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Photographs by
Tim Hetherington. Page 3/6. |
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| Soft drink vendors ply their trade, young children wander obliviously across the pitch, fanatical women cheer along shy young men. Healing comes through this communal experience, and the young are given role models no longer based on the gun. | |||||||||
| The game has become part of the daily fabric of society. Newly-weds now pose for the camera in front the national stadium. Street children gather uniformly for once to represent their ‘home'. Passers-by stop to examine photographs of Liberian sporting heroes in a shop front.
In Gbangay Town, the Millennium team is one of numerous grass-root squads springing up. Unlike the disarray of local soldiers, a renewed sense of discipline nourishes these players. Some lived the war as child soldiers, others as victims of the tragedy: all are survivors in search of a better future. |
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| Throughout the region, sport has turned out to be a driving force in the rehabilitation of a nation. Soccer affords some semblance of normality. The game brings together ex-combatants from different factions in the same team. It's no longer important who fought whom in opposing factions: NPFL now stand beside ULIMO. J, a young boy who witnessed his family burnt alive, takes the corner kick. | |||||||||
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