Glenna Gordon and Jina Moore look at Liberia's efforts to restore law and justice -- for victims of sexual violence, for communities in conflict and for the nation as a whole.
Liberia: Ma Ellen talk plenty plenty Liberian English
Published October 19, 2009
Jina Moore, for the Pulitzer Center
One of the luxuries of Monrovia is working in my native language -- almost. English is the official language of Liberia, and the lingua franca of all things government. But it's not really what the people speak.
Most Liberians speak colloqua, or Liberian English. It's not exactly a pidgin English, and not really English, either. What it is, exactly, is deceiving: An American English speaker like me hears a familiar word or two; I feel totally looped into the conversation, and then, out of nowhere, comes a series of sounds that makes me feel like I've got cotton in my ears.
But the language barrier works both ways. Here, Torwon Sulonteh-Brown, a radio producer for the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), explains her monthly Liberian English radio program, "A Conversation with the President" -- and how she kept on "Ma Ellen," as Liberians call President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation commission. (Watch this space for more on the TRC).
On February 27, Jina Moore was interviewed for the Washington Journal program on C-SPAN about her reporting on Africa's land issues for the
Reproduced with permission from The Christian Science Monitor.
Grantee
Jina Moore is an independent journalist who specializes in post-conflict and human rights reporting. The recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and of an Ochberg Fellowship with the Dart Center for...
