Bonnie Allen

FOR AUDIO VERSION OF THIS STORY, CLICK HERE. Imagine a nine-year old boy living in one of the poorest countries in the world. He is so hungry, that he steals a piece of fish from his mother. She punishes him, by burning his hands with hot coals. It’s an extreme case of child abuse that has garnered a lot of attention in north central Liberia. That, in itself, is unusual. Corporal punishment has been widely accepted in this West African country. The United Nations has issued reports condemning abuse in Liberia. Yet, cases are rarely reported, and never prosecuted. For more..here is my report... A nine-year old boy with big brown eye lifts his arms and opens his hands. Each palm is one big blister. “My momma, she say I steal,” says Jimmy* quietly, almost whispering. His aunt, Cynthia Dolo, stands next to him near a mud-walled house in Ganta, northern Liberia, and points at a stack of charred coals in a nearby cookstove. “[The mother] take and burn the little boy...she closed the boy’s hand on [the hot coals]. Both sides she did. One palm and then the other.” According to Jimmy’s aunt and grandmother, the young boy stole a piece of fish from a pot of soup. His mother whipped him with a stick, poured chili pepper on him, then burned his hands with hot coal. The grandmother reported the case to the Liberia National Police. Then, Detective Jones Dweh from the Women and Children Protection Unit marched the boy to the local radio station. Jimmy was paraded in front of reporters while the policeman demanded the radio station name and shame JImmy’s mother on-air. In doing so, she was publicly convicted of a crime without trial and the confused and scared young boy was thrust into the spotlight. “I want to inform the public that they should avoid beating the child to that extent, which would be a violation of the child’s rights,” explains Detective Dweh. With Jimmy’s identity and trauma exposed to the community, the issue of child abuse had become the talk of the town. Human rights monitor Jesco Davis celebrated the high-profile case. The Liberian man investigates cases in Nimba County for the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission. He maintains that most parents in Liberia do not harm their children. However, he blames the few extreme cases of violent punishments, such as Jimmy’s case, on Liberia’s violent history stretching over almost two decades. “I mean these are things that happen after a war. When you live in a country that had a prolonged war. Some people still have the war behavior,” rationalizes Davis. Under Liberian law (Section 5.8 of the Penal Law of Liberia), parents are allowed to use force to physically discipline their children below 18 years. Recently, the United Nations has recommended the country reform its law and ban corporal punishment. The UNMIL Human Rights and Protection Section documented several extreme child abuse cases in its November 2007-June 2008 report. Incidents include: -- A 10-year old male child from Kpannay Town, Grand Bassa County was severely beaten and his right hand burnt allegedly as punishment for stealing L$350 (US$6). The father of the boy was arrested, but later released due to pressure from the family who indicated that he is the only earner for the family. -- In Nimba County, a 14-year old girl from Ganta sustained 3rd degree burns on 16 February when her aunt poured boiling oil and burning plastic over her as punishment for stealing a cell phone. Neighbours rescued the child and reported the incident to the LNP in Ganta on 18 February 2008. The suspect was arrested, then released. No further action has been taken. -- In Bong County, a man reportedly forced his foster child to eat the excrement of her 3 year old brother because she had not cleaned it. The man was arrested for endangering the welfare of a child and the case is before the Courts. The victim was placed in a safe home and subsequently reunited with her biological father Jesco Davis lists several other cases, including some where the alleged perpetrator was arrested by police. “The grandfather... told the child to clean the toilet and the child said no. So what he did is rub feces on the child... He was arrested and taken to the police station, so we are trying to follow up to see what happens next.” But what happens next is likely nothing. The County Attorney for Nimba County, Hector Quoiguah, explains that more serious capital offenses demand his time. “We pay a lot of attention to murder, rape, gang rape, armed robberies. But you know, cases that take priority are capital cases. Felonies. But really, no child abuse, to be frank with you.” So, despite the gossip and media attention, it’s likely, Jimmy’s case will be buried under files on rapes and murders and eventually forgotten - the harsh reality of a war-ravaged country. Jimmy lives with his grandmother now. According to police, his mother won’t face criminal charges and she won’t receive any counseling. As for Jimmy, the quiet boy seems overwhelmed. It’s clear that he will live with this trauma long after his blisters heal. *Although the boy’s real name was reported by local media in Liberia, I’ve chosen to give Jimmy* a pseudonym to protect his identity.

As the sun sits low in the sky over Palala, a village in central Liberia, a man uses a megaphone to call community members together. Three young women direct the growing audience into a circle, forming a dirt stage with a backdrop of mud-huts and laundry lines. Precious Howard, Beatrice Flomo, and Felicia Vesee are members of a Carter Center-sponsored drama group, called the Modia Drama Club, that uses skits to sensitize rural and illiterate Liberians about the rule of law and human rights issues. In the first skit, a Liberian man and woman demonstrate the typical ‘roles’ for husbands and wives in this West African country. As the couple walks home after a long day of working on the farm, the man carries only a cutlass while his pregnant wife plods along several feet behind him, straining under the weight of a young child on her back and a heavy load on her head. They ask the crowd - what is wrong with this scene? “Is it right that if your woman goes on the farm, suffers whole day, and while coming home you don’t even have wood on your head?” questions Precious Howard, surveying the crowd. “You the man. And you’re way in front, while the woman is way behind.” In the second act, the drama group demonstrates how work should be evenly distributed between men and women. The husband carries a child on his shoulders and a water jug in his hand as he walks behind the woman. It’s a simple skit. But in this patriarchal society, it challenges deeply-entrenched gender stereotypes about male dominance and a woman’s role as homemaker, child-bearer, laborer, and breadwinner. “The way the man sees the woman, if he thinks she is his slave, then he thinks he can beat on her or force her whichever way he wants,” explains Howard. The Town Chief’s wife, Victoria Gbarnjah, sits in the front row and applauds loudly. She says Liberian women have historically been treated as servants by their husband and forced to cater to him from morning until night. “Our fathers used to force our mothers...but now it’s changing. The law has said we are not slave for man this time,” says Gbarnjah. “We are not the property of man...We are the helper...Those are the changes you saw in the drama.” Behind the elderly woman, Victoria Gbarnjah’s husband lays in a hammock under a thatched shelter. The Town Chief for Palala chews a kola nut and watches the drama. He has allowed the Modia Drama Club to present its skits in front of his hut, even though he knows the production will challenge some traditions that he values. For example, local chiefs and elders have traditionally administered justice in their communities. The problem is that traditional methods often include physical tests, such as forcing accused perpetrators to swallow dangerous herbs or cocktails to test their guilt or innocence. These same traditional leaders often issue arbitrary rulings based on prejudices, biases, or payment. To address this, the three young women use two skits to demonstrate the rule of law. In one skit, Precious Howard brings a rape case to the Town Chief to settle. But he rejects the case and directs her to police. “It’s not my case. Civil case is for me, but I can’t talk on rape cases. You must take it to court. Rape cases, murder, they are not cases for Town Chief. They are court cases,” says the character of Town Chief, speaking in the local language Kpelle. In the next drama, two families try to privately settle a rape case. The family of the alleged perpetrator offers to pay the victim’s family to make the case disappear. Beatrice Flomo intervenes and demands the case be taken to authorities. Again, important messages. But, the reality is, after 14 years of civil war in Liberia, the formal justice system is often dysfunctional and corrupt. Even when a case is reported to police, or proceeds to court, the case can be compromised through bribery, corruption, tampering, or incompetency, at every level. So, while these dramas direct Liberians to access the formal justice system, they have little trust or confidence that the justice system will serve them properly. Howard, Vesee, and Flomo acknowledge that, but they believe the system will eventually improve. For now, the bright, articulate young women describe how public awareness is already changing the way men and women behave. “Some women didn’t even know their rights. Some men didn’t know that it was wrong to rape their wives. They didn’t even know it was rape. But, after our drama, they know better,” Precious explains enthusiastically, clearly passionate about what she does. The Modia Drama Club has given more than 75 performances throughout Bong County in the past year. For more information on the Carter Center's work in Liberia or Q&A With Oscar Dolo, Director of the Modia Drama Club

Some of the Liberian women featured on-air during the rural radio project titled "Women Be Heard." To Listen to female student Hawah KpandewahCLICK HERE To Listen to single mother Lydia KondehCLICK HERE To Listen to rural women group leader Rebecca K. MessahnCLICK HERE

An angry mob torches a government land-cruiser in Ganta, Liberia after it killed a motorcycle ‘taxi’ rider in a head-on collision.The Toyota land-cruiser belonged to the Liberia Ministry of Health, and was reportedly transporting pharmaceutical drugs to the southeast region. The driver and occupants fled the scene, just minutes before a group of vigilantes lit it on fire. A police investigation concluded that the motorcyclist, Kingston Gborlay, known as "Sunday Boy," was driving recklessly. Six young men have been arrested for allegedly leading the mob. For more information on Mob Justice, and its prevalence in Liberia, see this article by my friend and fellow journalist Rebecca Murray: When the Mob Prevails (IPS Africa)

For the past month, I've been leading a radio project in northcentral Liberia called "Women Be Heard." On Dec. 3rd, five radio stations included women and girls into every program on-air for 15 hours. For more information, go to www.bonnieallen.ca