A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

August 5 and 6, 1926

Coverage

Yeh, Hinterland, Liberia

Transcription

August 5th and 6th.

Visited the different villages in the vicinity. On the 5th we went to Yeh, Grebbo town, Bassewebi and Yongfo. In most of these towns (called towns, but only villages of some 40 to 100 persons living in closely placed huts) the people are generally healthy. There is some malaria of course in all. The most striking pathological condition which is prevalent is umbilical hernia. One sees a dome-shaped oblong protuberance from the navel measuring from 2 to 5 inches in length and 2 to 3 inches in diameter. It is particularly common among men. The condition suggests faulty tying of the umbilical cord at birth but there may be some other reason for it. Inguinal hernia is also not uncommon among the men. Of course there is no such thing as a surgeon in the interior of the country. I have not seen yet a case of harelip, which is not infrequent in some other tropical countries among primitive people. The huts in the villages have the walls made of mud occasionally with the back or one side of rattan made from the calamus palm, while the roofs are thatched usually with the palm leaves of Raphia vinifera. The doors often have frames and are made of sawn boards of the hard forest wood. The cooking houses, which are numerous, have merely a roof (sloping) and open on all sides.
I have been trying to find guides to take us through the surrounding country. My head boy Burmah, also my personal servant, brings me many volunteers. I sit with my may and compass in front of me and ask one if he knows where “Zanga town” is. He replies, “Oh yes.” I ask where and he points northeast, while the next boy asked where is the trail to Zanga town, points in the opposite direction. After an hour’s interviews I conclude the only way is to go and find the trail myself. So accordingly I start the following morning with George S. after camp duties are through. We are going to try and find a town called Owens Grove, and by six-thirty we are on the way. Owens Grove is, according to the map due east from our camp; so after crossing the river in a canoe we eventually find a trail leading east by compass and follow it. After an hour and a half walk we find the trail leads us to the river again, which we do not wish to cross. Evidently the river has swung to the east, not shown on the map. We start back and after about three quarters of an hour’s walk find another trail which leads to a village called by the residents there (about 40 in number) “Mami town” (not on the map). So we have little idea of our location. The only trail from this village leads southwest and along this we start. It leads us immediately to the top of a hill which I recognize as being visible from my tent front due east. Climbing a mound, our camp comes into view due west. Being sure of our position, we continue along our trail southwest and finally come across a native who tells us the town of Bassewebi is along this trail. We continue to travel southwest for more than an hour and then come to Bassewebi, which the natives pronounce “Bas/su/i.” But Bassewebi is according to the map east and not southwest of our camp. We continue along the trail from this town to the next town, marked on the map Reffu. But no one in the town has ever heard of Reffu and they call their town Yongfo. Well, to make a long story short, by travelling south we do come to people who know where “Orange Grove” is, and finally we arrive at two places marked on the map Mt. Olive on the Farmington River and Owens Grove just across this river. This the uneducated call “Orange Grove”. We find here that the trail for Zanga town leads from Owens Grove. Zanga town is to be the location of our second base camp, so our object having been ascertained, we turn our steps back to camp. This we reach at 4 P.M. after about nine hours tramping. We having spent only from five to ten minutes in a few of the villages. George stood the tramp very well but he said in the evening that he hated walking.
The trails we passed through yesterday were perhaps the most beautiful I have seen in many respects; cool avenues closed overhead with green branches, ferns and wild flowers along the sides. We crossed quite a number of streams, some we waded through but others 6 to 10 (?) feet deep had logs stretched across them in lieu of bridges. I felt a little uncertain about walking across even those with fairly large trees laid across the streams high above the water, but finally after crossing a number of streams where there was but a rather narrow “sapling” laid across, I concluded I could at least become a candidate for walking a tight rope. The trails led along many plantations where mandioca, corn, coffee and palm oil nut trees are cultivated extensively. Occasionally one sees breadfruit trees and papaia trees near the villages. The farms are, however, usually a mile or two from the villages. The women take the children with them from the villages to the farms where they spend the day.

Type

Diary

Citation