From palava houses to TikTok: How Liberians preserve the past | Story

Monrovia, Liberia For generations, Liberia’s history lived in the words of its elders, driven by discussions, celebrations and public gatherings.

Today, these stories are finding new audiences on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, podcasts and digital archives.

Young Liberians are writing their own history, exploring their culture and reaching out to people at home and abroad. Rather than replacing traditional storytellers, they carry ancient traditions into the digital age.

In many parts of West Africa, historians, or oral historians, preserved history through stories, songs and oral traditions. Liberia did not establish the traditional griot tradition found in the Sahel region, but its elders fulfilled a similar role, preserving family history, traditions and stories that bind communities together.

However, over time, that tradition has become more difficult.

Among those leading efforts to preserve Liberia’s past is Bilphena Decontee Yahwon, founder of Archive Liberia, a memory and political education project that examines Liberia’s history through research, archeology and public storytelling.

“At first I didn’t want to talk about Liberia. I wanted to tell my story,” says Yahwon.

“Within my story there was also the story of war and migration, which I felt I could think about by understanding the story of Liberia, who we were before in the 1800s, what happened after that, and what we became. I realized that I was inside a web of stories, and that’s what brought me to the work I’m doing now,” he tells Al Jazeera.

His search has become part of a group of young Liberians who are using digital platforms to reclaim the country’s past and reshape how it is remembered.

History marred by war

Elders passed on the memories of families, communities, cultural traditions and events that made up Liberia for generations, but the country’s civil wars broke that chain.

Liberia’s two civil wars, fought between 1989 and 2003, killed nearly 250,000 people, displaced thousands and disrupted the transmission of history, culture and family memory.

Patrick Burrowes, a Liberian historian and author, said: “The Liberian communities living in the jungles did not have the professional movement that existed in the Sahel.

Burrowes told Al Jazeera: “The intergenerational transmission of disease continued unabated for hundreds of years until the outbreak of war.

The effects of that disruption are still visible today.

As the country of Liberia has grown, many young people have left the areas where oral communication is traditionally shared. According to the 2022 report of the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services, migrants make up 46.7 percent of the rural population, compared to 13.6 percent of the rural population.

The place where news is shared has changed. The need to keep them did not.

New palava house

For many young Liberians, the new meeting place is online.

A historical photo shared on Facebook, a TikTok video about a cultural tradition or a podcast about Liberia’s history can now reach people beyond a single community.

Stories that were once divided between the old and the young now travel across cities, continents and the Liberian diaspora in seconds.

Zuleka Dauda, ​​a program director at the Center for Integrated Solutions, a research and technology planning organization in Liberia, says the change reflects evolution rather than loss.

“Culture must not stand still,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Liberian youth are using culture differently, but they are still learning and sharing it. Instead of gathering in a palava house, they gather on TikTok, Facebook, podcasts and YouTube. We didn’t lose the myth. We changed the stage.”

For many creators, these platforms have become a place to record traditions, preserve family history and challenge Liberian stories that are often created from outside the country.

Old photos, forgotten traditions and family memories are reaching new audiences as Liberians use technology to reconnect with their past.

But taking storytelling online has also brought some challenges.

Truth is memory

Access remains one of the biggest barriers.

According to World Bank statistics, only one in three Liberians use the Internet, limiting potential participants in the growing digital economy.

There is also the problem of spreading fake news.

Traditional storytellers studied over the years, with elders responsible for correcting errors and protecting knowledge passed down between generations.

Social media has opened up the news to everyone, but it has also removed many of the protections.

“Historically, African armies were heavily trained, and the passing of information to young acolytes was confirmed by their elders,” says Burrowes.

But social media is a brave new world.

Low literacy and restricted access to archives also make it difficult for many Liberians to verify what has already been said. Government statistics estimate that Liberians aged 15 and over are 58.6 percent.

For Yahwon, however, the problem is not only about what is right but also about who will make Liberia’s history.

“For me, one of the biggest challenges in telling Liberia’s stories, culture and history is getting rid of the history that has been in control for so long,” he says.

“Most of what has been written about Liberia is made up of stories that are not anti-colonial and anti-imperialist.”

Who can tell the story of Liberia?

As more and more Liberians turn to digital platforms to preserve their past, the challenge is to ensure that the stories remain intact in evidence and memory.

The Liberia Tourism Authority says it is working with historians, cultural organizations and producers to improve access to the past and help produce accurate, relevant stories about Liberia.

Dauda believes that the answer is not to stop young people from talking on the Internet, but to help them say the right thing.

He said: “Silence is more dangerous than conversation.”

The words have changed. There is no position. Whether stories are shared under a small house or uploaded to TikTok, the mission remains the same: to ensure that Liberia’s past is preserved for future generations.

“Our generation is not just copying history. We are creating and sharing,” says Dauda.

“Think about it. The future of Liberia’s history cannot begin to be written in textbooks.