In the dim and silent corners of Center Street Cemetery, where grieving families come only to honor the dead, a young Liberian man battling drug addiction has taken an unimaginable refuge: the open vault of a long-buried individual. For Augustine A. Paye, the cemetery is no longer just a resting place for the departed, it has become the only shelter he knows. Speaking reporters recently When in Monrovia, Augustine sat quietly inside the exposed vault, beside bones and a skull he had carefully pushed aside to make room for his bedding, stressing that “this is not the place I’m supposed to be,” he admitted, staring at the scattered remains beside him. “But it’s to rest myself… My heart is clean and clear. That’s why I placed the head one side and put my carton on the remaining bones.”
Cut off from society and living in complete isolation, he added, “It’s only me here… I have no friends.” Augustine says he has lived in the vault for quite some time. In the absence of human companionship, he describes the dead as his only neighbors, ones who do not judge or disturb him. “The people who are buried here have no problem with me, and I have no problem with them,” he said. “I’m always sleeping soundly. Not one of these days I have a bad dream.” But despite the calm he claims to feel, Augustine believes the spirit of the man buried beneath him is troubled.
“I’m resting on the guy. His spirit is not in peace,” he murmured. “And for me, I get head.”
His words expose the psychological and emotional turmoil that often accompanies addiction, a struggle that has pushed him into one of the most unthinkable living conditions in Liberia. Trapped between addiction and homelessness, Augustine says he wants to get out. He wants a chance at life beyond the cemetery walls. His plea is directed at the Government of Liberia, humanitarian organizations, religious institutions, philanthropists, and ordinary citizens willing to help. As Liberia continues to grapple with rising drug use and limited rehabilitation resources, Augustine’s story is a stark reminder of the human faces behind the country’s addiction crisis and a cry for urgent national intervention.
Author: Cooper K.Sangar Jr.
