Liberia History & Information

Christmas celebrations in African nations is characterized by much outdoor activity because the season often occurs during a time when the weather is pleasant. Using palm trees and participating in processions are also characteristic features of activities related to Christmas in many parts of Africa.

In South Africa, activities that occur outside during Christmas include the usual caroling, but also the unusual ones of swimming and camping. The beach and mountains play an important role during Christmas in South Africa because the season occurs during the hottest time of the year – summer.

Given the pleasant nature of the weather during Christmas, families also take advantage of it by often going sightseeing in the countryside on a relaxing drive in the late evening of Christmas Day. A rich and sumptuous menu that includes a suckling pig or roast beef, turkey, mince pies, yellow rice, vegetables and puddings usually makes up the traditional South African Christmas dinner.

To create a festive environment, decorated pine branches and fir, sparkling cotton wool and tinsel are used in homes and businesses as decorations.

A similar decorative pattern of using evergreen, palm trees and lighted candles are also seen in countries such as Ghana and Liberia. While these are used in homes and businesses, they are also often carried in processions and during caroling activities.

While South Africans gather at the beach during Christmas time to enjoy the warm summer waters, people in other African nations often gather outside at in town squares and in the streets to march, sing and enjoy an overall feeling of merriment.

Despite the seemingly general similarity in activities, however, countries have their own individual style that makes Christmas celebrations unique.

Of all the celebrations in African nations, Christmas activities in Ethiopia stand out for their difference in when they are celebrated and how it is done. One of the features that make Ethiopian Christmas different is that the main celebratory event occurs on Jan. 7, around the time known as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day in North and South America.

Given the general modest economic financial situations of a significant number of the population in many African countries, Christmas celebrations also tend to occur over a shorter period of time, compared to activities in more wealthier countries.

Another difference in celebrations of Christmas in Ethiopia is the participation of various people who take part in a pilgrimage and converge on the capital city during Christmas Eve. These wanderers fill the night air with a din of praying and chanting and create a multicolor spectacle when they gather on Christmas morning to have a religious service.

But retaining a similarity with other African nations, Ethiopians enjoy a Christmas dinner that includes a meat stew. Stews, rice, root vegetables such as yams, breads and soups often are part of the menu of traditional Christmas day dinners in African nations.

Christmas dinners are likely enjoyed by families outside, where everyone shares the meal while sitting in a circular pattern outside under the shade of a sprawling tree, instead of sitting in a formal setting at a table.

As is the practice in every household during Christmas, Africans also exchange gifts. Popular items that are exchanged as Christmas gifts include cotton cloth, soaps, sweets, pencils and books, all very practical items that can be readily used. Again, this may be related to the modest financial resources of up to half the population in many African countries, as well as to cultural norms. Individuals aren’t able to afford extravagant gifts but they still want to surprise children, family and friends at Christmas with an unexpected gift. The generally pervasive cultural norm of humility and modesty that exists among traditional African peoples, also plays an important role in not having overreaching extravagance at Christmas.

After working on the book for more than a decade, Haley was stuck — and desperate

I just love to get out in the ocean. You are really out there, thinking in ways you haven’t thought before. The best writing I ever possibly could do was after The Digest helped me go to Africa and Europe, and I was not known and I could just take my time and nobody was pressing me. God, I don’t know how long it took me. I was working slowly, slowly. When I had done all the research, nine years, working in between doing articles for other magazines, I was ready to write. I didn’t know where to go, didn’t know what to do. I knew I had a monumental task. And I got on a cargo ship. I went from Long Beach, California, completely around South America and back to Long Beach. It was 91 days.

There’s something about a ship. Usually I go out on freight ships, cargo ships. (I wouldn’t get caught on a liner. How can you write with 800 people dancing?) But the freight ships carry a maximum of 12 people, and they tend to be very quiet people.

I work my principal hours from about 10:30 at night until daybreak. The world is yours at that point. Most all the passengers are asleep.

I had written from the birth of Kunta Kinte through his capture. And I had got into the habit of talking to the character. I knew Kunta. I knew everything about Kunta. I knew what he was going to do. What he had done. Everything. And so I would talk to him. And I had become so attached to him that I knew now I had to put him in the slave ship and bring him across the ocean. That was the next part of the book. And I just really couldn’t quite bring myself to write that.

I was in San Francisco. I wrote about 40 pages and chunked it out. When you write well, it isn’t a question so much of what you want to say, it’s a question of feel. Does it feel like you want it to feel? The feel starts coming in somewhere around about the fourth rewrite.

I wrote, twice more, about 40 pages and threw it out. And I realized what my bother was: I couldn’t bring myself to feel I was up to writing about Kunta Kinte in that slave ship and me in a high-rise apartment. I had to get closer to Kunta. I had run out of my money at The Digest, lying so many times about when I’d finish so I couldn’t ask for any more. I don’t know where I got the money from. I went to Africa. Put out the word I wanted to get a ship coming from Africa to Florida. I just wanted to simulate the crossing.

I went down to Liberia, and I got on a freight ship called appropriately enough the African Star. She was carrying a partial cargo of raw rubber in bales. And I got on as a passenger. I couldn’t tell the captain or the mate what I wanted to do because they couldn’t allow me to do it.

But I found one hold that was just about a third full of cargo and there was an entryway into it with a metal ladder down to the bottom of the hold. Down in there they had a long, wide, thick piece of rough sawed timber. They called it dunnage. It’s used between cargo to keep it from shifting in rough seas.

After dinner the first night, I made my way down to this hold. I had a little pocket light. I took off my clothing to my underwear and lay down on my back on this piece of dunnage. I imagined I’m Kunta Kinte. I lay there and I got cold and colder. Nothing seemed to come except how ridiculous it was that I was doing this. By morning I had a terrible cold. I went back up. And the next night I’m there doing the same thing.

Well, the third night when I left the dinner table, I couldn’t make myself go back down in that hold. I just felt so miserable. I don’t think I ever felt quite so bad. And instead of going down in the hold, I went to the stern of the ship. And I’m standing up there with my hands on the rail and looking down where the propellers are beating up this white froth. And in the froth are little luminous green phosphorescences. At sea you see that a lot. And I’m standing there looking at it, and all of a sudden it looked like all my troubles just came on me. I owed everybody I knew. Everybody was on my case. Why don’t you finish this foolish thing? You ought not be doing it in the first place, writing about black genealogy. That’s crazy.

I was just utterly miserable. Didn’t feel like I had a friend in the world. And then a thought came to me that was startling. It wasn’t frightening. It was just startling. I thought to myself, Hey, there’s a cure for all this. You don’t have to go through all this mess. All I had to do was step through the rail and drop in the sea.

Once having thought it, I began to feel quite good about it. I guess I was half a second before dropping in the sea. Fine, that would take care of it. You won’t owe anybody anything. To hell with the publishers and the editors.

And I began to hear voices. They were not strident. They were just conversational. And I somehow knew every one of them. And they were saying things like, No, don’t do that. No, you’re doing the best you can. You just keep going.

And I knew exactly who they were. They were Grandma, Chicken George, Kunta Kinte. They were my cousin, Georgia, who lived in Kansas City and had passed away. They were all these people whom I had been writing about. They were talking to me. It was like in a dream.

I remember fighting myself loose from that rail, turning around, and I went scuttling like a crab up over the hatch. And finally I made my way back to my little stateroom and pitched down, head first, face first, belly first on the bunk, and I cried dry. I cried more I guess than I’ve cried since I was four years old.

And it was about midnight when I kind of got myself together. Then I got up, and the feeling was you have been assessed and have been tried and you’ve been approved by all them who went before. So go ahead. And then I went back down in the hold. I had a terrible head cold, flu-ish like. I had with me a long yellow tablet and some pencils. This time I did not take my clothing off like I’d been doing. I kept them on because I was having such a bad cold. I lay down on the piece of timber.

Now Kunta Kinte was lying in this position on a shelf in the ship, the Lord Ligonier. She had left the Gambia River, July 5, 1767. She sailed two months, three weeks, two days. Destination Annapolis, Maryland. And he was lying there. And others were in there with him whom he knew. And what would he think?

What would be some of the things they would say? And when they would come to me in the dark, I would write. And that was how I did every night, only ten nights. From there to Florida. I remember rushing through the big, big Miami Airport. Flew back to San Francisco. Got with a doctor, and he kind of patched me up.

I sat down with those long yellow tablets and transcribed. And I began to write the chapter in Roots where Kunta Kinte crossed the ocean in a slave ship. That was probably the most emotional experience I had in the whole thing.

Come around about 1:30 in the morning, you’ve been working since 10:30 and decide you’re going to take a little break. So you get up and you walk up on the deck. And you put your hand on the top rail, your foot on the bottom rail, and you look up. The first most striking thing is, man, you look up and there are heavenly objects as you never saw them before. You find yourself looking at planets at sea. And what you start to realize, you never saw clear air before. In some latitudes, down off West Africa, South America, on the night of a full moon, there are times you get into an illusion — if you could just stretch a little further you feel like you could touch it. And you are out there amidst all Gods firmament and then you stand and you feel through the soul of your shoe a fine vibration and you realize that’s man at work. That’s a huge diesel turbine, 35 feet down under the water driving this ship like a small island through the water. Still standing there, now you start hearing a slight hissing sound. You realize that’s of the ship cutting through the resistance of the ocean. With all that going on, feeling these man things and seeing the God things, that’s about as close to holy as you are going to ever get.

Edited from a talk at Reader’s Digest, October 10, 1991, four months before Alex Haley’s death

Excerpted from the book Alex Haley: The Man Who Traced America’s Roots by Alex Haley. Copyright © 2007 The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. Published by The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.; April 2007; $17.95US; 978-0-7621-0885-5.

Any foreigner getting prepared to marry an African particularly a Nigerian however needs to know certain things about how marriage as an institution is considered in Africa (Nigeria). Marriage in Nigeria unlike what obtains in the western world is held very sacred by Nigerians, as a result is not taken to mean a contract. Once married to a Nigerian such a marriage is considered ever binding as divorce is almost forbidden. Unlike what we hear of in western countries, divorce leaves a woman with lots of loses so the thought of this want to make a woman spend the rest of life with her man. In some African societies, it is so worst that a woman may be customarily forbidden from moving out of her once matrimonial home with her personal belongings not even her plates and pots.

When we hear that among the western countries of the world, a divorce benefits a woman with almost half of her ex-husband’s assets it amuse us a lot, leaving the women hear to wonder whether this is true or merely invented. Remember also that an African culture may permit a man to take up another woman as his second wife even without divorcing his first heartthrob wife which he deem unnecessary until he is forced to do so. Such is life here in Africa. Though owing to economic problems it is becoming less common to find a man taking up a second wife

Situations also exist where the members of his family may not take divorce instituted and actualized by a man against his wife very seriously. For this reason, there are many women who even after divorce legally obtained against them at a competent court of laws continue to bear their ex-husbands name. It may also surprise you to learn that sometimes too at the death of man who has legally obtained divorce judgment against his wife, the ex-wife is returns to his matrimonial home often encouraged by her In-Laws. Such expectedly happens in the Nigerian society because the Nigerian society views marriage differently.

It is a society that marriage is viewed as a serious business. This explains the reason when a woman is getting married in this society; she is made to understand that being querulous about her husband’s actions towards her would not be welcomed much less contemplating returning to her maiden home because there were quarrels. She therefore needs to think twice and requires herself to ask herself several important questions before marrying that man. Marriage in Nigeria is like moving into a new home where she is never expected to return not even at the very strange complaint that could as worst as weighty. In the end she is advised to go back and continue to commit herself to her husband.

Again, any foreigner wishing to enter into a marriage with a Nigerian must also understands the maybe the attitude of overbearing influence of Mother-In-Laws on their Daughter-In-Laws. I just think the Nigerian society or African tradition by extension ordains it because it happens in Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Cameroon, Botswana, etc. It is simply so. African mothers generally do not appear to welcome the seeming ideas that the sons are married and have or should become independent of them. The Igbo of Nigeria believe that an “Okro” tree never grows taller than the person that planted it. That is how best it can be explained to any foreigner wishing to marry a Nigerian.

If you are getting married to Nigerian of Yoruba extraction consider it appropriate to always kneel down whenever you want to say “Eka aro” (Good morning), “Eka oson”  (Good afternoon) or Ekwu-Irole” (Good evening) greetings to your Mother-In-law. It is applicable to father-In-Laws but father-In-Laws are generally more lenient. Greeting your Yoruba Father-In-Law requires your kneeling down as well if you are a lady. You offend the youngest member of your Yoruba husband’s family if you ever dare address him by pronouncing his/her name. Always bear this on mind. You require a pet name specially formulated by you to address them at any given time.

Notice also that though it not a rule, generally African traditions frown at a marriage proposal in which it is believed that a Lady is older than the husband to be. The reason being that is assumed that suppression of the man by his wife will soon follow if allowed. It is as a result of this that many mothers will go a long way in stoutly objecting to any proposed marriage on this basis. Many marriage proposals have hit the rock owing to this development. It is for this reason that most African women will conceal their true age guide against this. An African lady may therefore appear to be aging physically but never age wise. 

The first time your Fiancé takes you to visit your Mother-In-law to be. Typical African society or call it ethics if you like expects you to sit down at a spot quietly observing all taking place within this environment, not talking much though. You might be expected to sometimes stand on feet to assist your In-Laws to be in maybe arranging the table for entertainment. Remember that taciturnity becomes your most cherished weapon in achieving your aim. Constantly dish out smiles to all whether they require it or not. Above all, you must understand that the African society places high regard on compliments. As noted above, a Yoruba society particularly may deny you of marriage if it is discovered that you are the type who shows aversions for greeting just anyone you find.

On maintaining constant visits to your Fiancé’s family home you need to win their favour and by extension your marriage by helping them to do some washings, sweepings, cooking not minding whether there are juniors around the vicinity. At this time, you also need to mind your dress code, shun skimpy wears, and never visit their homes with numerous faces as friends.

Finally, bear in mind that as a foreigner wishing to marry to a Nigerian that getting married to him certainly means getting married to the whole of his family. Some prudent Ladies operating within the African societies believe that pleasing their In-Laws more help them to maintain their matrimonial homes. Instances abound where a Man’s family refuse to partake in his wish to marry another woman because the rejected woman still has family’s heart. The implication is that proposed second marriage fails woefully.  

You may have known that Africans place a very high value on traditional marriage system over church, Registry or other European styled weddings. Many foreigners have either been deceived into just consummating their weddings in churches or registries without first holding the traditional marriages or having it done at all. This is because the families of either the man or Lady do not approve of the marriage and the couple believes that the best way to come out of it is to quickly run to the church or registry. A couple may temporarily find peace in this but it will soon done on them that they are illegally married (in the eye of both families) and will however do so when peace returns. This is Marriage by Customary Acts, as it is legally known in some quarters like Nigeria remains the most recognized form of marriage in Africa.

Usually therefore, a proper marriage rites begins with the Introduction ceremony closely followed by traditional marriage and perhaps complemented with a church/registry wedding. In this way your marriage becomes a recognized one, well appreciated by all. You may be surprised to learn here that when a marriage not traditionally recognized suddenly ends with an unexpected death of the so-called wife what is required within a typical African tradition is first and foremost an insistence by the so-called wife’s family that a traditional marriage in which the Late woman will be married be conducted even before the corpse interred with funeral ceremony held.

Incase of the death of the so-called husband, the woman usually is shown the way out of her once assumed matrimonial home leaving behind the children. We have also seen cases where the children from such illegal marriages are never believed to be those of the man but the woman because they are still not legally married. Almost all the tribes of Africa do this except maybe South African Whites minorities.