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Meet Liberian Writer Jerry Gbardy

By  | 13 October 2014 at 05:45 | 1691 views

I met Liberian community activist and writer Jerry Gbardy (photo) in the early 90s in Freetown, Sierra Leone, while I was one of the editors in the now defunct Freetown newspaper, the New Breed. It was one of the best newspapers in the country at the time but was hammered by the NPRC military junta in 1995 after the publication of a report of diamond smuggling by some members of the junta including then junta leader Captain (Rtd) Valentine Strasser. Most of the senior staff and management of the paper were subsequently arrested and incarcerated at the Pademba Road Maximum Security prison for one month. By the time they were released the paper was effectively dead.

When I met Jerry, the Liberian civil war was in full swing and he and thousands of his compatriots had sought refuge in Sierra Leone and were living at the Waterloo Refugee Centre outside Freetown, the capital, under the protection of the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Jerry was then Chairman of the Centre and he and other members of the executive committee used to come to our newspaper offices on Bathurst street in Freetown where we would conduct interviews with them on the situation at the centre to make known their concerns to the government, UNHCR and the outside world.

I met Jerry again over 14 years later in Vancouver, Canada, where I had relocated and where Jerry and his family had been living for some time. A couple of months ago Jerry called me to tell me he was writing a book on his war experiences in both Liberia and Sierra Leone and sent me a few chapters to look at. I did some editing and gave some advice. Again, a few weeks ago, Jerry called me to say he had finished the book and over coffee in New Westminster, near Vancouver, he gave me one of the first copies of the book sent by the publishers.

It was one of those books difficult to put down once you start reading them. I finished reading it in two sittings. Here is an interview I did with Jerry by email on his wonderful book, one of the most captivating memoirs I have ever read:

Gibril Koroma: Thank you very much Mr. Gbardy for this interview on your very interesting memoir entitled Painful Journey. In my opinion your book is not only about you and your family but it’s also a slice of the civil war history of both Liberia and Sierra Leone. It has another component that makes it all the more enthralling and that is its frank and honest look at corruption in its many ramifications in both countries. Do you agree with my analysis and if so why did you write it this way instead of just focusing on yourself and your family?

Jerry Gbardy: I certainly do agree with your analysis. I fled Liberia because of the war and lived in Sierra Leone where another vicious war was fought. I lived through and experienced those terrifying and desperate conditions. In talking about myself, I would have done myself and readers a great disservice had I not mentioned why I fled my native country and resided in Sierra Leone. In narrating why I fled, I was duty bound to trace a bit of Liberian history, on why the war was launched. Again I was compelled to touch on the issue of corruption in Liberia and Sierra Leone, because corruption in higher and lower places in these two countries is a major cause of why these countries are still languishing in the Third World or probably the Fourth World category in the socio-economic development sphere.

GK: Towards the end of the book you devoted a few pages to national development in Liberia and offered solutions on how Liberia can move forward. Why did you do that? There must be a reason for that.

JG: It is my way of offering solutions to the problems that led to the war so that the nation will not go down the path of self-destruction again. After the war, it is imperative that the people in the nation must reconcile their differences so that they will live in peace and harmony again which will ultimately translate into political and economic stability. It is good to state the problem but it much more important to offer solutions to the stated problem.

GK: Now let us go back to the beginning of this captivating book. The narrative on your childhood in Tappita, Nimba County, Liberia, is one of the most spellbinding sections in the book. A lot of space was devoted to your soccer prowess in school but even though you and your friends loved soccer very much, none of you wanted to be a professional soccer player probably because soccer players in Liberia and other parts of Africa did not make much money at the time (70s and early 80s). Another reason is that you all wanted to be somebody in the country in some high profile job in or out of the country. Is that a reasonable assessment?

JG:Yes, your assessment is reasonable and fair. In those years, we did not think about going professional because the opportunity was not available. In rural Liberia where there were no newspapers and where no television signals could reach us, news about our soccer ability was only spread by word of mouth, which was confined to our immediate locale and its surroundings. People in Monrovia, the capital, did not know about us let alone the whole of Liberia. We did not have the means by which to showcase our talents on a larger national or international stage. So our ultimate goal was to get an education as a means of getting better opportunities in the future but at the same time we played soccer, a game that we so dearly loved, which was our main source of fun and popularity.

GK: The civil war in Liberia was essentially a fight for supremacy between two ethnic groups, the Krahns and the Gios. You found yourself in the largely complicated but not uncommon position of being a Krahn who grew up in the largely Gio Nimba county and who has more Gio and Mano (cousins of the Gio) friends than Krahn friends. Thus, you were able to understand the feelings of both sides since you belong to both in a way. Now, having such a background do you think war in Liberia could have been avoided at the time? If so what do you think the then President Samuel Doe (a Krahn from the largely Krahn Grand Gedeh county) could have done to avoid war or was it hopelessly inevitable?

JG: I think the war would have been avoided had the military just gone back to the barracks as they promised in 1980 when they overthrew the Tolbert government. Because Samuel Doe (Krahn) announced his intention of running for president which did not sit well with then Commanding General Thomas Quiwonkpa (Gio), that created friction between the two top coup-makers, which dragged their many tribal followers into the friction that led to the war.

GK: Your book is full of the grim realities of war including mass murder and according to other writers, cannibalism. Did you at any time before the war think Liberians could behave in such a way, could be so savage and inhuman to their fellow citizens? Some people say it was due to ethnic hatred, a huge desire for revenge and unhindered use of dangerous drugs. But the level of violence was so high that one sometimes wonders whether there are more fundamental reasons. I once read somewhere that the animosity between the Krahn and the Gio is ancient, going back several hundred years. What do you think?

JG:That Liberians would behave in such barbaric ways toward one another beats my imagination. Prior to the war, all those years I was growing up, I saw Liberians as friendly, peaceful, jovial and neighbourly people. As a tradition, people in rural areas resolved their differences under the palaver hut over gourds of palm wine and those in urban settings did likewise over bottles of Club Beer. All of a sudden, that changed and barbarity took hold. I agree, dangerous drugs also played a major role in the commission of those barbaric acts.

GK:Your chapter on Sierra Leone from Bo Waterside-Sierra Leone (Gendema) to the Waterloo refugee camp was very tragic although sometimes sprinkled with funny moments. Sierra Leone’s war was not about ethnic groups tearing each other apart but about bad governance and greed. It was also very brutal and very savage. You were also shocked by the level of corruption displayed by Sierra Leonean government agents right from the border to the capital, Freetown. In fact one of the reasons the war spread so quickly in Sierra Leone at the time was the massive corruption at all levels of government including the police and the military. Do you agree, based on your experiences in that country?

JG: Oh yes, I do agree. During my years as a refugee in Sierra Leone, I was surprised to see corruption so widely practised in the open. People in government offices were not ashamed to tell you to give them something under the table before they would provide any service for you. It was a normal way of life.

GK: You were shocked by the difference between what you were told or read about Egypt and the reality when you landed in Cairo for post-graduate studies. I also found it laughable when you wrote that a lot of Egyptians do not consider themselves Africans. I also experienced that, talking to an Egyptian I met in Paris several years ago. What do you think is responsible for this kind of nonsense?

JG: Of course they are Arabs and not Africans. But what is appalling is that many of them do not believe that they are in the continent of Africa. It is because a small part of the country, the Sinai Peninsula, is situated across the Suez Canal in the Middle East, that makes many Egyptians to believe that they are in the Middle East.

GK: Finally do you plan to write another book on yourself or Liberia? I think you should keep writing because your style is very fluid and entertaining although you deal with very serious issues. Is another book already developing in your mind?

JG: I am thinking about that. But first I will be monitoring the circulation level of this current one, Painful Journey.

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