Africa
“THE SWEDES ARE WAITING FOR YOU IN THE PARKING LOT,” said an early morning voice to me in a firm tone. I quickly ran down the stairs and left the building, only to find the Swedish Ambassador to Liberia and his whole team waiting for me in a Toyota Prado. My nose made out a…
WHY AM I SAYING ON EDGE IF EVERYTHING IS CALM IN LIBERIA? IS EVERYTHING CALM IN LIBERIA? Ladies and gentlemen: the moment of truth has arrived. We find ourselves in the decisive final round, the moment many Liberians have been anxiously waiting for: the presidential elections. Everyone has been summoned, to decide the future of…
I HAVE HAD A FEW DRINKS TOO MANY, and shit, now I forgot what I was going to say. Eeerm, basically with today’s post I intend to talk about those who leave Liberia. About those people you meet in this country and that some day or another will disappear into thin air, swish swish. That’s…
AT FIRST I THOUGHT THAT THE BODY THAT LAY THERE MUST BE THAT WOMAN WHO LOVES THE GENERATOR. That woman who usually spends the whole day stuck to the powerful diesel engine that spurts out burnt smoke into her face. And warmth into her soul. Warmth. That woman who almost always ends up fast asleep…
CONSISTENT WITH THE IDEA THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE ANIMALS who usually have dinner at night, I logically attended the collation at the Korean restaurant at Bushrod Island, Monrovia, in the evening. As you do. I walked up the entrance stairs and joined a group of twelve to fourteen people, speaking with their mouths, looking through their eyes,…
ONE DAY MORE In LIBERIA (ONE DAY LESS…) I am exhausted as I start to write. It’s been a hard day again and the last thing I fancy doing is tapping away at a cold keyboard. So. It’s time to evoke Stevenson and remind myself that not a day went by when the author of…
I GENTLY WALK INTO THE MINISTRY OF LAND, MINES AND ENERGY in Liberia, but nobody sees me. They are all there, but nobody sees me. They are asleep. The secretary, receptionist or whatever she is, is spread across the desk, her forehead against the surface and her arms stretched out, almost reaching out to the tiles…
ON THE UNSTOPPABLE ROAD TO INSANITY that stems from any mental insistence (please keep reading). Now. That I have just got back from Europe – from the “white world” – I want to scream out the following: In third place: when one is reunited with the land where one grew up after a considerable journey,…
WHAT IS YOUR NAME? It’s true. Every time you meet a Liberian and share a few seconds of your life, maybe a few minutes, they will ask you: “Your name?” “Carlos, my name is Carlos.” And then the greeting, clack, clack. Is Liberia. The other day I was on my way home, later than usual…
WE LEAVE GBARNGA BEHIND. It hits us that this time we are going for good and we are suddenly overwhelmed with sadness: the green and red has got under our skin by now. But before leaving Gbarnga, we have to attend several institutional appointments in the area. So we get into the Toyota Land Cruiser…