TRC Liberia Kiosk: October 2007

Liberia's Video Parlors

Liberia's video parlors

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I came to see what the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL) says is a first: using video parlors to spread messages of peace.

UNMIL has struck a deal with 60 video parlor owners in Monrovia to show its five-minute shorts before and after each feature. The short videos urge ex-fighters to disarm, promote reconciliation among former warring factions, explain the upcoming election process, or teach viewers about preventing HIV, among other messages.

As in many developing countries emerging from long conflict, literacy rates in Liberia are low, so newspapers and other print media only reach the elite. The UN has used radio widely in other peacekeeping missions to get out its messages and to reunite families. The trouble in Liberia is that two decades of coups and war has left almost no radio network outside the capital.

The UNMIL video began with a message from Gyude Bryant, the country's current leader. "We have fought for a long time," he said. "Look at what fighting has done to our country." Fighting has devastated Liberia, turning it into one of the worst places to live.

The audience watched closely, and the pictures certainly told a story: Faction leaders smashed rifles with sledgehammers, a worker sliced off the barrel of a gun with a table saw. Words superimposed on the screen declared: "UNMIL will destroy all weapons ... For true," a Liberian way of saying "for real."

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