College News

Monrovia, Liberia, located on the West Coast of Africa, is Patricia Jabbeh-Wesley's home.

Over the last several decades, Liberia has been in the midst of war and civil unrest. Although she immigrated with her family to the United States during the Liberian civil war in 1991, Jabbeh-Wesley still witnessed the devastation of her homeland and lived through the massacre of thousands. The Penn State Altoona professor now is helping to give a voice to those who have lived through the war.

A research development grant awarded this past summer from Penn State Altoona allowed Jabbeh-Wesley to visit female survivors of the Liberian war who are now living in New York, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis/St. Paul, all cities with high concentrations of Liberians. She is compiling the stories of these war survivors into a documentary project entitled, "Telling Their Stories: Survival Stories of Women Traumatized by the Liberian Civil War in Audio/Video Recordings."

"For once, a woman will tell her story the way she thought it was, and not the way some politician wanted it told."
-Patricia Jabbeh-Wesley

"I want to relive their stories with them by compiling these first-hand narratives into a collection," Jabbeh-Wesley says. "I'm working with women I used to know, women who lived with me in the same refugee camp, and women whose stories I also know. I am also working with other women I have never met, women whose experiences are different from mine, women who have lived through the entire fourteen-year war in Liberia. This project, when completed, will comprise a written, audio, and video collection that will be a very useful library and classroom resource, and will help everyone in their understanding of the story of human survival of war in the twenty-first century."

In addition to interviewing civil war survivors and documenting their stories through audio and video narrative, Jabbeh-Wesley worked closely with organizations designed to provide support to this population, such as the Center for Victims of Torture in Minnesota and the Liberian Women's Initiative. These organizations sponsored community forums on the role of Liberian women in transition, which Jabbeh-Wesley presented to highlight the important role of women in the justice processes in Liberia.

"Everyone has their own personal story and experiences of the war as one of its survivors," notes Jabbeh-Wesley. "These local events were designed to help clarify some of the frequently asked questions about the transitional processes taking place in Liberia and to foster discussion on the major themes and issues about events in Liberia."

By bringing together the stories of those who have lived through the civil war, Jabbeh-Wesley's hope is that these women will become a part of history.

"The first reward all of us will get is that our stories, Liberia's stories and issues, and pain and suffering and victories will be recorded for everyone to read or to see, and for our children after us to read and connect to the strengths that we have," she says. "Every woman who takes part in this project will leave something behind that documents her story of hope and survival, so that no one reading or watching it ever forgets who we are as a people."