Africa

Some of the New Narratives team,
November 2011.

I spent most of 2011 as country director for New Narratives in Monrovia, Liberia. This page features a selection of my solo reporting and work with the amazing New Narratives team. Together, we reported on the presidential and general elections; the spillover effects of the civil conflict in Ivory Coast, including reports from Ivorian refugee camps and profiles of Liberian mercenaries who were recruited to fight on behalf of the two men vying for the presidency; teenage prostitution; drug trafficking.



I also assisted in the coverage of Liberia's 2011 general elections for The New York Times. My work is archived here. The day before the runoff election which Winston Tubman and George Weah asked supporters to boycott a deadly skirmish between police and protesters left a disputed number dead. Protesters, some wearing CDC t-shirts, and people in communities near CDC's Sinkor headquarters, fled when demonstrators' rocks pitched at police vehicles were returned with tear gas and live ammunition.

An arrest is made during a march in Monrovia in which at least one person was killed the day before Liberia's presidential run-off election, November 2011. E. Schmall

Fighting for Survival: New Narratives executive director and co-founder Prue Clarke and I co-wrote this widely cited piece on Johnson Sirleaf's tough re-election bid.

A quiet moment for Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Alex Majoli/Magnum for Newsweek. 

I attended the rallies of the main parties vying for the November 2011 elections. At the Unity Party rally, I was unexpectedly launched in front of the president!

Both the UP and the CDC saw huge turnouts, though the CDC's were overshadowed by the news that day that incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Some agencies erroneously reported that CDC assembled to protest the award. This isn't true. They had already gathered for the last big bash before the vote, hoping to send football icon George Weah and his running mate Winston Tubman to the highest office.

Liberian Mercenaries Detail Their Rampages in Western Ivory Coast

My scoop with New Narratives fellow and FrontPage Africa writer Mae Azango on Liberian mercenaries' tales of mayhem in Ivory Coast.

Karmo Watson, a professed mercenary who fought in the violent election aftermath in Ivory Coast in 2011, with his children in the Rock Spring Valley slum of Monrovia. April 2011, E. Schmall.

A selection of entries from the "reporter's notebook" I kept in Liberia.

An Ivorian refugee with her infant son at a refugee camp near Ganta, Liberia.

Live from the Opposition Compound

PYJ

The Ambassador

The Video Club

The Peacekeeper

Sledgehammer Lady

Runners

Red Beret

Zeal for War

Palm Grove

The Visitors

A Night on the Town

A Day at the Beach

Women's Empowerment in the Liberian Bush

In the L.I.B.

Packing List