Dear Readers:
I jeh [just] laugh.
This statement in Liberian parlance means one is at a total loss for words when something unbelievable happens. It is not meant to be comedic or understood in that context.
About two months ago, my team pooled ideas around for a story. Our original story was to look at the success of the introduction of the HIV prevention pill—-PREP—- in Liberia by USAID via FHI360.
It was in the process of doing our research for that story when we stumbled across Dominic Bropleh, a 32-year-old Liberian who accused FHI360 of outing his HIV status. Dominic approached us as a means of last resort to get his story told since he could not get FHI360 in Liberia to listen to him.
He was frustrated as he was weary when he reached out to my team in Monrovia. During a WhatsApp video call, the haggard look on his face showed the signs of a man down and out.
We found his story to be beyond interesting: signing up to do awareness on HIV, and allegedly promised that the message would be cross-checked with him to make sure he was at ease with the wording, it was allegedly never done, tried bringing it up with FHI and its partners, etc.
On a story of such grave allegations, we, as per standard journalistic practice, decided to check with the various parties that were mentioned, particularly FHI360. Our first inquiry was to get in touch with FHI360’s headquarters in Washington.
We were going above and beyond—pulling all the stops—– to ascertain the veracity of Dominic’s story. Washington, it seemed, had no inkling of what was ongoing in Monrovia aside from periodic reports sent on the EPIC project.
I wasn’t surprised. I had seen similar things firsthand, during the early beginnings of journalRAGE, with Population Services International (PSI) when the organization did not own up to its failure twice by endangering the lives of some members of the LGBTQ+ community by throwing wild parties in communities prone to attacks without paying much attention to security when it implemented the scandalous Global Fund project in Liberia.
Then, FHI360 Technical Advisor, Cytirus Kerbay, was also in the employ of PSI.
Our publication, following its syndication by major dailies, showed that PSI in Washington was completely unaware of what had been happening in Monrovia. My sources at the time indicated that it had been a rosy picture painted.
And so when Dominic approached us with his story, and based on the experience of the past with victims of PSI’s negligence, we did not take it with a pinch of salt.
As stated earlier, Washington was completely not in the knowledge that someone was seething and hurting over an alleged mistake by its team in Liberia that could have easily been rectified by a simple stroke of the pen but has now become way too costly that it can no longer be ignored. Most especially, it has been picked up by journalRAGE.
From the outlook, we are not sure of the extent to which it could go. Should it go to court, certainly it would or could be a precedent case law of privacy for students of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia, according to legal scholars.
As per Dominic’s words, he told us he had reached out to several human rights organizations in Liberia operating in Liberia, some of whom are implementing partners of FHI.
Of the three implementing partners—SAIL, LEGAL, and LIBNet+— of FHI360 that Bropleh allegedly reached out to, only one —LEGAL—- responded in the affirmative.
LIPRIDE, the human rights coalition, acknowledged being abreast of Bropleh’s case and had reached out to FHI360, but the matter did not amount anywhere.
And so, the stage was set. Bropleh had a genuine story. Pulling all the stops, we went all out to give the story the coverage it deserves.
In Liberia, the public has gotten accustomed to the media reporting issues on the periphery. No follow-up or additional extensive reporting.
The perception or permeating thought is, an issue in the news is only as valuable for a week. After that, it is on to the next trending issue.
When a journalist decides to go beyond the periphery, it becomes unsettling for many. More to that, our society isn’t used to journalists angling for more on a particular story.
I saw this first hand when, as a favor to my colleague at a major daily, I did a follow-up story on the misuse of the Road Fund in the country by the Minister of Finance.
The rest is history.
Following the first publication of Bropleh’s story, the initial expectations from many in Liberia and the diaspora were it was a one-time hit wonder, so to speak. When we began to run subsequent stories and reporting from different angles, discomfort began to set in.
Some began to reach out to me via intermediaries and personal friends of mine to cease our publication. And in doing so, financial offers were made to me in subtle forms—support for journalRAGE.
I jeh laugh.
Our publication was/is bringing in discomfort. A lot of people working on sexual minority issues in Liberia did not like the fact that our work exposed their rear ends which warranted investigation from USAID.
And this is not the first time our work has done and attempted to do so. In the months leading to the establishment of journalRAGE, I was hired by New Narratives to write a story on access to justice for the LGBTQ community.
During several interviews, it was discovered that there had been funds given by donors for the establishment of a legal clinic for the LGBT community.
When we poked on what happened to the clinic and what could be done to resuscitate it, discomfort set in. Those to whom the funds had been entrusted to have it set up began to fight back.
They did not like the fact that I, Gboko John Stewart, had been probing. It was a testy email exchange. Since we did not want to veer from the original intent of the story I was hired to write, we dropped the matter.
But then, it dawned on me that tucked beneath the veneer underbelly of sexual minority issues in Liberia, there exists a cloaked corruption of a different hue. It is a “scratch on my back, I scratch yours” sort of thing.
One of those — in fact, the main person — who I had asked about the legal clinic is perhaps the one leading this campaign against me to halt our publication of Dominic Bropleh.
The line he’s gotten others to swallow hook, line, and sinker is our work is eroding whatever gains the LGBTQ community has made in Liberia.
I jeh laugh.
But the sad truth of the matter is, the news we put out for the world is a reflection of what goes on in the LGBTQ community in Liberia. The expectation that we should turn a blind eye to something egregious that has allegedly happened is asking us to shirk from our cardinal responsibility — one which we hold and cherish dearly.
If eroding gains mean we are removing the gilded lenses from the eyes of donors and partners to get a proper look at things, and to actually see where their funds are going and on who is it being spent, then we are proud to be eroding those gains.
I jeh laugh.
I am refraining from revealing his name now.
However, he has placed me in several email chains in a failed attempt to influence our coverage and to prevail upon me.
He has called on my close friends to stop our consistent reportage on Dominic Bropleh and FHI360.
Perhaps not stopping there, he’s also reached out to my aging dad, John H.T. Stewart, a commissioner of the defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission to influence me.
But I am sure that as the sun rises and settles, he may have gotten a bloody nose from my father, also a journalist, who is widely known for being unbending, highly principled, and a stickler for the truth no matter the costs attached thereto. He will NEVER EVER call or stand in my way of reporting the obvious truth.
And it is my understanding that it is all being done in concert with some staff members at FHI360 in Liberia and big whigs he has attachtments to.
The palpable fear is that following USAID’s investigation, the outcome, whatever it is, may not be favorable.
The mission is to stop us come hell and high water. But truth crush to the ground shall always rise again. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
I jeh laugh.
Sincerely,
Gboko John Stewart
Curator-in-Chief