Photographs by
Tim Hetherington.
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But there are surprises to this familiar story. Listen to the World Service in Africa, and you will find sport given as the antidote to the continuing daily conflict. In the cramped spaces of communal video houses, Nigerian war films are balanced by showings of the latest European cup matches. The football economy is buoyant as George Varney, a tailor down at ‘Happy Corner' will confirm. He is busy stitching jerseys for the myriad of fledgling teams, and the boom in second-hand boot sales is unprecedented. Even artists' impressions of sports personalities can fetch handsome prices.
Economic desperation breeds a strange paranoia as people come to terms with the idea that they have become an impoverished nation. Another casualty on the world map, further confirmation for Western reports on Africa's Heart of Darkness.

People here are weary of war talk, and yet only last month rebels attacked the town of Voinjama, in the northern province of Lofa. The resultant chaos justifies government attitudes of fear and secrecy, while trapping a society between cries of aid agencies desperate to justify their existence, and the humanitarian ambivalence of the ruling classes.