Monrovia – Every second Wednesday in March is set aside as Decoration Day, and scenes at every cemetery across Liberia are usually filled with hundreds of people, who reflect on the lives of their fallen family members and pay respect to them.
Like other cemeteries, a few years ago, the second Wednesday of March brought scenes of wailing, singing and dancing.
Center Street, which divides the Palm Groves cemetery into two halves with each on Gurley and Lynch Streets, has always hosted the largest number of family members paying homage to the dead.
Individuals who come to this cemetery alone easily hire others to paint their relatives’ graves and at some point hired people to cry for their deceased relatives.
But that was not the case on March 11, 2020, at the Palm Grove Cemetery – Liberia’s oldest gravesite in the heart of Monrovia – due to the deplorable condition of the graves.
Despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to the fence and the cemetery, Liberia’s oldest and historic gravesite still remains a deathtrap, many people have said.
The Palm Groves Cemetery dates back as far as the 1820s. Almost all the graves have been broken by criminals who are presumed to bedrug addicts.
For more than a decade, the place has served as a hideout for criminals. These vagabonds have virtually opened almost every grave. Their fearful presence often scared away relatives of the dead.
After looking for his late mother grave for more than an hour, James Williams told FrontPage Africa that he nearly loss his life while jumping over many burst graves to locate his late mother’s grave.
“Every year we come to decorate our mother grave; we have to fix either the top of the grave or the side of it. I do not know who are those doing this act but when we come to decorate, we cannot see the steel rod and even the tides that were on the grave are all gone,” Williams said.
“I think the government needs to shut this place down and let everybody take the remains of their relative somewhere else because from what we have experienced over the past times, the government is unable to manage the place.”
Esther Johnson was seen with tear rolling down her cheeks. Johnson said for more than two hours, she was unable to find her late father’s grave.
The grave was reconditioned last year, but she could not see it because there were too many burstt graves so she was unable to recognize her father’s.
“I will transfer my father’s grave to Bomi County where we buried our grandmother. I just pray that I’ve found the grave,” she said while calling on the government to relocate the “death trap” graveyard.
Also, at the cemetery was Montserrado County District# 13 Representative Edward Flomo. He told journalists that he is going to write the house plenary to relocate the cemetery. He spoke to reporters after failing to recognize the grave of his relatives.
“Almost all the graves are damaged. So, I will be sending in a communication to have this place relocated. I know that it will take some time, but we will have to relocate this cemetery,” Flomo said.
Moves in past times by the city government to keep the cemetery sacred have proven futile.
Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s regime promised to relocate the entire cemetery, but that decision was put to halt by the action of than-Senator of Bong County now Vice President of Liberia, Jewel Howard-Taylor.
In 2016, the most famous and historic cemetery came close to being demolished by the Special Presidential Task Force headed by General Services Agency Director General Mary Broh.
Madam Taylor wrote the Plenary of the Senate requesting the body to put halt to the ongoing demolition of the Palm Groves cemetery.
In her communication, she stated that the cemetery was established by law for the permanent hosting and the final resting place for “distinguished citizens, respected patriot, and ordinary citizens.”
“This trend of thought to remove our loved ones from their resting place should not be accepted, but instead designated burial places should remain as such, which shows our collective national respect for the dead,” Vice President of Liberia stated back in 2016.