114 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
pound the rice with long poles in large wooden mortars, and though the sweat 
pours from their bodies, they constantly chant at their laborious task. If they 
come late to their work or pause in it for too long a period, they receive several 
lashes with a whip over their bare shoulders from the soldier who walks among 
them. Nevertheless, they are usually very docile and make little audible re- 
monstrance against this oppression. The rice, after threshing and winnowing, 1s, 
according to their statements, turned over to the District Commissioner. The 
women receive no pay for the work, nor are they furnished with food. 
According to the regulations, the natives in the interior must also supply 
labor for the roads. Before the World War, there were no roads whatever in 
the interior of Liberia and practically all communication was by trail. Since 
the war the Liberian Government has attempted to construct roads on an exten- 
sive scale in different parts of the country. Yet, at the time of our visit there 
was only one road extending into the interior of the country from Monrovia 
along which an automobile could be driven. This road ran from Monrovia to 
White Plains, a distance of some thirty miles. Road construction, however, is 
going on in the interior in a number of districts, and at times we encountered sey- 
eral hundred men engaged in the work. Such roads, however, rarely connect even 
one village with another. Frequently they end in a swamp or in a forest. These 
bits of unconnected highway, not properly graded, and without connecting 
bridges, are from time to time being washed away by the heavy rains, so that 
a force is kept at work intermittently repairing the same section of the road. 
The men are not supplied with the necessary tools to carry on the work satis- 
factorily. Sometimes a force of several hundred men were furnished with only 
two picks or only one or two spades. Of the rest, some used sharpened poles 
to dig holes, others had little paddles made of trunks of trees, with which to 
pack the clay, and others still had small wicker baskets which they carried on 
their shoulders and with which they removed the earth from place to place. The 
laborers work under the direction of the soldiers all day, chanting as they work 
and in rhythm with the beating of drums. According also to their statements, 
they receive no pay and are compelled to furnish their own food. Under one 
ruling of the government such labor may be requisitioned for a period of nine 
months.t During the three remaining months the laborers are left free to cul- 
tivate the farms. 
Recently the People’s party in Monrovia, although expressing approval of 
the development of roads, opposed the ‘“‘method of using the aborigines as 
laborers without food, pay or the supply of tools to work with.’? Another 
statement was published in 1927 to the effect that the government had forced 
the natives ‘‘to work the roads without tools, food or pay; that on road work 
they were unjustly and excessively fined for the slightest breach of regulations 
under which they worked; that the Chiefs have had to pay heavy fines in rice 
and live stock whenever the required quota of men were not furnished; that 
the towns were required to furnish for travelling messengers, officers, soldiers, 
commissioners, in short, a host of petty officials, food and shelter and every 
1 See Liberian Gazette, Aug. 31, 1925; also Buell, loc. cit., vol. II, p. 749. 
