Okra and Oprah

We had a day running through aspects of our 'agricultural transformation' programme of work, talking about the lower price of groundnuts (peanuts) over the border in Guinea and whether the data we collect for donor reporting should focus on okra or eddo (which is a potato-like crop). I love that avocados are known as 'butterpears' here. 'Avocado' draws a blank stare.

As on most days to fill in time between sessions, sobering conversations about war and death in Liberia. I need to read more about the causes of and buildup to the Liberian civil war but there is certainly a critical dynamic here between the 'indigenous' (not my word) Liberians and resettled freed slaves who came from the Caribbean and southern states of the US, who are known as 'Congo people'. I don't know why this name exists as there isn't a tangible link between these people and the Congo region, and I'm sure that the West African states suffered more from slave raiding than the Central African Congo basin.

What's fascinating is that the returnees have persisted as disproportionately influential in political and commercial life. Although former slaves when they arrived and as a society having suffered from untold oppression, the returnees were more educated than native Liberians so used that advantage to develop positions of power, which they have collectively maintained. It seems most Presidents until very recently have been Congo people, but they cannot be a large proportion of Liberian society even with intermarriage.

Surnames are a big indicator of some Congo person ancestry. Names that slaves would have acquired under their masters persist in Liberian society, spread through the generations. Roberts, Johnson, Green, Taylor, Harris. The fact that my name is so common here is less amusing now I realise former slave owners would have given it to their workers. It has become a much more cringeworthy conversation starter.

Charles Taylor the warlord orchestrator of conflict, himself a 'Congo person', used his position to keep Liberia's mosaic of tribal groups pitted against each other, in a desperate grab for power and wealth. The strategy was successful as the country was torn apart. It must be a precarious situation to be a Congo person if other Liberians feel that the conflict was fuelled because of manipulation by the powerful. Danny was telling us about this history and using terms such as 'returned slaves' and 'returnee families'. Even though the first wave came in the 1830s, the differences remain stark.

Wikipedia told me once that Oprah Winfrey traced her ancestry to a tribal group in modern day Liberia.

A dusty and smoky scene at Konia market as we went for an early evening tipple.