New Strategies to Combat Old Abuses in Liberia

Recently, journalists at Liberia Women Democracy Radio (LWDR) challenged citizens in R.C. Lawson Community, a small village on the outskirts of Monrovia, to take a stand against sexual exploitation through interactive theatre.

The performance, staged in the middle of the community, featured a man playing a potential employer conducting job interviews for an administrative assistant. He demanded sexual favors from the young female applicants as a prerequisite to be considered for the position.  Several of the interviewees bowed to the man’s pressures but one woman fought back and demanded that she be considered for the position solely based on her merit and qualifications.  At the beginning of her dispute with the employer the facilitator instructed the actors to freeze.   Empowering the audience as “spect-actors,” the facilitator challenged the community members to interact with the performers and share how they would respond in such a scenario.  Several men and women in the audience responded passionately, including one woman who ran up to the performance space expressing utter disdain for the employer, demanding that he be arrested for his behavior.

Modeled on the Theatre of the Oppressed approach and guided by a training received through the USAID-funded Civil Society and Media Leadership (CSML) program in Liberia, these journalists chose this scenario because it represents an unfortunate frequent occurrence in Liberia—an employer refusing to offer a job to prospective female applicants without sexual favors.  This, along with other forms of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) are widespread in Liberia. Many women are forced to use their sexuality as an economic survival tool, rape is widespread, and a weak justice system combined with a tradition of shaming and blaming the victim provides little to no opportunity for prosecution of such abuses.

To further the reach and impact of the event, the entire performance was recorded to be edited and later aired on LWDR’s radio station.  The facilitators further ensured the performance’s impact by leading the event entirely in Liberian English, a dialect of English of which many of the radio listeners can more easily relate and understand. Following the performance, a local expert in SEA spoke with the community about their rights and the importance of reporting incidences when they occur.  Community members then asked questions, including a man who wanted to better understand the definition of “rape,” and a woman who wanted to know whether a husband who forcibly sleeps with his wife can be prosecuted for rape.  The expert answered these and other questions, emphasizing the need to be open and honest about the challenges that women, and particularly young girls, face in the workplace and households, as well as the need to be supportive as a community as they combat these abuses.

LWDR is owned by IREX media partner, the Liberia Women Media Action Committee (LIWOMAC), the organization responsible for implementing the Women's Media Initiative under CSML. Through community and radio presentations, citizens are activated not as bystanders, but as agents of change in their communities.  CSML will continue to work with LIWOMAC and LWDR to improve upon this new model of community outreach and LWDR will soon air the radio broadcast of the event.