An African Queen in Mourning (Part 1)

Tubman Center for African Culture, Robertsport, Liberia

Our truck broke down at the top of an overview of Robertsport.  I’m kind of glad it did because it allowed us to to slow down on our whirlwind tour of the area and take it all in for a bit.  Robertsport is best seen on foot.  Before we tour this gorgeous town I want to take you inside an amazing building next to where we had broken down.  

Entranceway - Tubman Center for African Culture, Robertsport, Liberia

My Vai friend Jasper told me that it was called the Tubman Center for African Culture.  At one time it housed rare African artifacts and records that were sadly lost during the war.  Hopefully these items were simply looted and will one day be rediscovered and returned, but perhaps they are lost forever.  There is a feeling here as if the building were mourning her ravished treasures.  I seriously felt like I feel when I hear someone sobbing, but there was no sound except the whispering ocean breeze.  It was heartbreakingly beautiful.   I can still see her once great glory through the wreckage and perhaps I am not the only one…

 

Next time we'll explore upstairs...

  

Liberian Riddle On A Mural

Below is written this Liberian riddle which you can also watch presented in the following video...

The Riddle...

A man has a dream that a he is being chased by a lion.  So then he climbs up a tree.  Once he is up the tree he realizes there is a snake there with him!  The snake starts running behind him with the intention of biting him with its deadly poison.  So then the man ties a rope on a branch and starts to let himself down from the tree.  Then the man looks down and below him is an alligator waiting for him in the river below!  The man looks back up and sees a rat at the top of the rope chewing on it!  So the question is what must the man do in order to escape?  


[scroll down for answer]

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Wake up!

Murals And Hut Designs in Zondo

Before sharing the beautiful and interesting murals and designs I saw on the buildings in Zondo, I just want to say a few things about the amazing man who was our guide.  Arthur Crusoe is the sort of man who adopts war orphans and raises them as his own.  He is the sort of man that leaves a good paying job (by Liberian standards) in Monrovia so that he can oversee a school in rural Zondo to educate his people.  He is extremely overqualified for this job and also extremely underpaid for his work.  He shared with us stories from Zondo’s past and hopes for Zondo’s future.  Arthur is also one of the presenters that the people of Zondo picked to speak when the President of Liberia, Madame Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, visited [view here]. 

Back to the tour of Zondo…. I will let the pictures of the murals and designs speak for themselves although one of the murals involves a riddle-story that I will explain in full in a later post.