By Mark N. Mengonfia, mmenginfia@gmail.com
Western-styled ground breaking ceremony has been held in the heart of one of Liberia’s traditional shrines in the west of the country.
Grand Cape Mount County was a scene of action on Monday, December 11, 2019
action, seen men women displaying their African tradition amidst a rare ceremony.
It was at a program marking the official groundbreaking ceremony of
‘Alternative Economic Activities for Traditional Practitioners’.
The program before its official commencement saw titled men, women
traditional dancers visiting their Traditional Bush to perform some
traditional practices in line with their culture.
Masked dancers later appeared dressed in culture attires, but with
shoes on their feet, unlike in the past when they danced barefooted.
After the long speeches delivered by partners of the Traditional
Council of Chiefs and Elders before the official groundbreaking
ceremony, Chief Zanzan Karwor, National Chairperson of Chiefs and
Elders of Liberia sought permission from all the traditional
practitioners at the occasion before proceeding to the traditional
shrine.
Chief Zanzan started his statement in his regular broken Liberian
English by saying “my mother, my ma them, I going to turn the thing
around oo, I carrying the shaver to it now ooo, I must go do that?
Although the respond from the gathering was poor with just few voices
coming out, but chief Karwor was quick to say “okay all of your
greed(agreed) , I am going to do it now and when I do it, all of you
must be careful oo, don’t blame me but blame yourself; your let go”.
Chief Karwor gave a disclaimer before proceeding with titled
men and women, including ‘nonmembers’ of their society to the
traditional bush or shrine, which over the years nonmembers have no
permission to enter therein.
Breaking grounds for the construction of the Alternative Economic
Activities for Traditional Practitioners, Chief Zanzan Karwor prayed
that the cite will help provide the alternative for traditional
practitioners.
As Chief Karwor and others were performing the groundbreaking
ceremony, an elderly woman believed to be in her 50s fighting to hold
back tears was heard saying “Eh money” as she folded her hands across
her breast and walked away, leaving the rest of the people at the
shrine, where the official ground breaking was taking place.
In an attempt to conduct an interview with her she said” my son, what
you want me say, our big, big people decided then what you want me
say?”
The ‘Alternative Economic Activities for Traditional Practitioners’ is
a project being piloted in five of Liberia’s 15 counties with the
intention of taking the minds of those women who practice or are
practicing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Accordingly, when the piloting of the Alternative Economic Activities
for Traditional Practitioners succeeds in the first five counties of
Liberia, it will be introduced to other parts of the country and when
that is successfully done, the issue of female genital mutilation will
be a thing of the past as there will now be an alternative to that
practice.
The unanswered question now is, what now makes the African tradition
which has been practiced for ages, centuries evil or harmful while
same sex marriage stands as human rights issues?.
Traditionalists have considered the involvement of donor’s
institutions into the Liberian tradition as Western infiltration which
they said will have a lasting effect on culture practices in the
country.