Liberia’s first social justice blog, Sleepless in Monrovia, was officially launched on March 12, 2018 by its co-founders, Shari Raji and Suma Massaley. The idea and drive behind this blog stems from the co-founders’ passion for writing.

The idea behind the blog’s name, ‘Sleepless in Monrovia’ is ‘the thoughts and issues that keep Liberians awake at night.’ The name “Sleepless in Monrovia” came about in a very unorthodox way. Shari decided that she wanted to start a blog and use it as a platform for her many ideas and opinions. She had gotten a taste of the writing bug after so many years of not writing anything but research papers and project reports.

One day, Shari was on the phone with a friend and they were throwing names around; suggestions on the table were “African Girl’s Musings,” “Day Break Mouth Open,” “The Exquisite Villager,” and “Sleepless in Monrovia.” As soon as the name “Sleepless in Monrovia” came up, she fell in love with it. First and foremost, she thought it could represent all the thoughts that keep her awake at night and since she would be penning these thoughts down for the blog, the name seemed extremely fitting.

For Suma, her motivation for SiM stemmed from the sad refrain we always hear: “Liberians na like reading” and while there are no statistics to support or oppose that, there is the fact that Liberians are famous for having a lot of opinions. It is easy to usually find Liberians rambling extensively on Facebook or Twitter about a plethora of justice related issues or posting poetry. At the time, there was not an easily accessible professional platform where Liberians could share their creativity and have their literary pieces or poetry published online.

Essentially, the blog was created with the purpose that Liberians would no longer have to worry about where they can express their thoughts and advance their creativity; no longer will poems and burning ideas rot in Google Docs or will Facebook, Instagram or Twitter be the only platforms to discuss controversial issues.

With a fervent passion to explore Liberian culture, Shari and Suma believe that one way to promote the positive aspects of the culture, highlight the negative aspects that need improvements, and break self-consciousness is through writing. Therefore, SiM serves as a platform where cultural norms will be challenged, and horrifying stories will be told as a means of positively changing the narrative.

Liberians are a resilient group of people who have endured so many horrifying events, ranging from the civil war to Ebola and SiM encourages writers to tell those stories whether in the form of poetry or creative writing. Cognizant of Liberia’s prevailing patriarchal culture and a means to give Liberian women a prominent voice in society, SiM seeks to tackle controversial issues that are affecting women and are considered ‘taboo topics’ in our societies.

Liberian women have lived through years of patriarchal oppression and for the most part, are fed up with the reigning system of oppression and sexual and gender-based violence that is prevalent in the Liberian society.

The blog launched a few weeks back with an inaugural Taboo-series. It was a three part series that talked  about the typical controversial topics in the African/Liberian culture that are deemed “off-limits.” SiM’s three-part series explored the lack of talks surrounding puberty, sex-education, awareness of rape and sexual assault, and gender-based violence in Liberia. The series was authored by the co-founders with commentary by Joshua S. Kulah (SiM’s administrator).

Since the launching of SiM, many Liberians have expressed sentiments of relief because they now have a platform that is dedicated to creativity and discussions of social issues in Liberia. Readers also applauded and commented on the need for tackling controversial issues in our Liberian culture. We are optimistic that the blog will create a widespread positive impact on the Liberian community by continually posting contents that shakes up the comfortable but unprogressive mindset that exists among us and foster discussions in our various circles on how we can be the solutions to the problems we see in our societies.

SiM’s contributing writers are a diverse group of young adults who believe a huge percentage of the world’s problems could be solved by open dialogues in safe spaces that inspire action. As the first community for Liberian writers, writers are encouraged to use the platform to tell their stories, explore, create, thrive and discover their best selves.

SiM welcomes any and everyone who is passionate about literary creativity and wants to write on topics ranging from social justice op-eds to poetry to love & heartbreak stories. We also encourage other creative minds, who would rather not write, to submit their artworks and we will tell their story through other artistic means (photos, illustrations, craft, etc). You can join the team of contributing writers or simply submit your works to SiM’s email for publishing. Additional information on the processes to join the writers’ team or to submit your pieces are on the website.