Collection of stories from Tubman Day weekend

Kid selling African civet

This past week Liberia celebrated (sic) a national holiday, its second for the month of November after one earlier in the month for the Liberian Thanksgiving which shouldn’t be confused with the American one. November 29th is a national holidays in honor of William Tubman, Liberia’s 19th president who was born this day in 1895. Digging into the annals of history I found that the last name Tubman was inherited by a group of slaves who were freed from service and assisted in their journey to Liberia by a white American lady named Emily Tubman. The former president was a direct descendent of these slaves who came to Liberia seeking liberty in the 1800’s.

Ground hog killed by a blow to the head

Liberia has another national holiday in March for their first president J.J. Roberts who was also honored by having the coastal town of Robertsport named after him. I have heard some people voicing an opinion that rather than having two holidays for two presidents, they should be combined into one to honor all past presidents similar to the President’s day in the US.

Civet, a kid and my car in the
background

Personally, having national holidays for presidents makes little sense because they were elected to serve the people and national holidays for some presidents and nothing for others seems even more absurd. It’s interesting that I write about this a day after arguably the most famous African president Nelson Mandela passed away. It will be viewed as a sad event by the world but was inevitable…he will live long in people’s memory even without having a national holiday dedicated to him.

Emmanuel with the hog and Evangelist
with "Poor no Friend"

Since the November 29th holiday has no spiritual, national, religious or cultural significance, most Liberians call this the “beach day” holiday…surely Tubman would be turning in his grave if he were to know this. Most folks actually were happy that the holiday fell on a Friday giving everyone a long weekend to unwind. Some like Moses, the guy who drives me around, does not even celebrate the day because he believes Tubman, who was in power for 26 years, did little for the development of the country. Moses even swears that he had affair with the queen of England but the reality was that he probably started off with the right mindset but got more authoritarian and lost touch with the people the longer he stayed in power; guess there is nothing like power to corrupt a person.

Way past coconut trees to the Buchanan beach

Rural house on the way to Buchanan

Jenil, an IT programmer for the company and Preety, his wife had asked me to join them for a day at the beach in Buchanan for the holiday and all it took me to confirm that I would join them was knowing that Preety was going to cook:)

Lunch time...roasted plantain

On the way to Gbarnga

They were supposed to leave early in the morning so I decided to join them a little later in the day. The impressive road to Buchanan, about 80kms from Harbel is a new one constructed by Chinese companies and who it seems are working on not only all of Liberia’s roads but all of Africa’s. I have seen this in Egypt, Sudan, and Gabon and even in my company’s roads through the farm.

The traffic on the road to Buchanan was literally non-existent and made for a very pleasant drive. Midway through my journey I saw a couple kids holding an animal with spots and as I passed I realized it was probably what the Liberians call a “Raccoon” so I got down to inspect a little closer. When asked if the animal was a raccoon the kids nodded in confirmation.

Yummy spiced crayfish

This is how the Liberia's roads will look like someday 

Now, I have heard Liberians mention raccoon but knowing that wild raccoon don’t exist in Africa I had long suspected it was a species from the Viverridae family...and most likely an African civet. My suspicions were fueled by seeing bits and parts of this animal in the bush meat markets but not having laid eyes on a complete specimen I wasn’t quite sure. I think I have even encountered one crossing the road on my way back from Monrovia late one night but it was dark and I was sleepy so wasn't able to identify it conclusively. Although the animal was dead, it was intact and that helped confirmed my hunch that it was indeed an African civet.

Weevil larvae in water to preserve them alive.
70 L$ for a dozen

Breaking through the bush into the paddy field

The hunter had caught it in his trap set deep in the bush the night before and offered to sell it to me for 20 US dollars. When I told him I was not interested a Liberian drove past and was offered the same animal in Liberian dollars for an amount equivalent to $10. I guess that’s what they call the “white man price or white man inflation”. To add to the confusion in the name of the animal some Liberians call it “Bush Dog”. According to Moses, rural, uneducated people who are supposed to be ill-informed call it a bush dog…hmmm…it begs the question on who is well-informed in the first place.

Kpatawee Falls

It was sad that such a beautiful animal was being sold for bush meat for such a meager sum but it is an unfortunate part of daily life here in West Africa. Further down the road I encountered a two hunters selling a “groundhog” which is again a species not found in Africa. Perhaps it is the influence of the freed slaves from America that results in this phenomenon of (incorrectly) using names of American animals for their physically similar looking African animals.

The hunters’ modus operandi is to use a dog to chase a groundhog out from it burrow towards the hunters who wait in ambush. The names of the hunters were Evangelist and Emmanuel and their dog was curiously named as “Poor no Friend”…perhaps indicating its loneliness. According to them a dog needs to be trained for the hunt since it is a pup. They said that they pour the groundhog’s urine into the pup’s nose to imprint its smell and somehow train it to be irritable at the sight of certain animals.

Waterfalls from top

Trying to catch the water

I finally caught up with Jenil and Preety at the beach in Buchanan and after a relaxing afternoon it was time to head back to Harbel. Later than evening I was invited to a Beaujolais Nouveau gathering hosted by a few French companies operating in Liberia. Getting there was a hassle as it seemed that the whole of Monrovia was returning from the beach. I couldn’t bear to wait for hours for the traffic to recede so I waved a motorcycle taxi down and we effortlessly weaved our way through the cacophony of noise, squabbles, smog and general confusion.
A few glasses of this fruity lightly fermented wine made for a perfect evening. The gentle breeze from the ocean at one of the posh hotels in Liberia, the bourgeoisie setting, and chatting up the life and tales of other expatriates was such a world away from the rural encounters earlier in the day.

I retired early for the day as the following morning I was to head to the Kpatawee waterfall in the nearby Bong country. It was a four hour journey on a road that I last embarked exactly 3 years ago on my way to the northeastern county of Maryland. At least this time it was not going to be a two day journey :)

Tree with thorns on its stem

Getting to Gbarnga, I met up with a few friends at the Cuttington University, one of the premier universities in Liberia and where my company sponsors several scholars each year. From the university, we forked away from the asphalt road which is being rebuilt and will eventually lead all the way to the border with Guinea.

An hour’s ride through small picturesque Kpelle hamlets, oil-palm plantations, and dense bush and we broke through into the middle of a well managed paddy farm past which the beautiful cascading waterfall covered in lush canopy lay. Liberia is hardly a well travelled nation and it does not boast many “typical” tourist attractions but it does have a few hidden gems and this attractive waterfall is certainly one of the few must see places in Liberia.

Paddy fields with forest in the background

Kpelle kids calling out "Chinese...Chinese"

I learnt that there was another falls located nearby but needed a 30-40 min hike through the forest to get to and since it was late in the afternoon I left it for another day. Although I did call Lionel on my way back telling him that I had scoped the next destination for us to go biking so hopefully I can return to this waterfall sometime early next year.

On the way back as we passed the small villages with mud brick huts, I got called at as Chinese by the several Kpelle kids. Its amusing but understandable as there are a few Chinese managing the paddy farms around the waterfall and the kids are probably not exposed to other cultures. In my time in Liberia I have been called a Whymann, a Lebanese and now a Chinese but I still wait to be called an Indian.

A pretty sunset with some palm trees and the towering cotton tree

Before I wind down my stories I wouldn’t want to forget one more incident. Sunday night (or Monday morning) my house got broken into. I remember hearing an unnatural creaking noise from my bedroom door. It took a few moments for my brain to register that this was not a dream but someone was stealthy trying to get into the room. I let out a “Heyyy” before I jumped out of the bed to chase him but had no chance of catching him. The thieves stole a few items but nothing that could not be replaced but the fact that they could brazenly break-in and enter the bedroom while I am asleep is somewhat unnerving.

Several good memories and a hairy moment but all in all a very eventful long weekend!