Driving out of Monrovia, southwards, it is easily observed that most infrastructural improvements are largely limited to the capital. They are trying to refurbish the road to Buchanan, but there is still a long way to go. People complain about the slow pace. In Buchanan, which used to be the second city of Liberia, very little has changed since I was here five years ago. The main thoroughfare is still extremely potholed and must be carefully navigated by drivers and pedestrians alike, at night the place is spookily dark. In Buchanan just as in Monrovia there are numerous posters and banners with election messages; almost all of them for the Unity Party (UP) and with the face of President Johnson Sirleaf. However, when I talk to people in the streets here, a clear majority seems in favor of the opposition party CDC. Continue reading
Tag: Liberia
Monrovia, October 28
Today I moved out of my NGOish hotel situated too far away from real life and into a hotel in the midst of the downtown bustle, just around the corner from where I lived in 1997-98. During fieldwork back then this hotel was really rundown, but now it has had a good brush-up. This is the same hotel where Ryszard Kapuscinski stayed when he visited Liberia in the very beginning of the war. In a chapter of The Shadow of the Sun he in detail describes the swarms of prostitutes in the hotel restaurant and the enormous size of the cockroaches in his room. The chapter is certainly not one of his better texts. It is not an analysis of the situation on the ground at the very important time of his visit but most of the chapter is a rather shallow historical writing of the conflict. I have come to view the descriptions of this hotel as an outcome of the fear that he experienced in Monrovia during those few days he was here. Fear is no longer in the air and Liberians are now going on with their lives. Continue reading
Monrovia October 27, 2011
I arrived late last night. It is strange to me to see Monrovia lit up with street lights and with such an improved infrastructure. There is even public transportation now for example with busses from ELWA-junction to Buchanan with marked bus stops – although they wait until buses are filled up before they leave ELWA. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has gotten herself a nice election banner stating that she is the receiver of the Nobel peace prize and what would be more natural than placing it in front of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) HQ. Otherwise life is continuing as usual: when the water truck fills up the water tank at the hotel, there are women and kids from the neighborhood with buckets and pans filling them with water from the leaking hosepipe. Even though infrastructure is improving life is still hard for ordinary people and clean water is in demand. Continue reading
Off to Liberia
What is the role of former military commanders in Liberian politics? With this question in my mind I am today leaving for Liberia on a ten-day field study. The second round of the presidential election is of course a great opportunity to study the role of ex-military networks in the democratic process.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf seems to be heading for a certain victory in the election’s second round after former warlord Prince Johnson openly stated his support for the sitting president. Under any circumstances most of his supporters would place their vote on Johnson Sirleaf. Prince Johnson enjoys strong support in the Nimba county whose population during the civil war was engaged in a conflict with a population group from southern Liberia. Johnson Sirleaf’s opponent Winston Tubman, with support mainly in the south, is viewed as a dangerous force by many people in the north. Continue reading
Off to Liberia
What is the role of former military commanders in Liberian politics? With this question in my mind I am today leaving for Liberia on a ten-day field study. The second round of the presidential election is of course a great opportunity to study the role of ex-military networks in the democratic process.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf seems to be heading for a certain victory in the election’s second round after former warlord Prince Johnson openly stated his support for the sitting president. Under any circumstances most of his supporters would place their vote on Johnson Sirleaf. Prince Johnson enjoys strong support in the Nimba county whose population during the civil war was engaged in a conflict with a population group from southern Liberia. Johnson Sirleaf’s opponent Winston Tubman, with support mainly in the south, is viewed as a dangerous force by many people in the north. Continue reading