A Far West, A Mushroom City

I think I bought these flashcards on eBay a couple years ago. Printed in Italy in 1978-79, they must be part of a larger set of fast-fact cards on places around the world. They would suggest something educational, although in reading the short summary on the back suggests that either these were for an adult audience in the pre-digital age or that pupils from thirty years ago were under a much higher expectation for reading comprehension than would be the case today—with terminology like “autochthonous peoples” and “insalubrious districts” casually included the explanatory text. 

The card presents a dynamically industrializing state, with the orderly and ultramodern Freeport on the front, and much of the back discussing trade and economics. The tabulation of figures is also remarkable: Liberia exported 250 million dollars worth of goods in that year, 90% of which was iron and rubber, or around 800 million dollars in 2013 inflation adjustment. 

As mentioned in a post from a few months back, 2010's figure was 823 million dollars, although a third of this was the offshore ship registry. The whole country had only 1.2 million people; Monrovia only 180,000. There are probably more than 1.2 million people in greater Monrovia today. My favorite sentence, unquestionably, is “…Monrovia, which until then had looked like a Western film city with twisted wooden posts, developed and acquired one of the finest ports of West Africa, which became a free port.” Great sentence, although I cannot imagine that the unfamiliar reader would be able to understand the connection between a wild west film set and pre-modern Monrovia. Although this was enough for the front of the card to declare Liberia “An African ‘Far West.’”

The card for Abidjan is perhaps even more fascinating. First, the image itself is so banal as to be mesmerizing; it seems to be calling attention to how remarkable such an ordinary scene of an office building parking lot was in sub-Saharan Africa before 1980. The back caption states that the block is “the Ivory Coast data-processing centre at Abidjan.”

The remainder of the back text is mostly devoted to an unusual description of Abidjan's socio-economic  “hierarchy” —the Europeans concentrated in the more attractive districts of Plateau, Cocody and Marcory, the industrial zone in Petit-Bassam. Then there are the majority-African districts: Adhamé, Koumassi— “high-rise towers of rented flats,” an intriguing image; and then “the ‘areas of spontaneous settlement,’ or shanty-towns.” 

Then: “as fast as these insalubrious districts are renovated to clear them of the slums, new ones spring up alongside to house the influx of immigrants from Upper Volta, Mali, Nigeria, etc.” The echo of an earlier, imperially-sactioned racism informs a modern sociological assessment. The final two paragraphs summarize the economic sectors in almanac form. “Abidjan really is a mushroom city,” it declares. 

These cards not only recall the pre-decline era of post-independence, when Africa hummed with progress and industrialization; for me they also remind me of early childhood memories, flipping open the family Atlas or taking down a volume from the Encyclopedia set, to look up a distant, exotic city or country, described in a handful of paragraphs. The brief, essential words conjured the cityscapes in my mind: “a tourist complex on the lagoon,” —what would a ten year old American kid see? Rare was the encyclopedia image of an African city in those days, and even if the entry had an illustration, it was but one small photograph in the decades before Google image search. It was left to interpretation, and the imagination.

Moved 2 Maputo

I've never been to Mozambique, but earlier this summer, both the title and the subject matter of this entry to The Economist's Baobab blog, titled 'Moving to Maputo" both hit home. The topic was the increasingly-common phenomenon in African capitals, where international-standard residential properties (those that ex-pats find suitable) sell or rent for prices comparable to apartments and houses in international cities in Europe and North America:

A thriving expat community has developed around the university, but few Mozambicans can afford to live there. Rents have increased dramatically over the past four years; purchase prices have doubled. 

“The most common type of property has three bedrooms and we are talking about $3,000 per month onwards,” says Gonçalo Marques, a local estate agent. “You can find properties in prime areas for $7,000 per month. For purchase prices you’ll find that the same property might be sold for about $500,000—sometimes more.” 

The arrival of migrants from rural areas and abroad has pushed up demand for housing. Attracted by strong economic growth and a common language, highly skilled Portuguese migrants have been increasingly flocking to their former colony over the past two years, as their own economy remains ensnared in the euro crisis. Registrations at the Portuguese consulate in Maputo rose by 25% in 2012, and the trend is expected to continue. 

The cost of living in Maputo has surprised some migrants. “I live in the centre of Maputo. The centre of town is not very big and the rents are so high,” says Ana Oliveira, who moved to Mozambique from Portugal three months ago. “You need to share the apartment with three or four people.” Landlords have started to demand that tenants pay six months’ rent, or more, up-front.Many have relocated to neighbouring Matola, where housing is cheaper. But now prices in Matola are rising, too. “A property that was on the rental market there two years ago for $1,500 a month might now be on the market for $2,500,” says Mr Marques. 

As new residential developments reach completion, the situation could change. The construction sector, having stagnated for decades, started to pick up two years ago. Encouraged by rising prices, developers have piled into the market. 

But while overall prices may be dragged down, the new developments are targeted exclusively at high-end buyers. “The number of people that are able to buy a property worth $500,000 is small,” says Rui Carrito, head of the Portuguese construction company Soares da Costa in Mozambique. 

“What you need is small, cheap houses for the people but you don’t see anything like that.”Buying a home is all the more tricky because the value of the property cannot be used as collateral for a loan. Interest rates for personal loans—when they are available—are around 20%. Until prices come down and ordinary people gain access to financing, most Mozambicans will continue to struggle to get a foot on the property ladder.

Foreigners settling in Monrovia in the last decade have experienced similar astronomical price points for apartments with security and reliable utilities, even as supply has expanded constantly (there have been at least 20 new multistory apartment buildings added to Mamba Point and Sinkor in the past year). About $1,500 per month per bedroom is pretty standard, depending on the number of hours of electricity available, and perhaps the age and condition of the building (even lavishly-featured multi-story structures that are only a few years old often show the wear of the extreme climate and shoddy construction).

Like Maputo and other cities, Monrovia has two completely different real-estate markets, with a high-end catering to wealthy foreigners who expect the closest possible semblance to their accommodations back in Washington, New York, or London, and a local housing profile for Liberian nationals, which ranges from newly-constructed homes for those with sources of income to the innumerable informal structures which house the majority of the city's people, from the city center to its expanding edges. I struggle to call this a "market," due to the ubiquitous quagmire of land ownership uncertainties, disputes and scandals, real estate purchases only happen at the suburban fringes of the capital. Hence, 'The Two Monrovias.'

Exasperating all of this, Monrovia suffers not only from the financial and judicial constraints of mortgage lending mentioned in reference to Maputo above, but also from a scarcity of land whose chain of ownership can be reliably verified. Finding a secure property to buy or lease is unusual for developers, squeezing supply and adding to costs. In my anecdotal observations, as prices for ex-pat style apartments and leases have skyrocketed in the last few years, some property disputes seem to have been solved, or at least, the owners have gotten their act together (whether simply returning to Liberia from abroad to facilitate the development of their property, or coming to an agreement in a family dispute to share revenue from a lease instead of endlessly arguing).

Monrovia remains a small market at the top end, with limited demand (which I don't see growing as the population of expatriates, and the presence of foreign NGOs and concession companies has stabilized), so it hasn't seen the prices of places like Lagos, Maputo, Accra or Luanda. I've long heard predictions of a price-crash when UNMIL leaves, I am not sure how much housing UNMIL or its personnel lease; and wonder if perhaps the rapidly-deteriorating earlier stock of multi-story structures will be priced for the secondary, local market instead of being upgraded again for ex-pats.

Ripped from the Liberian Headlines: Single Female Refugees Tempt Married Liberian Men

The below is an excerpt from a May 31st, 2011 report in the Daily Observer Newspaper, by Marcus Malayea, entitled,"Gbarnga: Single Women Cause Stir among Couples." Special thanks to Aaron Leaf.

The attractiveness of scores of single Ivorian refugee women roaming the streets of Gbarnga is causing intense fear among Liberian wives.
Resident married women are becoming especially concerned about protecting their homes and maintaining their husbands...

As established by this newspaper’s investigation, most Liberian wives in Gbarnga have either consciously or unconsciously transformed themselves into personal guards for their husbands by making it an utmost duty to accompany them (husbands) everywhere, including night clubs...

Meanwhile, a rather ‘worried’ married woman by the presence of these Ivorian girls screamed that, “We will not sit down here and see these women destroy our homes. We will ensure that our husbands would not fall in the hands of these hungry refugee women.”
“If the situation demands that we employ the use of ‘juju’ to secure our marriages, we will. No woman is willing to be victimized in such manner,” another Liberian wife flared up.
According to the study some married men are threatening to divorce their wives because of what they (married men) referred to them as jealous women, while some have secured rental rooms for their refugee concubines.
“My brother, we have the right to move around and make things happen in different ways as husbands. The saying is ‘one cannot continue to eat one kind of soup over and again,” admitted a husband.

Weightlifting Competition 2

This is my second "local" weightlifting competition, and although I have been really under the weather this week, I was glad I came out for it. Once again, the event was held this morning at the Joe Bar Market area, and sponsored by Mr. Big, the former Mr. Liberia, whose gym is just down the Old Road from Joe Bar Market Junction.

Same as last time, it was just a bench press competition, using "African weights" (really old machine gears) so the amounts involved were a little approximate (the guys would call out the weights in "African pounds", as in "175 African pounds." To get real weights from overseas is difficult and expensive, and there isn't a lot of money to be made out of starting up a gym.

However, there's no question that these guys are strong! Even using their conservative estimates for the weights, the champions were lifting 2-3 times their own body weight off the bench. Pretty incredible!

Football at Spriggs Payne/Fish Market

I've written before about the great little public space at the end of the Spriggs-Payne runway, which is usually packed with people playing football.

Apparently, no action has taken place on Spriggs Payne's attempts to remove these people, and the place remains one of the few public recreation grounds in the city, albeit in flaunt of the law, to a certain extent.

My friend Paul Jones, who runs the fantastic Keta Sandlanders in Ghana, is in town, and so when we drove by here earlier and he spotted the action, he proposed coming back and being a spectator. We went this afternoon hung out for a while, watching some of the matches. It was pretty dry and dusty, but it was a great afternoon, and the football was pretty exciting.

Church in Margibi

This is the community church in a town in Margibi County. As you can see, it is made of woven reed mats, with a tin roof. This is by far the most common building method in the metropolitan area, among the local population.

Redemption Road

Its a bit difficult to get pictures of this area, which is below Capitol Hill, behind the Barclay Training Ground, south of Central Monrovia. Anyway, it is, in my opinion, a spot with totally fantastic potential to be a public space and a real asset to the city.

As it is, however, it is a largely neglected, derelict zone, with stinking garbage everywhere. But much of the city is like that.

I know I am no professional photographer, but I really hope that these images convey the inherent potential of this area to be a jewel of the city.

My Neighborhood

I've said since I moved in that's been really a nice change to live in an actual neighborhood. This is the view of my end of 9th Street. As you can see, there is a basketball court on the street.

What's interesting to me is that when I tell locals that I live near the basketball court, everyone knows what I am talking about. It goes to show how small the city really is, and what sort of things people here pay attention to.

Football Grounds at Spriggs Payne/Fish Market

This week, I read in the paper about the Airport Authority's effort to remove the squatters from the area and reclaim the land as their property. The next time I drove by, I saw this banner, stating roughly the same.

Its a difficult, complex situation. On the one hand, the Airport is right. Its their property, and it is really important to re-establish property rights as part of a proper, rule-of-law environment.

On the other hand, this dusty little spot is one of the few public recreation spots in the whole city, and it is very prominently situated along the main road into town (it is even mentioned in a New York Times article about Hilary Clinton's visit). I just wish that the place could remain as it is (and by that I mean have a significant investment to make it a true public park), rather than reverting to the domain of the airport authority, where it will likely not be as publicly used as it is in its current state.

Kids

Children here love having their picture taken, especially with a digital camera, when they can see themselves on the screen immediately after. For many of them, its a very rare event, and there is this look of surprise when they see themselves.

On Dogs, Peepee, and Peepee Like Dogs

A lot of handwritten signs are noticeable on walls all over town, warning people of dogs, and imploring/shaming people not to urinate on the walls or other locations. This sign bridges the two topics, equating a public urinator with a dog.

Public urination/defication is actually a common issue and problem. Driving around town, it is really normal to see men with their back turned to the street, pissing in to the grass or on a wall. Sometimes, their back isn't even turned. Its gross, of course, but its also one of those cultural issues that is easy to look down upon without examining the circumstances which cause the phenomenon (like a lack of public restrooms, running water, or other alternatives).