Liberia: What’s Disrupting Academic Activities in Rural Nimba?

Over 30 schools in Zahn and Lao Chiefdoms in Nimba County are said to be left out of supervision due to the activities of the traditional devil.

One of the senior education officers in Saclepea Education District #2, where these two chiefdoms are located, said devil activities are too much that every day the devil master will come to town, leaving non-members to go indoors or escape.

“Whenever I go for supervision in any of these towns, they would announce about the devil master coming to town, leaving those of us who are not members to leave. So this is scary and therefore I decided to use the principal to send the report I need, he said.

“Sometimes, while conducting supervision, we will suddenly hear that the devil master is coming to town and we have no alternative but to abandon what we are doing and either hide or escape,” he said.

Although the affected towns are not named, these chiefdoms are homes to some former government officials and also home to one of Nimba's senatorial contenders in the By-election Mr. Nyan Tuayen Jr.

Effective classroom activities are hampered in most of the leeward towns and villages in Nimba, due to the perpetual absence of teachers, who sometimes leave or abandon schools in pursuit of loans or lenders in Ganta, something many parents continue to complain about.

In cases like this, if no supervision is carried on by either the district education officers or any education authority, schooling will surely be jeopardized.

“Because of what we are experiencing, we are forced to send our children to urban areas for better education because, sometimes, all the teachers will abandon school to get loans from either Rep. Samuel N. Brown or other lenders, where they stay so long,” said one John Bue, a father of six.

“When the teachers returned, they complained how difficult it was to get a loan from Rep. Brown’s loan office,” he said.

It is not only teachers who take loans from either Rep. Brown or other lenders. All government workers, including military and paramilitary personnel, sometimes visit Ganta for loans, where it takes days before their names can be processed. 

“I spent more than three weeks in Ganta to get my bank book from Rep. Brown, because the term of the loan I took from him expired last year, but [he has] refused to return my bank book,” said Paramount Chief Patrick Bayouo of Nimkweah chiefdom.

“We are forced to take out a loan because the salary is not much, but the loan process is frustrating, where 25% are paid as interest and how to get it,” he said.

The Daily Observer contacted Rep. Brown via mobile phone for clarity on the loan procedure and why it takes a teacher so long to get a loan, but there has been no response since Thursday, April 2, 2024.

The loan issue is one of the factors that has caused teachers to abandon school, to which most district education officers attest. However, in the absence of effective supervision from EOs, most of the rural areas will continue to be deserted.

“While we are making sure that to keep our teachers from floating around, either in search of a loan or whatever reason, we are faced with this devil issue,” said this education officer, who asked not to be named because of his security with the locals.

The issue of the devil master coming to town cannot be overlooked. Some years ago, a devil seized a member of the United Liberia Inland Church and forcibly initiated him in a town near Seclapea.

The kidnapping of this man brought a serious confrontation between Christians and the traditional people of Seclapea.