Chief Kisaki: I love this photo because this photo shows peace. I am a peacemaker and I am not only to make peace in Liberia, I’m there to build peace in other countries beside Liberia. The chief that you see here did not know me and I did not know him but we went in the community because we wanted to have a football game with them. We saw their traditional people and we were ignorant about their traditions. We were afraid because some people had knives. We were afraid of the knives. That’s what make us to go back home where we were staying. We still wanted to make peace so we went back to the village. We talked to the people, we met the chief, and he welcomed us. You can see he is trying to welcome us. In the photo he is talking, telling us, ‘Welcome, I’m happy of you people being here. I will like for you people and I to be one people.’ We told him that we are from Liberia and we want him to be with our father, our uncles. He agreed. He wanted us to be in his community. He showed to us that he loves other people. And we told him we wanted to have a friendly match with them so that we can have other people included, not only him, the chief to be making friends, but let other people be included. If they see us somewhere they’ll know, ‘Oh, we know these people!’ That’s what makes this photo to be very important to me.
We Liberians, we love our culture but not everyone will love importing materials like glass and white plastic chairs. We are forgetting about the traditional materials. Wood and rattan can last longer than plastic. In Liberia we use the rattan to plait (braid) mats but not to make chairs or some African hats.
Among all the animals, this is the animal I love. Elephants understand people and they bring peace to us. The elephant comes around close more than the giraffe. Anywhere you see the elephant it means that you people have peace. So I love to see elephants so that peace can come around more because I’m a peacemaker so I love to see elephants. At the time I took the photo, my grandmother (Mama Deena) was talking with the elephant. I mean, spiritually. What she was saying to the elephantå make the elephant to come around her and the elephant almost reached to the car. You can see how close the elephant was to the car. I felt so good because it was not my first day to see the elephant. I had seen elephants come around and so I was not afraid at that time. I love this face of the elephant. I love the tusks because besides the elephant I never see it on different animals. The face of the elephant is very fine. When it’s close to me and I see it, it’s very fine.
