Zwedru bush meat market and further travels (viewer discretion advised)

Monkey bush meat

Monkey?...the fingers on the hand suggest it's a primate

The next morning, we had to wait for some documents before continuing onwards to Maryland. The carrier was driving through the night to meet us at our hotel is Zwedru and since he was expected to arrive around 9am we decided to walk around the city and soon stumbled upon the local market. The market was a typical African market similar to the ones that I have seen in other African countries.

Duiket meat

When i asked for a whole this was pulled from a bag

The market from the outside looked congested and small but as we entered we could see that it was a fairly good sized one. The entrance to the market was dominated by money exchangers and vendors selling common household goods and clothes. As we progressed further in we saw the real market housing the grocery section where they were selling home made peanut butter, local veggies, rice, pounded cassava, red peppers, palm nuts, cola nuts, and other edibles. It was all fine and interesting until I reached the back where I found the dark side of the market.

I recon its a civet or a genet

From a distance it seemed like any other meat market with rows of fish and red meat in the background but as we got a little closer something seemed different. It was not until I noticed a skull that I found out that I was standing in a bush meat market and the skull was of a monkey. Pretty soon I came across more bush meat but this time was the Duiker (Dike-er).

Another species of a money

Market entrance

Duiker is a forest dwelling antelope and is specially adapted to exist in the dense West African forests. I think I saw three distinct species of duiker. The duikers were widespread in the nearby forest and they are fast breeding so the existence of them at the market was somewhat understandable but what was more troubling was to see an unidentified species of Genet or Civet and some other species of monkeys. Some of the meat was dried so there was no way for me to find out the exact species.

Changing USD to Liberian dollars

Way to Sapo park....some day maybe!

In on of my earlier blogs I have already spoken about my ambivalence to the busy meat trade if looked from the angle of a less than privileged Liberian but there are some moments when I wonder if some actually genuinely prefer bush meat over domesticated meat.

A hunter we passed by who had just caught a Duiker



Soon we get a call saying that our documents had arrived and we returned back to the hotel to continue the second day of our travel. The real test of our pickup and the skill of our driver were going to be tested that day. The stretch of land that we were covering was passing through the dense rain forests of West Africa only occasionally passing through small hamlets. Most often these hamlets consisted of only a handful of mud hut. The journey on the second day through the forest was breathtaking, we in fact also passed a signboard leading towards Sapo National Park and I seriously thought of taking a detour and going there rather than work but better sense prevailed. Maybe someday I can return back and visit Sapo.

Some houses had inscription on their walls

Liberia is considered as one of the poorest countries in the world and this fact is clearly visible in Monrovia where most of the population of the country is concentrated in a relatively small piece of land. After watching (and a little interaction) with some of the locals along this region which is fairly remote and hard to access, I wonder who is really happy. Surely they are poor if we measure them by the generally accepted yardstick used around the world. But is that the right way to measure? Or is it really possible or reasonable to measure something like that.

Some hamlet on the way

It’s pretty interesting that humans want to leave behind perfectly happy lifestyles where less is more and move towards a society where more is less. Consider the people in Monrovia who do not live in rural areas but might have electricity, cell phones, public transport and other comforts of modern life but consider themselves as poor. They are willing to live in pretty squalid conditions in Monrovia to hopefully strike it big someday rather than be happy with the slightly less comfortable and mundane lifestyle in the jungles. It’s also not a case that’s unique to Liberia.

Lunch place at Fishtown

I prefered fried plantain as my lunch

It’s a pretty baffling trait of mankind that they always want more and are never satisfied with what they have which leads them on the path of sadness no matter how much of their desires are sated.

I also know that it’s the same feature of wanting more that has made mankind to be one of the most successful species to have inhabited earth and it would be hypocritical of me to conveniently ignore the fact that it’s due to this exact trait that I am sitting here on a Saturday afternoon on a comfy couch watching television and typing this blog on my laptop.

So maybe it’s just mankind’s unique blessing …and probably it’s biggest Curse too!

The first vehicle on our way that was stranded in the mud

A typical hut from the region of Grand Gedeh and River Gee

Kids selling bananas

Bridge over a stream



Our steaming pick up after a run through a mud pool



Getting back to the road, I have uploaded a few videos. The one below here is a collection of different sections of the road put together to show the condition of the road. The road was a real challenge since it was ungraded and unpaved and the wet mud made passing them extremely difficult. In fact as we got closer to the counties of River Gee and Maryland the surroundings got wetter and wetter which was surprising considering that we were traveling at the beginning of the dry season in Liberia. I was warned about the wetness of this region but I could scarcely believe until I saw it first hand.

The second video below showcases a collection of some of the sights along the way including quaint hamlets, bridge over the River Gee and entrance to Fishtown which is the administrative capital of the county of River Gee.

The last video below is a seven odd minute clip of a section of the road that is right at the border of the counties of River Gee and Maryland. When we arrived at the spot, it just seemed impossible that we could actually be able to pass that section. I got out of the pick up and decided to walk the whole stretch to get a better understanding of the condition first hand. Walking in that mud, we ended up with very slimy and dirty feet but stopped by at a stream further down the road to get ourselves cleaned up.

A little further, we crossed a ditch which was wet, slippery and so far down below the surface that the edge of the road surface just higher than my passenger side window. Around 8pm we finally arrived in Pleebo without any mechanical breakdown. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the several trucks and pickup that we passed that day.