Liberia retold

Sep 18th, 2009 3:49 PM UTC
By Helen Palmer

This week I went along to the London launch of a new book called “Long story bit by bit: Liberia Retold”. Tim Hetherington is a British photographer who now works for Vanity Fair magazine based in New York. In 2003 he travelled behind rebel lines in Liberia as the country’s civil war was coming to a head. He’s been returning ever since, documenting the process of how a shattered country tries to put itself back together again.

I spent time in Liberia in 2003 and 2004 with Oxfam, so the book has a special resonance for me. The overriding memories I have of the country are of the extreme stoicism of a people forced to endure the unimaginable. Most women I spoke to had been raped; most people had lost family members and homes, often repeatedly. I’ll never forget visiting an impromptu refuge in the capital Monrovia where displaced families were camping on the floor of a vast temple. It was squalid and flea ridden, and yet in the middle of the room we found and filmed a man ironing creases into a crisp white shirt. Tim’s photographs capture this spirit of survival and dignity, as well as the brutality of the war. The book includes the personal testimonies of a range of individuals – from infamous female rebel fighter “Snake Girl”, to anti corruption fighter Frances Johnson-Morris, or environmental activist Silas Siakor. It also naturally focuses on the story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female elected Head of State. So while its images are often shocking, it also makes for inspiring reading.

-Helen Palmer

TAGS: Africa, Liberia