Snafu Liberia

If you are unfamiliar with the American expression S.N.A.F.U.  an explanation is required before I proceed: it stands for Situation Normal All Fucked Up.  Whilst scanning an online map of Liberia in preparation for the trip I was delighted to find a place so named, hence the goal of reaching this forgotten corner of the country became my prime reason for going there, sad, puerile individual that I am. Whilst many would assume the title was an unsurprising indictment of…

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The church of God and Mammon

Liberia’s coastal town of Buchanan is home to a lively Ghanaian fishing community known as Fanti Town, named after the region and its people in southern Ghana. Sharing Christianity and the English language makes them a compatible mix with the locals. It should be pointed out that although these immigrants generally understand Liberian Krio (as in creole form of language) English, to us it may as well originate from Planet Zogblax 3 in the Acturian Nebula. What may seem reasonably logical when read in a…

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Liberia, the land of signs

I’d hesitate to recommend a decent, well publicized war as a development policy but ten years of aid after the country’s horrors have seen improvements due to foreign agencies which would never have occurred otherwise. Few indications of the war remain, only the occasional abandoned ruin, some graced with the pockmarks of bullets and shrapnel, forlornly waiting for their former owner to return, in the slim hope they may still be alive. If there is one thing aid agencies love…

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