Last week the international court in Hague delivered a guilty verdict in the Charles Taylor trial. It was a somber mood in the office all day. Like most days a few of us gathered around the dining table in our kitchen to eat lunch and chatter. However, April 26 was not like any other day. Almost every Liberian who works in our office has been through the civil war in one way or another. One of my colleagues started discussing the verdict and the conversation snow balled. Then came the war stories. Oh the stories!!
There are countless stories from Liberian civil war. Almost everyone you meet on the street has a story about their experience during the war. However, you don't really hear them unless you ask. And if you are like me, you do not ask strangers to speak about their suffering - past or present - unless they initiate such conversation. That is probably why I do not have as many stories as reporters or researchers. But I am quick to make friends with co-workers. Even though most of my Liberian co-workers left at the onset of war, there are a few who didn't leave until late, or didn't leave at all. I do not ask their experiences during the war because I think it is rude to be inquisitive about suffering. While having lunch yesterday, two of my Liberian colleagues started talking to each other about their experiences during the war that made my jaw drop. I don't usually like to talk about suffering, but two of these stories demonstrate determination of women in the face of adversity. Allow me to explain without going in to many details, in order to protect privacy.
One of my colleagues was 9 years old when the war started in the last week of 1989. Her father was afraid for his six daughters because the rebels were taking girls and women away in forced concubinage. The rebels usually demanded food and women. Her father hid his daughters whenever rebels were in town. He gave away most of his belongings, including his livelihood (a car - he drove a taxi), in order to save his daughters from the rebels. Every time a rebel group came knocking he would give away something to divert their attention from his children. Like most poor Liberians, he quickly ran out of things to give to placate the rebels. That's when he decided to send his daughters away. He split them in to two groups, so at least few would survive. He took one group, his wife took the other group. My colleague happened to be in the group with her mother. They traveled through the rain forest and military checkpoints, fleeing the rebels, going from one town to another, Guinea being their final destination. My colleague's sister (one of the six daughters) was a new mother with a 6 month old child. They were carrying the infant along with them. At one of the checkpoints, while waiting clearance, gun fire erupts and everyone is displaced running for life. In this melee, my colleague who is carrying the infant is separated from her mother and sister. Not knowing what to do, she runs with another group of people fleeing the gun fire while carrying the infant. My colleague was 10 years old at this time and even though she did not know what motherhood means, she knew how to take care of an infant. However, she didn't have anything to feed the baby. After fleeing the commotion, she joins another group of refugees and hides in the jungle. The group is hiding quietly so the rebels won't catch them and that's when the baby starts crying. In the words of my colleague, she has no milk in her breasts to feed the baby. That's when one of the women in the group came over and put her breast in the infant's mouth so he would stop crying. To quote my colleague directly "she put her titty in my nephew's mouth". She did this so the baby would be quiet and they would go unnoticed. Imagine a 10 year old fearing for life while another woman is breast feeding her nephew. I cannot even come close to imagining her situation.
After hiding in the bush (Liberian word for forest) for many hours and realizing the rebels left, the group emerges and starts looking for others who ran in different directions. My colleague was able to find her mother, but they never found her sister (mother of the infant). The two of them and the infant traveled for many days, hiding in the jungle at times to escape from rebels, and finally reached Guinea. All this while the infant was being breast fed by other women who were fleeing along with them. When they finally crossed the border in to Guinea, the UN sent a a truck to transport Liberian refugees from the border to refugee camps inside Guinea. However, most of the refugees, including my colleague, were too weak to be transported. That's when the UN set up tents right near the border to accommodate refugees.
I never asked what happened to the rest of her family.
The second story involves another colleague's friend. Although my colleague left at the very beginning of the war, her friend was not lucky to do so. The story will be gruesome to many of my friends who read my blog, so I will refrain from details. But I will say this: women like her deserve a special place in heaven for saving young girls from being raped and killed by rebels. How many women you know will offer their body to rebels in exchange for the life of a few young girls? It is amazing to listen what ordinary citizens can do when confronted with brutality.
Again, I never asked what happened to my colleague's friend and the girls she saved on that particular day. Some questions should be left unasked.
I feel it is the women and children that suffer the most during (and after) war. I think if any war mongers see the suffering encountered by women and children there will never be a war in this world. But then, it means war mongers are capable of rational thinking and emotions. We all know that is far from truth. I salute women everywhere who are courageous and kind, who can rule nations and nurture families and who are infinitely stronger than men in many situations.
In spite of all the atrocities, Charles Taylor still enjoys a following among some Liberians. In fact, some locals say he will be elected next President if he is freed from prison. It makes one wonder how someone like him can still enjoy support. Many unemployed former child soldiers still hold Charles Taylor in high regard. They call him "Papay" or "Papa Ghankay". Ghankay was a name Taylor adopted during the war in order to appeal to the indigenous tribes. Most of these ex-combatants were orphans who were recruited by Taylor's faction during the war. They see him as a father figure for giving them food to eat and a gun to fight. It is normal human tendency to revere the hand that feeds you when you are starving.
The civil war was a consequence of various complex factors. It is not possible to explain those factors in one blog post. There have been plenty of articles and books written on the civil war, but many of them do not look at the Liberian perspective. More often than not it is some western journalist or author writing about the war from their own perspective. One book that I read which explains the complex factors in detail is The Mask of Anarchy. I encourage my friends and readers to read it.
There is a great poem by Percy Bysshe Shelly titled The Masque of Anarchy that is worth quoting here. The poem was written in 1819 on the occasion of the Peterloo Massacre at Manchester, but it is quite relevant in the Liberian civil war context. I came across this poem while reading The Mask of Anarchy, the book I mentioned earlier. I will only quote the last stanza because it is the most relevant here.
Humankind eventually rises against oppression. That hope is what keeps us alive.
There are countless stories from Liberian civil war. Almost everyone you meet on the street has a story about their experience during the war. However, you don't really hear them unless you ask. And if you are like me, you do not ask strangers to speak about their suffering - past or present - unless they initiate such conversation. That is probably why I do not have as many stories as reporters or researchers. But I am quick to make friends with co-workers. Even though most of my Liberian co-workers left at the onset of war, there are a few who didn't leave until late, or didn't leave at all. I do not ask their experiences during the war because I think it is rude to be inquisitive about suffering. While having lunch yesterday, two of my Liberian colleagues started talking to each other about their experiences during the war that made my jaw drop. I don't usually like to talk about suffering, but two of these stories demonstrate determination of women in the face of adversity. Allow me to explain without going in to many details, in order to protect privacy.
One of my colleagues was 9 years old when the war started in the last week of 1989. Her father was afraid for his six daughters because the rebels were taking girls and women away in forced concubinage. The rebels usually demanded food and women. Her father hid his daughters whenever rebels were in town. He gave away most of his belongings, including his livelihood (a car - he drove a taxi), in order to save his daughters from the rebels. Every time a rebel group came knocking he would give away something to divert their attention from his children. Like most poor Liberians, he quickly ran out of things to give to placate the rebels. That's when he decided to send his daughters away. He split them in to two groups, so at least few would survive. He took one group, his wife took the other group. My colleague happened to be in the group with her mother. They traveled through the rain forest and military checkpoints, fleeing the rebels, going from one town to another, Guinea being their final destination. My colleague's sister (one of the six daughters) was a new mother with a 6 month old child. They were carrying the infant along with them. At one of the checkpoints, while waiting clearance, gun fire erupts and everyone is displaced running for life. In this melee, my colleague who is carrying the infant is separated from her mother and sister. Not knowing what to do, she runs with another group of people fleeing the gun fire while carrying the infant. My colleague was 10 years old at this time and even though she did not know what motherhood means, she knew how to take care of an infant. However, she didn't have anything to feed the baby. After fleeing the commotion, she joins another group of refugees and hides in the jungle. The group is hiding quietly so the rebels won't catch them and that's when the baby starts crying. In the words of my colleague, she has no milk in her breasts to feed the baby. That's when one of the women in the group came over and put her breast in the infant's mouth so he would stop crying. To quote my colleague directly "she put her titty in my nephew's mouth". She did this so the baby would be quiet and they would go unnoticed. Imagine a 10 year old fearing for life while another woman is breast feeding her nephew. I cannot even come close to imagining her situation.
After hiding in the bush (Liberian word for forest) for many hours and realizing the rebels left, the group emerges and starts looking for others who ran in different directions. My colleague was able to find her mother, but they never found her sister (mother of the infant). The two of them and the infant traveled for many days, hiding in the jungle at times to escape from rebels, and finally reached Guinea. All this while the infant was being breast fed by other women who were fleeing along with them. When they finally crossed the border in to Guinea, the UN sent a a truck to transport Liberian refugees from the border to refugee camps inside Guinea. However, most of the refugees, including my colleague, were too weak to be transported. That's when the UN set up tents right near the border to accommodate refugees.
I never asked what happened to the rest of her family.
 |
| Orphaned children during the Liiberian civil war. Picture courtesy of the Daily Beast |
The second story involves another colleague's friend. Although my colleague left at the very beginning of the war, her friend was not lucky to do so. The story will be gruesome to many of my friends who read my blog, so I will refrain from details. But I will say this: women like her deserve a special place in heaven for saving young girls from being raped and killed by rebels. How many women you know will offer their body to rebels in exchange for the life of a few young girls? It is amazing to listen what ordinary citizens can do when confronted with brutality.
Again, I never asked what happened to my colleague's friend and the girls she saved on that particular day. Some questions should be left unasked.
I feel it is the women and children that suffer the most during (and after) war. I think if any war mongers see the suffering encountered by women and children there will never be a war in this world. But then, it means war mongers are capable of rational thinking and emotions. We all know that is far from truth. I salute women everywhere who are courageous and kind, who can rule nations and nurture families and who are infinitely stronger than men in many situations.
In spite of all the atrocities, Charles Taylor still enjoys a following among some Liberians. In fact, some locals say he will be elected next President if he is freed from prison. It makes one wonder how someone like him can still enjoy support. Many unemployed former child soldiers still hold Charles Taylor in high regard. They call him "Papay" or "Papa Ghankay". Ghankay was a name Taylor adopted during the war in order to appeal to the indigenous tribes. Most of these ex-combatants were orphans who were recruited by Taylor's faction during the war. They see him as a father figure for giving them food to eat and a gun to fight. It is normal human tendency to revere the hand that feeds you when you are starving.
 |
| Liberians holding a rally in support of Charles Taylor. Pic courtsey of GlobalPost |
There is a great poem by Percy Bysshe Shelly titled The Masque of Anarchy that is worth quoting here. The poem was written in 1819 on the occasion of the Peterloo Massacre at Manchester, but it is quite relevant in the Liberian civil war context. I came across this poem while reading The Mask of Anarchy, the book I mentioned earlier. I will only quote the last stanza because it is the most relevant here.
"Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few."
Humankind eventually rises against oppression. That hope is what keeps us alive.
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