demma loot, demma shoot - in Fante Town

Friends - I am not one to exaggerate, am I? Would I lie to you and grandstand just to get some extra points? Would I showboat online to make you like me more? Come on too strong to seem 'with it'? I think the answer here is a resounding 'no'! I tell the truth. Therefore, please believe me when I say that I had an incredible weekend. It boosted my summer experience in Liberia tenfold. So many new experiences, so many new things to talk about. I will keep it short cause, you know, I'm at work and stuff, and instead focus on the pics. Here's the story though: I went to Liberia's second biggest "city," Buchanan with some Americans I've gotten to know here. The journey, itself, 4 hours in a packed car, was extraordinary. Highlights included: Going through the gigantic Firestone rubber plantation and a village next to the airport called, literally, Smell No Taste; going through Iron Gate -- an ominous, lord-of-the-ring-looking iron gate between two gigantic trees that, earlier, was the dividing-line between MODEL (MOvement for DEmocracy in Liberia), the Cote d'Ivoire-supported anti-Charles Taylor rebels operating in the east, and the Government forces; incredibly beautiful and misty scenery.

I saw, for the first time, a number of young girls going through the Sande ritual -- an extremely interesting woman's association that exists through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Its a hierarchically organized, highly secret, women's society that exists in opposition to the male secret society, Poro, and defends women's interests but also maintains strict rules on how women should act and think of themselves in society. The girls we saw had just completed their time of seclusion in the bush. This is a period of transition where they are taught, by other women, the values and outlook of womenhood and of Sande. This time usually involves some sort of cliterectomy (the clitoris and parts of the labia are removed) but I'm not sure if that practice is still mandatory. People here are less forthcoming with any criticism of this kind of thing. The girls enter as a group, live together alone in the forest as a group, go through the rituals as a group and all experience the pain and pride of becoming a woman together -- they emerge stronger in some ways I guess. The girsl we saw wore only a loin cloth and their whole upper body including their faces were painted in white. I walked by them in reverence unsure of what to say. Didn't feel comfortable snapping pictures. Hopefully y'all foolz understand.

Next we came to Buchanan. The place is tiny and waaaay smaller than any second-in-size city I've ever seen. It was once a popping place, you could tell, with many large dillapidated buildings and blown out old restaurants. The ubiqutous video clubs where you pay a small fee to watch a Nigerian action-movie (my favorite is one where the poster has a really vicious looking dude with an enormous gun, ostensibly looking for someone to cap -- the title: "I want your wife") or shitty copy of an American scary movie were even more ubiquitous here. Not much to do at night I guess. We were able to walk around a lot in the surrounding villages thanks to Marie who grew up in town and knew her way around a bit. We strayed off the paths and came through a lot of smaller dwellings. Some just bamboo huts, others abandonded and blown out bulidings. Kids came out like crazy, variously thinking we were the most exciting things to ever happen in their village and being absolutely terrified (not in a cute 'oooh a stranger' kind of way). Somehow we managed to make our way down to the water line and stumbled right onto an incredible Fante fishing village. I really can't describe the scenery properly and the pictures don't quite do it justice either but I was blown away. I've never seen anything like it: Sunset, black sand, loud angry water, heeps of bright blue and yellow fishing boats bopping up and down, corrugated metal houses sitting just on the bring of the water line, ominous clouds. We got two minutes of taking picture until we got surrounded by a mob of kids, all hilarious. At one point there must've been 20-30 kids around me all clamoring to have their picture taken. Instead I made up a silly dance and they just about exploded from laughter. Rich, a friend, took a picture of it. We'll see how it turns out. We spoke to the town master and to the young men in the village about their pressing issues: unemployment, water eroding their village grounds, and the black oily sand from an oil spill in the 1980s. The young guys were going 50 deep next week to Ghana in one of the fishing boats. 4 days on the high seas. Incredible.

Next day was amazing in a different way. We went to church and witnessed the whole service in Bassa. It was just what you would expect: lots of interaction, humming and hawing, clapping and dancing, and beautiful dresses. But it was the solemn and slow songs from the choir that were the most amazing. Picture a very large, beautifully dressed woman, eyes closed, one finger shaking at the crowd and at the sky as if giving a lesson, giving a two minute sing-songy recitation in Bassa and then the rest of the choir filling in every 2 minutes or so with a beautiful refrain.
We got in discretely in the back but were promptly ushered to the very front of the church where everyone could get a good look at us. Adding to the absurdity was a little drummer boy in the front, decked out in a Charles taylor t-shirt. No one batted an eyelash at this weirdness but we couldn't help stare.
Phew, I just wrote a lot more than I needed. Let's go to the pictures, what do you say?


Monkeys for sale in Monrovia


View from the car window


Women carrying wood over the river


Digital cameras are good because you no longer feel like an exploitative colonialist when you take pictures. You can show them to people:


Bossman's Workshop - get your wheelbarrow fixed here


"Take mah pictah!"


Fante town






Ok, I'm off to lunch. Will post more picture when I come back. Also, be on the look-out in the next couple of days for the next installment of 'FYSTRÄNING MIXTAPES"

Peaces -- MARCUS