Things are slow in small town Liberia. Just like anywhere, when you settle into a routine and find you have time on your hands, you start noticing things in your community that you may have never noticed before. Sometimes puzzles appear. Andy recently shared this image with me.
Some of you may find this hilarious. Others may be baffled. Others horrified. Why would any African display the Confederate flag, the Stars and Bars, a symbol to many African-Americans of oppression? I’ve been in a few places in the world where something an American may associate with a particular meaning has an entirely different meaning to the locals, so I’m not totally surprised. Maybe the owner of this house received this as a gift, maybe he liked the design and colors, maybe it was the perfect size to cover the window.
However, this is Liberia. Its history is intertwined with the United States . It was born from a complex movement in the early 19th century that called for “repatriation” of freed American slaves to Africa, which led to the colonization of a swathe of Sierra Leone and the establishment of the city Monrovia, named for President James Monroe. The country was a colony of the United States, which many Americans don’t realize. And, the US did not recognize it’s independence (first declared by Liberians in 1847) until AFTER the Civil War. Given this, it’s hard for me to imagine that this flag doesn’t carry a pejorative meaning. I guess I could conjecture for a while, but I think I’ll just have to track down the home owner and ask him myself when I’m back in Vaye Town.