Building of the Month: The Ruin at Clay Street & Camp Johnson Road

One of post-conflict Monrovia’s primary architectural characteristics, featured through the M2M Architectural Tour, has been its ruins. The city is bookended by abandoned monuments, or rather monuments to abandonment—the never-was Ministry of Defense in Congo Town as you enter the capital, and the Ducor Hotel, situated both at Monrovia's highest point and atop the termination of the long Mesurado peninsula (with the oceanside Hotel Africa complex in Virginia as an eastward outlier). Megastructures of the country's former affluence and importance dot the cityscape: the Pompeii of Post-Conflict.

Aside from these larger commercial complexes, there have always been lots of smaller-scale ruins across the city, from shells of sprawling split-level '70s ranches the fin-de-belle-époque to skeletons of historic mansions in town. If the hulks of five-star hotels and the unfinished frames of intimidating ministries are mausoleums of Monrovia's Cold War relevance, these domestic dilapidations mark the graves of personal tragedies: families and businesses fallen. 

Carey Street, 2008 & 2009.

In Central Monrovia, there have been half a dozen such ruins featured in the Architectural Tour over the last five years: a few compelling examples where an intact, multistory stone or concrete shell stood vacant amid the crowded, chaotic bustle of the town. a Victorian-style façade, still grayish-white with old paint and once-resplendent with double-height front porch, now rooflessly houses a carpenter's yard on Carey Street. About a block away, a grandiose triple-decker whose front entry had been built out into a video club and garment shop, the front parlor home to a wide, green plum tree that reaches up to the crumbling eves, a second vines over the back of the house.

Carey Street 2009.

The most magnificent of all, unquestionably, was the Ruin on Camp Johnson Road at the corner of Carey Street. Like so many of Monrovia's old buildings, its original purpose was difficult to ascertain, although by its size and location is was almost certainly an anchor of what was once Monrovia's fifth avenue shopping street. Taking up an entire lot, the four-story high structure had five wide windows all around, and some sort of interior circulation shaft, perhaps a central stairwell, or almost as if a larger building had been built up around the outside of a smaller inner building. Whatever the relationship between the two elements, they unmistakably recall an outer peristyle and inner cella of a Greek temple.

Camp Johnson Road, 2013.

The scene is made rather less like the Acropolis in Athens and rather more like Angkor Wat by the last and third element: a massive, vining tree, sprouting knottily out the inner sanctum and over the top of the concrete structures like a dome. At its ankles, like many other of Monrovia's ruins, was an arcade of small shops, a bustle of hustle: a baby-care store, a bar and restaurant with an enclosed sitting area, painted in bright lime green. If Monrovia is post-colonialism's Rome, than here is a scene of Canaletto, or at least of Hubert Robert, as the ordinary citizens reoccupy the old edifices, not to keep their livestock, but sell plastic toys and warm Club Beer.

Hubert Robert, French. Roman Ruins, c.1760.

This arrangement was an arresting site. First, like all of Monrovia's other war wreckage, it is ruin porn, less ironic than the Ducor and less hilariously menacing than the Ministry of Defense, as the previous life of the building is not evident. It is striking both for the visual orchestration, and that such a feral germination had proceeded with only disregard and accommodation, without intervention or mitigation—without anyone on the busy street around it taking any action to stop it.

But it has stopped. As of earlier this week, the concrete-block walls have been knocked down. A pile of rubble covers the twisted roots of the thick-trunked tree, which will undoubtedly meet the blades of chainsaw in the coming weeks.

Photo ©Glenna Gordon February 2014. 

What will come in its place here is not known: another cement shop front, with heavy iron doors, selling used mattresses or auto parts. Perhaps the second floor will be apartments. A diesel generator will run outback. One more store for Camp Johnson Road. Jobs will be created, commerce will commence: it will be another step in the march of progress and recovery, and Monrovia will become more like every other West African capital, with one less of its unusual sights.

Special thanks to Glenna Gordon for use of her Instagram photo. All other photos ©Matthew M. Jones.

Building of the Month: Pink Apartment Block

 ©2012 Matthew Jones.

I set these two photos aside from yesterday's post because I think they're actually two nice pictures, if I do say so myself, and of the many long-procrastinated ideas for this blog, I thought a 'Building of the Month' feature would be kind of fun. So here it is.

Obviously a pink building is strange anywhere, its implications of a certain juvenile femininity, perhaps, or even a twee tropical style. Whatever exuberance may have been intended or is possible to interpret is muted by the dark skies, pot-holed dirt boulevard and over-pruned tree. I see the resulting image as forlorn, in an unintentional way that compounds its melancholy. Some of Glenna Gordon's photos hold this aspect, such as this one, among others.

Tiling of buildings as a finish is common in Monrovia, as in other parts of tropical Africa, and the range of tiles that gets imported to Liberia (as with many categories of imported goods to West Africa) tends to be low-quality stuff from Dubai and China. In this example, I imagine these may have been more intended for bathroom interiors than multi-story façades. The builders obviously continued the theme with the paint job on the exterior wall ("fence") and elevated generator house. Note lastly the tinted glass windows, shaded much like the rain-heavy clouds, and balcony rails.

This building around Warren Avenue and 18th Street in Sinkor, went up through 2011-12 and is an example of the rapid in-fill on non-prime sites, away from the major streets and beaches, that have now experienced dense, high-end construction. This block  is now occupied, although I've never been inside and I think that ex-patriates from Asia, who may or may not be the building's owners, live there.

Ripped from the International Headlines: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Seeks Reelection

The last 72 hours started on Friday morning with the bombshell announcement of President Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee's Nobel awards, and is now wrapping up under a late rainy season Sunday evening thunder-downpour as crowds clear out of the streets and stadiums from the last official day of campaigning.

Twitter blew-up early Friday morning after the Nobel announcement, with a wide range of messages, many excited congratulations, but some reacted with a bit more caution:

@penelopeinparis, Penelope Chester, went on to file a post in UN Dispatch: Could the Nobel Peace Prize Hurt Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's Changes at Re-Election Next Week? which incorporated a more nuanced reflection of the counter-intuitive liability of the win:

The reactions concerning Sirleaf’s award have been mixed, however. While many believe that this is a great day for Liberia, some are concerned that the timing of the prize actually plays against Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s re-election bid, a mere four days away. Indeed, among Liberians, there is a persistent notion that Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is not truly dedicated to the welfare of her country.

There are a number of reasons for this: the Liberian Truth & Reconciliation Commission put her on a list of individuals who should be barred from public office because of their role in the civil war. In Sirleaf’s case, it had to do with her early support for Charles Taylor at the beginning of the war...

On Twitter, expats based in Monrovia see the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize as bad news for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Some argue that this will play in the hands of the opposition...

To a remarkable degree, the torrent of global press that followed over the weekend repeat much the same story. While, many foreign journalists covering the elections seem to be familiar with the reality that Sirleaf's international celebrity plays very differently here in Liberia, but others seem to have startled by this aspect, treating it as a late-breaking development:

Reuters: Liberian Vote a Stress Test for Fragile Gains

But her critics have said the prize is evidence only of her international fame -- not her domestic record, which includes controversy over her temporary support to a rebellion by notorious warlord Charles Taylor against ex-president Samuel Doe and impatience with the slow pace of reconstruction.

New York Times: Prize or Not, Liberian Faces Tough Race to Keep in Office filed by Adam Nossiter:

But analysts say more tangible benefits are harder to pin down. Corruption “remains pervasive at all levels” amid “widespread claims of malfeasance in government circles,” a recent report on Liberia by the International Crisis Group noted.

A leading anticorruption official was not reappointed, and Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf has ignored a report by a commission set up to investigate crimes committed during the war. It recommended that she be banned from office for 30 years because of her early involvement with the warlord Charles Taylor, which she later said she regretted. There have been no prosecutions, rankling many voters.

The Associated Press: Nobel-Prize Winning Sirleaf to face stiff Competition at Tuesday's polls, as published in the Washington Post:

Pervasive corruption, criminality and the slow progress of national reconciliation have undercut her support on the home front, critics say...

Sirleaf also sidestepped last year’s recommendations from a South-African-styled Truth and Reconciliation Commission that said she should be banned from public office for 30 years for her early financial support of former rebel leader Charles Taylor. Taylor is currently awaiting judgment from the International Criminal Court in the Hague on charges of war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone.

AFP: Nobel Power Marks Feverish End of Liberia poll campaign [sic?] by Fran Blandy:

Despite ushering in much-needed foreign investment and getting billions of dollars in debt-relief, Sirleaf is criticised for failing to implement the recommendations of a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report naming her on a list of people who should be banned from public office for 30 years for backing warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor.

The Independent: Feted on the International Stage, but Accused of Hollow Promises At Home. Filed by Daniel Howden:

Beyond the debilitating graft that many Liberians blame for holding back the country's recovery from 14 years of conflict, some of the most serious concerns centre on Ms Johnson Sirleaf's alleged role in those wars. Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up to deal with the legacy of those ruinous wars and was initially lauded for its work by Ms Johnson Sirleaf's government...Ms Johnson Sirleaf faced questions at the time about her relationship with the warlord-turned-President Charles Taylor...Ms Johnson Sirleaf admitted to a single meeting with Mr Taylor and to making a small financial contribution to his then-rebel movement, which she later came to regard as a mistake.

She had in fact met Mr Taylor on more than one occasion and is alleged to have had a much deeper role in support of his armed group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia...

When the report was published, some people were recommended for prosecution; others who had shown adequate contrition were publicly forgiven and a third category of people was to be barred from public office for 30 years. Ms Johnson Sirleaf's name was in the last category. Her administration hastily invoked her constitutional immunity and the TRC found its recommendations largely ignored by a newly hostile government.

While all this background is certainly important context, it is misleading to cite the TRC report and Taylor history as any sort of significant liability that Sirleaf has had to overcome to win. Sirleaf's explanation of her support for Taylor seems adequate enough: she thought Taylor was the right option at the time, and like many was desperate to get rid of Doe.

To say that she should be disqualified from office because she supported Taylor completely disregards how widespread support for Taylor always has been, and still is. For all the perhaps-unfortunate, inconclusive manner in which the report was unceremoniously shelved, that is simply not a topic that is very common to hear anyone in Monrovia bring up as a factor in which party or candidate they support.

Equally incorrect is the concept that the Nobel Prize would reverberate quickly through the electorate, shifting voter opinion. While it is a potential point of argument which is totally unhelpful in such a fragile environment as the election period will be, it is not being internalized by the populace. No need to repeat what I said with brevity on twitter:

The major obstacles that Sirleaf faces, as many of this weekend's articles make a point to mention, if not properly emphasize, is that such an overwhelming majority of Liberians exist in jobless misery, with the daily prospect of just finding enough resources for a single meal posing a significant challenge, aside from accessing other basics such as healthcare, sanitation, or a minimally decent education.

The daily reality of this struggle is exacerbated by the twin evils of endemic corruption and a wide inequality that still rests of the foundations of a dangerously divided nationhood. People's lives are remarkably similar to what they were in 2005, and for that matter in 2003, 1997, 1990 or 1980. The last six years haven't significantly changed that, and although it can be strongly argued that the disease of corruption is difficult to eradicate, many citizens of this country, in their daily dealings with the police, the courts, schools, and government, see no significant improvement during her time in office. This is why President Sirleaf's re-election, as sensible as it seems from afar, is so uncertain here on the ground.

Photos of Harper by Aaron Leaf

Several wonderful photos of Harper, Maryland, posted earlier this by Aaron Leaf, whose year-long role supporting human rights reporting at Monrovia's Heritage newspaper, is sadly coming to an end. Also, an excellent person to follow on Twitter.

Good luck with your future endeavors, Aaron!

More great photos of Harper on Scarlett Lion.

In Memoriam: Tim Hetherington

Image ©Tim Hetherington via MSNBC

I am still in shock at the loss today of Tim Hetherington, a devastation that is better honored elsewhere, especially at Scarlett Lion, where Glenna shares her personal and close professional connections with him, and also at Africa Is A Country, which has a moving, must-see video of Tim talking about his time in Liberia and his time and work there. Here is what I wrote in the comment section below that:

Great video, thank you for posting it. I think it really shows how Tim was not only acclaimed within his profession as a photographer and journalist, but also that he deeply cared for the people whose hardship and suffering he documented and reported. Going beyond his press coverage to assist the TRC was an example of this.
Liberia was my first African country, too, and Tim was extremely gracious when I reached out to him recently to ask him about his time in Liberia and his feelings for the country. Journalism has lost one of its living legends, but the Liberian people have also lost a real friend. I hope that he is remembered for his heart as well as his talent, skill and bravery.

Here is a link to the earlier post I did at the beginning of the year about Tim's work in Liberia, which he was very supportive and helpful. Its always a pleasure to exchange emails with such a great figure, and Tim was very gracious and generous with his attention. He will be missed.