Pushing our luck

On the way to Ziamma we got stopped at one of the weirder roadblocks I’ve ever been stopped at… Again a few drunken guys, all with knives and shotguns, they’d pulled trees into the road and many were in traditional dress. Mudcloth and these cool tri–point hats that we’d seen in Mali in the Dogon area. Friendly enough we were told by the one guy that he was an official, as he slurred his accusation and that we owe him a toll. So we entered into negotiations with the five guys now surrounding the car and in a mixture of French, Krio Na d English set about arguing our way through. Anyway they were a bit of a push over really, we didn’t pay him the toll and the guys laughing let us through. It’s the first time we’ve heard Krio spoken, an almost gansta slang from further in Liberia. It’s a really cool dialect…”BossMan… HowdaBodee?”, its great

Ok, so C-baz and I do get a little cocky with roadblocks sometimes. The next one we overdid a bit, but we are learning!

So we left Faranah and headed to Macenta… the place that the forest zone of Guinea officially starts. Now having read up about these places since I was a kid, I’m very excited to see the real forests of West Africa. I expect rolling hills of closed canopy forest, red river hogs and buffalo with Pygmy hippos and Colobus monkeys to be abounding. I know I’m only really going to see logging, cassava plantations, rubber plantations and goats. But every now and then I expect to see a piece of heaven, nestled in amongst the exploitation. Or at the very least I can remedy the myopia of my naïve minds eye.

So we made it to Kissidougou, the frontier town to the Forest zone. And we noticed a heap of military vehicles, men dangling off the back driving around, racing down the road we were to go. Coming back. Sometimes with guns, other times with riot gear. As we drove down the road we encountered the furious waving of military. Now negotiating with military is always tricky because they are used to chain of command, and we aren’t. So we chatted and they were pretty helpful. Eventually we got the story, there was a little unrest down the road but it was aimed at the military by the military school, a big-brother little brother scenario…ok good. So we thought we'd chance it…we aren’t military.

Maybe not the best idea we’ve ever had but, off we drove passed the waving arms of taxi drivers also blockaded in and passed the last few military guys, all saying, "return! return!" and we ambled down the road to see what the fuss was about.

So the fires burning the shops and schools had died down, but there were some blockades in the road, trees, concrete, tyres, that kind of thing…nothing hectic. And there were a few guys in the road, refusing us entry. So we stopped and had a chat. I think we were lucky that we were greeted by the sober guys, who quite politely and quickly asked us to please go back as it was not a good idea what we were trying to do…and then we saw why. It was like a scene from a Frankenstein movie. Students armed with bricks, rocks, the occasional axe type thing started appearing from everywhere, hundreds of them, the mob appearing over the hilltop. I looked for a pitch fork, but I didn’t see one. Then they were around us.

Hasty discussions turned into drunk guys with half bricks shouting, drunk-stoned shirtless guys swearing and challenging us and an uncertain look from their sober leader telling us that he can’t control them. So when we looked behind and saw the mob circling, we were all smiles and farewells and beat a hasty retreat, back up the road. Our tail between our legs, not a good idea guys…but we tried.

But the guys sorted it out that evening and the next morning we were back on the road C-baz chatted to the military guys got the full story and they explained how the big brother had made sure the little brother knew its place. Cool people and the military guys went out of their way to help us. Thanks

-Chris-