From Liberia to Ghana: A Refugee's Vision

September 14, 2005
By Florence Gbolu and Gabby Kalaw

Liberian Security forces had just thrown him into a ditch and Rocky was still trying to put together what was happening to him. His dreams of becoming a famous journalist were just beginning to come true, and in a matter of minutes his whole life was being turned upside down once again. Were it not for the rigid security around the neighbouring American rubber plant outside his radio station, Rocky would probably still find himself in the grip of the three security agents that had come to arrest him that night. He had just finished his usual nighttime talk show earlier that evening, more than five years ago on April 11, 2000 in Harbel. Rocky just finished locking up the station and on his way out, he was unsuspectingly greeted by three men from the Liberian police forces. “They pointed at me, ‘That’s the guy!’ and came up to me. One of them had a gun.“They told me, ‘Our commander wishes to speak with you,’” Rocky recalled. “I asked them who their commander was and they just told me that I would see when I met him. I went with them and they were rough, beating me with a club.”As he was marched towards the police vehicle, it was then that the rubber plant’s security guards passed by on their nightly rounds. “ When they saw the car coming, they panicked and threw me into a close-by ditch. I heard them say, ‘Let the car pass and we will deal with him so he will never forget.’“I was still trying to think of what was going on, but they wouldn’t tell me anything. Thanks to one of the stringent security officers I wouldn’t know what would become of me.”Rocky was not going to sit around and do nothing, and when the rubber company’s security patrol made its way near, he climbed out of the ditch to wave it down. They stopped to pick him up, and fortunately the patrol’s commanding officer was a good friend of his. That was his last night in Liberia. Like many in his community, the rubber plant’s patrol officer, Johnson, knew Rocky well. At 20 years old, Rocky received a letter of appointment to work as a newscaster at the Radio station in his hometown of Harbel. As he excelled in his new job, he was promoted to director of programmes and he started with a talk show called “Others Views,” involving plenty of discussion about political viewpoints and human rights issues. One particular issue the show tackled, drew the ire of representatives of Liberia’s Executive Mansion Special Security Unit (EMSSU) - the private security force for Liberia’s President at the time, Charles Taylor. As the new programme director, Rocky received a tip about two women who claimed that they were raped by some members of the EMSSU. The station found the claims legitimate, as the officers themselves admitted to the rapes. Rocky decided to put the issue on air for discussion. He invited the claimants, local opinion leaders, and the head of the EMSSU onto the show for a panel discussion. The EMSSU chief could only uncomfortably dodge everyone’s questions, and only really said that the whole incident was ‘unfortunate.’A couple of days later, Rocky received an anonymous letter telling him to “be very careful if he still wanted to be able to continue with his job,” and declaring that he could not defame an entire company of security forces and get away with it. When he reported this to the EMSSU chief who was the guest on his show, Rocky was assured that nothing would happen to him. The next day, however, when Rocky returned home, his neighbours told him that some men had been looking for him, and that they would be back for him. Again, he reported this incident to the head of EMSSU, and again he received reassurances about his safety.Rocky told to his good friend Johnson everything that had happened to him. “If you are threatened of your life, its no child’s play,” Rocky remembers his friend telling him. “Then he told me that his only suggestion is that I should get out of town, and it should be now. Then he offered to take me out of town that night, and asked if I wanted to pass by my house to pick up any things, but I was scared and thought they might be waiting for me at my house.”Johnson drove him right then from Harbel, to the border of Cote d’Ivoire where Rocky then found a bus to the Ivorian capital, Abidjan. “I didn’t feel like leaving Liberia because I felt that it was my home, and because of the fact that my father died serving his country. It should be appropriate that I die there.” When he was 13 years old, during the last war, Rocky had already lost his father who was a Captain in the Liberian Army and killed by rebel forces. In the following war, his mother and siblings disappeared from Harbel, and Rocky lost all contact with them. “I thought they were dead, like my father.” He was determined to make it in Liberia, and put himself through school, but it was now Rocky’s turn to disappear. His dreams were dashed and Rocky became a political refugee.Today, Rocky finds himself in Ghana. He lives in Accra, and works in Budumburum, a United Nations sponsored refugee camp situated close to an hour West of Accra. It is here where he continues on with his dream of journalism. In Abidjan he met Jermaine, who recommended that Ghana was a much safer place because of Cote d’Ivore’s political instability. Jermaine himself was ready to leave, and helped Rocky get to Ghana and enroll in Journalism school. While writing for some Ghanaian media, Rocky met another Budumburum resident, who saw that the camp needed a public voice of its own. Ghana’s media poorly covered most news from the camp, and most of the camp refugees did not have a source of information for news about their home, Liberia; so together with his new friend, they established The Vision. The Vision is distributed monthly on paper to the residents of Budumburum and is now even online. Slowly, it is growing and making itself known. And along with it, Rocky is getting a renewed chance at journalism, and at being a voice for Liberians. “I enjoy being in Ghana because it is peaceful but I want to go back and help build up my country, and Ghana has given me hope.”The Vision has also given Rocky new hope. With the repatriation of dozens of Liberians from Budumburum over the past month, copies of The Vision were handed out to the Liberian patriots at Kotoka airport. The Vision’s staff wanted to publicize its efforts to those in Liberia. One copy made its way into the hands of someone back in Harbel, who recognized her son’s name in the paper. It was almost a month ago when Rocky was told that his Mother had called The Vision, looking for him. “Are you sure it was my mother?” said Rocky of his initial reaction. “I was told that she was going to call back in a day or two, so I was able to talk to her a couple days after that. I thought for the longest time that they were dead, like my father.” He has since spoken to her regularly and thought about meeting his mom again, but he would first like to see what will happen after the Liberian elections come this October. “She told me that every time she hears my voice, she is reminded of my father.” -Names in this story have been changed.