Fact, Fiction, and that Grey, Blurry Middle Area

An anonymous commenter offered an interesting response to my earlier post about Joseph “Zigzag” Marzah’s testimony at Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial. I argued that Marzah was not a credible witness based on inconsistencies in his testimony that the defense counsel highlighted during their cross-examination. Here is an excerpt from the comment:

I met many Liberians (during Taylor’s time) who did not know black people lived in America, even if I pointed out that their own family members lived there. I also was told many other things about Americans that were obvious misinterpretations from what those family members told them about America and Americans. It is complicated. I think when you read what the witness is saying you also have to take into account the time he was talking about, the cultural norm then, what was going on in the country under Taylor and his cronies, the belief system of the different tribes, general superstitions, what role the poro societies played,loyalty issues to Taylor, family and/or other war leaders or ex-leaders, the lack of information from the outside and the lack of “exposure” (for many people – especially in the interior where the warring factions were mainly based) to the outside world. Like anywhere, life can be very different under different regimes[...]

Be careful to accuse someone of lying if you did not live in Liberia at that time – it would be hard to understand how different it was then.

After years of living there I am commenting and giving my little two cents but I am not foolish enough to use my name, for that very reason[...]

I personally hope that a real healing will come to Liberia but I fear that the rush to gain money from its resources will deepen the already deep divide among people. If only there was a protection of some of its resources and a sharing of its revenue among all Liberians. It has such a small population. The wealth created could be divided and everyone would then have the choice as to what to do with their lives. I suppose I live in a dream world.

I hope that Liberians can find inner strength to honor their wonderful traditions and again turn to each other for guidance and love. It is such a beautiful country with so much to offer the world. I pray it will not be destroyed by the next greedy bunch – the manufacturing and business world and questionable governments! They could turn out to be much worse than Taylor.