Talk:Clara Town

Limitations, maps and definitions

I started a conversation of Mujinga's talk page, but agreed perhaps better to move it over here. I do struggle with coming across any good definition of boundaries for Clara Town. This isn't a unique situation, many geographic, cultural and historic entities exist without a formal delimitation. But still;

• Clara Town is not an informal settlement per se. It was a regular suburb of Monrovia prior to the civil wars. Like other communities near Monrovia proper it was once a village where a particular ethnic community settled, as native Africans were legally barred from residing in the capital. But during the civil wars there was a massive uprooting and displacement, where informal squatting settlements emerged all over the Monrovia region.
• As in many cases, we lack good WP:RS, instead a lot of what is published on Liberian geography comes from self-published sources, NGO or UN reports.
• I don't find any good maps of Clara Town. Arguably the Central Clara Town I & II communities are core parts of Clara Town by any definition (seen here https://www.necliberia.org/pg_img/Montserrado_Electoral_Districts_14.pdf , around the Clara Town road, with population data here https://www.lisgis.net/pg_img/Population%202008,%202014%20by%20County,%20District,%20Clan%20and%20Households,%20Liberia%20260914.pdf ). But arguably Giblata (or Gibraltar) community would be included in Clara Town. But this wikipedia article includes as well Struggle Community in Clara Town. This would mean that Hope Community etc would be part of Clara Town as well.
• I want to flag clearly that this map produced by MSF https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/styles/report-large/public/resources-pdf-previews/203831-LBR_BM_Monrovia_Communities_A3.png?itok=DqZOnsYt is blatantly wrong. Or at least out of context. The map talks about Monrovia being divided into zones, but these seem to be used only for statistical purpose, not as local government. The zone Z300 is named 'Clara Town' in the MSF map, but rather this area corresponded to the Garwolon (or Garglorh) township in terms of local governance.
• https://openjicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/11965860_01.pdf also makes reference to the Clara Town zone, seemingly used in both the 1984 and 2008 census.
• The problem with using Z300 as the definition of 'Clara Town' is that it includes Vai Town, which emerged as a distinct ethnic village parallel to the Kru Clara Town.

--Soman (talk) 19:11, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

Previous discussion at User_talk:Mujinga#Clara_Town. Yes I agree Soman that Clara Town is more than an informal settlement, although I think it does include the shanties down by the sea as per this medium link. So I think there is the official Clara Town and then the extra informal bit also known by the name. I checked how the page started off and the page creator (gone since 2009) used the word "suburb" to describe Clara Town so by all means change that if you want, "slum" was already there when I got here.

However, on page 2-10 of https://openjicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/11965860_01.pdf it says "In terms of population density, the slum districts of West Point and Clara Town show the highest figures" and the map next to it has Clara Town covering the whole tip of the island. Confusing! Would be cool if someone has more sources. You could always ask at WP:Africa I guess? Mujinga (talk) 19:42, 19 April 2021 (UTC)