Zewordamai
Coordinates: 8 ° 20 ′ N , 9 ° 57 ′ W
Zewordamai is a village in Liberia , located in the very north of Lofa County , about 15 kilometers from the border with Guinea .
The place is located on the way to town, there are now only four districts, each choose mayor and delegates send to the common council - these villages are Kolliemai , Sayanwalamai , Kpodomai and Kessellemai . 96 percent of the population belongs to the Loma people , after the civil war other ethnic groups joined the village population, and 9 different population groups now live here.
The village of Zewordamai was visited in 2008 by an ethnological research group on behalf of the IUCN . The researchers documented all available information on the population, history, topography, agricultural cultivation methods, employment opportunities and the ownership structure in the village according to a given scheme.
In 2008, at the time of the investigation, Zewordamai had 129 residential buildings and 981 residents. According to information from the village elders, parts of the village population still live in refugee camps or used the expulsion to relocate elsewhere. Reliable data on the pre-war population, dead and missing in the fighting could not be determined.
The livelihood of the population is structured on the farm, the most important crops are rice, cocoa, coffee, sugar cane and various fruits and nuts. Participation in the Lofa County Agricultural Development Program (LCADP) even allows occasional deliveries to the markets of the capital Monrovia . Many houses demonstrate this progress and increasing material prosperity through the transition to corrugated iron and other modern building materials.
A construction team from the International Red Cross was also on site to repair the destroyed infrastructure; the village is considered a successful example of the Food for Work development aid program .
The residents of Zawordamai reported about their ancestors that the place was founded by refugees from the Mali Empire.
The Zawordamai Elementary School belongs to the newly built infrastructure of the village , which was built in the 1950s as part of a government program to literate the rural population and was upgraded to a primary school in 1976. There was even a junior high school before the first civil war . At present (2008) 153 girls and 211 boys attended this rebuilt school.
The local health center was rebuilt with the support of the Catholic diocese of Gbarnga and is called Clinic . There are three religious communities in the village: the sub-Christian Assembly of God , an Aladura congregation and the Baptist Church .
source
- Understanding diversity: a study of livelihoods and forest landscapes in Liberia (PDF, 1 MB, English)
Remarks
- ↑ IUCN study : Seven villages in Liberia took part in the study, similar studies were carried out simultaneously in other African countries. The aim of the project is to document the changes in living conditions, traditional agriculture and forestry and their effects on nature and society at randomly selected locations.
- ↑ Civil wars : The place is located in the Lofa region, a center of fighting during the last civil war, therefore the place was largely abandoned by the residents, the refugees waited for the end of the fighting in the neighboring border region in Guinea. During the fighting, the place was raided and burned by roaming militia troops.
- ↑ Founding myth : According to oral tradition, three defeated warriors once reached the Makona River: Bibliy, Vu and Dodo with names from the once proud city of Massadou in Mali. They found a detour to Bakpaymai, a town in the rainforest, in the vicinity of the village. Here they decided to found their own place and built the first houses of Zawordamai with their wives.