Leymah Gbowee Biography

Leymah Gbowee was born in central Liberia on February 1, 1972. Shortly after her high school graduation in 1989, armed rebels led by Charles Taylor began crossing into Liberia from the Ivory Coast. A power struggle within Taylor’s own ranks resulted in the creation of a second rebel faction led by Prince Johnson. Both rebel leaders sought to overthrow the corrupt administration of President Samuel Doe who had risen to power in a violent coup of his own in 1980. 

In the ensuing years, still more factions formed in Liberia, each contributing to a particularly brutal and inhumane civil war. Allegiances were largely divided along tribal lines and the hostilities were not limited to combatants. Civilians were terrorized and slaughtered. Women and girls were raped. Young boys, many orphaned or kidnapped, were given drugs and forced to fight.

The war continued until 1997 when a tenuous peace accord was struck, and Taylor was elected president. The uneasy peace gave way to the Second Liberian Civil War beginning in 1999 and continuing for four more years. During the conflicts, Gbowee and her family were forced to flee their home three times, seeking refuge in Ghana on each occasion. Gbowee also suffered domestic abuse at the hands of the father of her first three children. Such abuse was common in Liberia and legal recourse for abused women was virtually beyond question.

Amidst the chaos and violence, Gbowee trained as a social worker. She began trauma counseling for orphaned children and rape victims. She later continued working toward a degree in social work during which she studied the philosophies and social movements of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as the peace and reconciliation philosophy of Hizkias Assefa. As a Christian, Gbowee related to how Jesus spoke for the powerless. She went on to counsel former child soldiers while becoming increasingly interested in more strategic forms of peacebuilding. 

Most of the people involved in promoting peace, Gbowee noticed, were men. Given how much women suffered from the wrath of war, she felt women should be more represented. She attended a West Africa Network for Peacebuilding conference where she met a woman who would establish the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) and select Gbowee as the coordinator of the Liberian chapter.

As the coordinator, Gbowee recruited women across the Christian-Muslim divide in an unprecedented interfaith movement that became the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. The women staged marches, protests, and sit-downs, finally gaining an audience with Taylor. With 2,000 women attending in support, Gbowee courageously read a statement to Taylor at the Executive Mansion demanding peace. The message somehow pierced Taylor’s hard outer shell and he agreed to begin a peace process.

The peace talks were held in Ghana. Despite the 1,000-mile journey, about 300 of the women followed. They were not given a seat at the table among the delegates, but were a continual presence outside the building, carrying placards and demanding progress. When the talks faltered, Gbowee ordered the women to create a human barricade by locking arms and sitting in front of the doors. Security was called to arrest “General Gbowee.” She responded by threatening to curse the men present by stripping naked. The threat shocked the onlooking delegates into action.

Within weeks of the disrobing threat, Taylor resigned the presidency and went into exile in Nigeria. One week later on August 18, 2003, delegates representing 21 different parties signed the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement. A transitional government was agreed upon that would provide stability for two years before a national election. Buoyed by the wave of new female voters, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first democratically elected female Head of State in the history of the African Continent. 

In 2011, Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.