05/30
2009
2009
From a school in Pleebo. My favorite line is the last, an example of casual diction: “The new play at the Pleebo City Hall is a big flop.”
I’m Glenna Gordon, an American photographer and journalist, presently commuting between West Africa and Brooklyn. Previously, I lived in Liberia. And before that, I lived in Uganda. I’ve traveled and worked in over a dozen countries in Africa.
I found the scarlett lion on the roof of a friend’s house in Kampala back in 2006 when I went through a crate of discarded items he and a few other artists had gathered. On that day, I was looking for something and I found the lion: a discarded kid’s toy made in China on the cheap, that somehow found it’s way to East Africa. Something about the hollowed out, paint chipped figurine appealed to my understanding of this place: I’d never seen a real lion, after all.
From a school in Pleebo. My favorite line is the last, an example of casual diction: “The new play at the Pleebo City Hall is a big flop.”
From the amazing blog of Ryan C. Briggs.
Posted on Scarlett Lion, June 2008.
Posted on Scarlett Lion, August 2008, hat tip Jillian C. York.
While I was in Harper, I took some photos for Right to Play. I have to say, it was a really fun assignment. Who wouldn’t want to take pictures of kids having fun and learning to work together? Kind of awesome. Especially since I was in Harper working on a personal photo project about the decayed vestiges of power, which was certainly way less fun in an immediate, smiley kind of way.
Here are three bits of news gathered from the wide, wide web. I see a relationship among them. Do you?
ONE
A recent study commissioned by the American Chamber of Commerce shows how the corporate world views Africa. From Foreign Policy:
The survey suggests that African countries tend to fall into three categories: strong countries that are seriously considered as investment destinations; weak countries that would not even be considered by most of the respondents; and average countries where a mix of good and bad news calls for caution. South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya are rated highest for their economic development, while Ghana, South Africa and Tunisia take top honors for their investment climate. South Africa got the highest marks for government attitude, with Ghana, Morocco, Kenya and Nigeria tied in the next highest position. Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa saw the highest perceived return on investment. These traditionally high performers are followed by an interesting group of emerging countries that are catching investors’ attention. Libya, Senegal, Mozambique and Rwanda are viewed increasingly positively in government attitude, investment return, and progress with economic development.
TWO
People donate things like used underwear, Soviet snow plows, or colored pencils but no paper to Africa. Read about these and more on a great new blog Good Intentions Are Not Enough. (HT: Texas in Africa). Here are five questions to ask before sending a donation:
THREE
Depressing news that has to do with extraction of resources:
A January 2009 study by the Social Welfare Department – responsible for children’s welfare and supervising orphanages – showed that up to 90 percent of the estimated 4,500 children in orphanages in Ghana are not orphans.In Ghana a small orphanage might have a budget of up to US$70,000 a year, depending on its size, the bulk of the funds coming from international donors and NGOs, with small contributions from local corporations, according to research by Ghanaian non-profit Child Rights International (CRI).
Donors are attracted to orphanages because they appear to be a simple solution, said Joachim Theis, UNICEF head of child protection for West Africa. “You have a building, you house children in it, it is easy to count them. And they are easy to fundraise for. It is a model that has been used for a long time. But it is the wrong model.”
I wouldn’t presume to say what Ugandans will learn from the book. I think that most of what it says are things they already know. The one thing that I think it might do–that I sincerely hope it will do–is encourage Ugandans who lost someone to think that the past is retrievable. I know that Duncan Laki’s story has already had that effect on many Ugandans. As for Americans, I hope they read this book and realize there is something more to Africa than elephants and tribal dancing and civil wars. As I said, the book is really about the Uganda of the present–a profoundly flawed country, but miraculously stable and politically vibrant and gloriously argumentative one. Maybe it takes the cartoonish figure of Idi Amin to get readers interested in learning about such a place, but I hope that by the end of the book they realize that there’s something far more ambiguous and multifaceted–more interesting–going on now than simple brutality.
Andrew Rice has written about Africa for The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and The Economist, among other publications. His article “The Book of Wilson,” published in The Paris Review, received a Pushcart Prize. Between 2002 and 2004, he lived in Uganda as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, an American nonprofit foundation. Prior to that, he worked for several newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Observer. A native of Columbia, South Carolina and a graduate of Georgetown University, he currently lives in Brooklyn.
(Photo of Duncan Laki courtesy of Vanessa Vick)
(Note: I posted about this the other day, but I only put up one image. I have a bit more time on my hands today, so I thought I’d put the rest up here as well.)
On the streets of Monrovia, the capital of the small West African country Liberia, everything is for sale: second hand clothes, kitchenware and shoes from China, and used stuffed animals donated by Westerns.
A little boy in Monrovia proudly displays his Beanie Baby. Soccer is as popular in Liberia as stuffed animals are, so this one is a prized toy shared by several neighborhood kids.
Adults love stuffed animals too – especially the giant ones usually given away as carnival prizes. These two are for sale for about £13 each.
A man changing a tire on a shared taxi has many “teddies” on his dashboard. Though they are all different animals, Liberians call each of them teddy.
Most shared taxis in town are very decorated and stuffed animals are a common feature on dashboards around town.
A group of kids proudly displays a very loved teddy bear. Most are donated to charities in the West, who resell those they cannot donate in bulk.
In the same warehouses where vendors purchase used clothes, many bags of used teddies also sit around waiting to be purchased. A vendor can buy the bag for about £20.
Individual teddies will sell from £1 to £10, depending on the size and condition.
The secondhand teddies show some signs of wear and tear, but most Liberians love them anyway. They are popular gifts for birthdays, graduations, holidays, and even weddings.
HT Alexis Okeowo’s blog Exodus.
This video made me smile, laugh, and dance. And wish I were in Brazil. And make all of my housemates stop everything they were doing and huddle around my Mac Book and watch.
HT Mo’dernity, Mo’Problems from his series Friday Afternoon Africana.
(I may or may not be related to this blogger, but think you should check out his blog regardless.)
I love the visuals here in a way that makes me want to do nothing but watch this over and over again, all day. This is a wish that is unrelated to possible procrastination habits.
HT Every location in Liberia that plays this song a minimum of three to five times an hour, often consecutively.
Any song that features a man calling his woman “my sweet potato” and “my sugar banana” is pretty awesome in my book. I prefer men who refer to their women as starchy foods rather than bitches and hos any day.
HT Africa is a Country, who very regularly features amazing music, artists, and other highlights of culture from South Africa and elsewhere.
Because this song is great listening, and if I wait any longer to wash my hair, it’s going to look like this. As lovely as it is on her, it is not flattering on me. (It’s amazing how even in a climate as hot as Liberia’s, taking a cold shower every day still really really sucks.)
One of the things that’s amazing about Liberia is how people speak of the “Golden Years” in the 1970s, when places like Harper, an urban center in southeast Liberia, had running water and municipal power. Now, anyone who wants or needs electricity and water has to fend for himself. This photo is of the main road in Harper so it’s actually lined with streets and shops, all plunged into darkness by fourteen years of civil war that destroyed everything from basic infrastructure to the fabric of everyday life.
MONROVIA, Liberia — Wooden artifacts sit in piles, labeled with Post-it notes, in what someday will be the Liberia National Museum’s gift shop. The only room in the museum with a lock, it houses everything not on display, including several snake skins more than 6 feet long and an old transistor radio missing its antenna.
The museum was not always this ramshackle — it was once home to almost 6,000 pieces for display and had a UNESCO-devised plan to make it one of the best museums in West Africa.
The museum, with its ups and downs, both tells and parallels the history of Liberia, whose story it is devoted to chronicling.
The museum, in the capital city of Monrovia, now gets just three or four visitors a week, as well as occasional visits by school groups. More than three-quarters of those 6,000 pieces were looted or destroyed during Liberia’s 14 years of on-again-off-again civil war.
Liberia was once an economic powerhouse and relatively well-developed West African country. Founded by freed American slaves in the mid-1800s, Liberia was never colonized by European powers the way almost every other African country was. In the 1960s, Liberia boasted several five-star hotels, a booming tourism industry and a growing rubber export market.
Twenty-five years ago, a UNESCO consultant wrote a report to the Liberian government commending the museum and recommending that “the whole building should have air-condition and hydro-temperature control” and windows with ultra-violet light protection.
But instability began in 1980 with the assassination of President William Tolbert. Tensions flared between the Americo-Liberians, the freed slaves who founded Liberia, and the indigenous Liberians who had been excluded from the country’s power structures. When Samuel Doe took control in 1980 he ended the rule of the Americo-Liberian elite. Doe’s rule became increasingly repressive and corrupt.
A full-fledged civil war engulfed Liberia in 1989 and lasted until 1996. One group of rebels was led by Charles Taylor, a warlord now on trial for crimes against humanity he allegedly committed in neighboring Sierra Leone. War broke out again in 1997 and lasted until 2003. Now Liberia is rebuilding, under the leadership of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state.
The last war hit the museum — and Liberia — the hardest, according to the museum’s acting director, Albert Markeh. He said the bulk of the looting happened in 2003 after a grenade destroyed an entire wall of the building.
“They [the looters] sold stolen objects between the second and third war so they knew their value,” said Markeh. “I myself fled for my life.”
Today, the museum, with no electricity, is far from being a regional stalwart, and it’s hard to imagine a time when Liberia might have needed a UNESCO museum consultant. Today consultants abound in post-conflict Liberia, but they make recommendations about how to provide basic health care, infrastructure, and education — things not currently available to ordinary Liberians.
Relics of the war that made Markeh and so many others flee are also on display in the museum. In one display, a pair of combat boots sits carefully placed alongside bullet shells and other pieces of ammo. They belonged to Prince Johnson, a rebel leader who orchestrated the torture and execution of President Samuel Doe in 1990. Johnson can be seen in a videotape of the grisly torture, sipping a beer in the background. Johnson later opposed Charles Taylor, fighting him from outside the country. Johnson returned to Liberia in 2004 and is now a prominent member of Liberia’s senate.
Even though the museum has some newer acquisitions — like Johnson’s boots — it’s hard to replace all that was lost, said Lamie Taweh, a guide at the museum. He mentions that founding president J.J. Roberts brought over a silver plate and spoon from America, both of which were on display in the museum. During the war, looters stole the spoon.
Other artifacts of the ruling Americo’s regime remain. Former President William Tubman’s carved wooden “throne” from the Stone Mason society — an iteration of the American Masonic order — is still there. Thumbtacks pushed into the red velvet upholstery hold up a paper giving the dates of Tubman’s presidency from 1944 to 1971.
A newspaper from May 19, 1944, near Tubman’s chair carries the headline, “Why do Indigenous enterprises fail so frequently?”
On his tour, Taweh says that the museum houses three types of artifacts: an ethnographic gallery on the first floor, a classical art gallery on the second floor and a contemporary art gallery on the third. He then clarifies that only the first floor is currently in use.
The museum director Markeh said the historical artifacts are some of the museum’s most important items because they help tell the country’s story.
“This is a place of reconciliation,” he said. “If you are lost and don’t know about yourself, you have to ask. And we explain.”
On the streets of Monrovia, the capital of the small West African country Liberia, everything is for sale: second hand clothes, kitchenware and shoes from China, and used stuffed animals donated from overseas. See more pictures on BBC.
