Leymah Gbowee: Liberian Peace Activist Powering A More Empowered And Peaceful World
“I believe the future of Africa is female” – Leymah Gbowee.
It is only when women are given their rightful place in society that great turnarounds occur.
The power of a woman has been sung for decades. Rightly hailed as home and nation builders, the influence of women in bettering the world cannot be overemphasized. Ironically, although evidence across various fields of endeavor proves beyond measure the influence of women, societal attitude dictates otherwise, relegating the female gender to domestication owing to archaic beliefs.
Although strides are being made to uproot thresholds of damaging belief systems, more work still needs to be done. The African continent can only be truly transformed when she recognizes the power that lies in the empowerment of the womenfolk.
A foremost voice for empowerment, equality, peacebuilding, and economic advancement, an influential voice of change, ever lending her voice to the course, Nobel Laureate Leymah Roberta Gbowee, stands tall as one of the influential figures of the 21st century, shattering status quo and charging on a more prosperous continent.
Ms. Gbowee is founder and President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, founder of the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, and co-founder and former Executive Director of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP).
The 50-year-old activist is noted for her unquantifiable contribution powering negotiation moves between the government and insurgents, via the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET),
the peace deal which applaudably ended the fourteen years of Liberian civil war, which broke out when she was only 17. Without fear or intimidation, she bravely rallied, united, and led her fellow country women from various ethnic and religious backgrounds to stage a nonviolent women’s movement, this courageous act in no small measure, helped bring a halt to the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003).
The renowned social worker and peace activist in honor of her immense contributions towards safeguarding the rights of women and peacebuilding was one of three recipients, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karmān, honored with the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.
A core believer of the power of women in nation-building and a more enabled and empowered world, Gbowee, resolute in her convictions that you can move past your trauma and key into the experience to effect change, till today passionately dedicates herself towards fighting for the advancement of women’s rights, and peace and security.
Gbowee asides from her 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been honored with the Blue Ribbon for Peace (2007), awarded by the Women’s Leadership Board of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award (2009).
She was featured in the 2008 documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which profiled the role of Liberian women in ending Liberia’s civil war.
Salute to an inspiring queen!
