the visit she saw “a lot of red eyes young people” and went into a small room where she met Taylor surrounded by several Lebanese and piles of bags of rice.

Associated Press:

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf apologized to her nation Thursday for the role she once played in supporting the man who launched the country’s 14-year civil war.

Sirleaf, speaking under oath before the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said she was fooled by Charles Taylor and sent him money in the early years of Liberia’s civil war, which began when Taylor’s army invaded in 1989….

“If there is anything that I need to apologize for to this nation, it is to apologize for being fooled by Mr. Taylor in giving any kind of support to him,” said the 70-year-old president as she sat before the flag of Liberia. “I feel it in my conscience, I feel it everyday.”

Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia, or NPFL, invaded Liberia from Ivory Coast in December 1989. Six months later, the rebels brought the war into Monrovia, the capital…

Sirleaf said she and other expatriates sent money to Taylor to fund his rebellion. In addition, she said in May 1990, she visited Taylor in the Liberian town of Gborplay, where Taylor had made his base.

“There were some of us who agreed that the rebellion was necessary. And I will admit to you that I was one of those who did agree that the rebellion was necessary,” she said. “But I was never a member of the NPFL.”

Reuters:

(note: not written by me – a colleague’s reporting)

MONROVIA (Reuters) – Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Thursday she initially backed a rebellion led by former President Charles Taylor but was misled into supporting the man who is now on trial for war crimes.

Johnson-Sirleaf told her country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that she had agreed with the need for change and provided Taylor’s rebels with money in 1990, but denied she had been a member of his movement or helped him escape a U.S. jail…

he confirmed she was among the Liberians who provided Taylor with money and visited him in his rebel base on the border with Ivory Coast in May 1990.

But she denied any role in his escape from a Boston jail shortly before he started his rebellion and would only apologize “for being fooled” into supporting Taylor.