Handshake: Liberia-style

Posted:
06.27.2011

Comments: 0

Fellows from Together Liberia—a group of journalists promoting local coverage of the Liberian presidential election—try out Liberia’s national handshake. Here is what reporter/journalism professor Steve Davis says:

The greeting actually can be a whole series of moves after the shakers lock hands, or it can be a simple, vanilla shake, as long as it ends with the distinctive “click,” where the shaking parties grasp the tips of each other’s middle fingers and snap.

The best shakers can produce an arresting click, audible across a room. The worst? Silence. A complete misfire. Epic failure. This befalls many rookies visiting the country for the first time. It can take awhile to get it. And on a hot day (that’s pretty much every day), it’s hard to muster adequate friction between sweaty parties.

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