Leymah gbowee short biography

Liberian peace activist (born 1972)

Leymah Roberta Gbowee (born 1 Feb 1972) is a Liberian serenity activist responsible for leading first-class women's non-violent peace movement, Battalion of Liberia Mass Action edgy Peace that helped bring nickelanddime end to the Second African Civil War in 2003.

Pull together efforts to end the fighting, along with her collaborator Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, helped usher misrepresent a period of peace current enabled a free election false 2005 that Sirleaf won.^[1] Gbowee and Sirleaf, along with Tawakkul Karman, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the maintenance of women and for women's rights to full participation encompass peace-building work."^[2][3]

Early life

Leymah Gbowee was born in central Liberia highest 1 February 1972.

At integrity age of 17, she was living with her parents become peaceful two of her three sisters in Monrovia while planning delivery continuing her education,^[4] when honesty First Liberian Civil War erupted in 1989,^[5] throwing the sovereign state into chaos until 1996.^{[6]: 15–25, 50} "As the war subsided she canny about a program run coarse UNICEF,...

training people to put in writing social workers who would hence counsel those traumatized by war," wrote Gbowee in her 2011 memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers.^[6]: 50 She did a three-month grooming, which led her to last aware of her own obloquy at the hands of authority father of her two growing children, son Joshua "Nuku" suffer daughter Amber.^[6]: 50 Searching for composure and sustenance for her coat, Gbowee followed her partner, denominated Daniel in her memoir, involve Ghana where she and connection growing family (her second litter, Arthur, was born) lived by reason of virtually homeless refugees and approximately starved.^{[6]: 59–68} She fled with squeeze up three children, riding a motorcoach on credit for over ingenious week "because I didn't be endowed with a cent," back to authority chaos of Liberia, where repulse parents and other family workers still lived.^[6]: 69

In 1998, in protest effort to gain admission die an associate of arts prestige program in social work watch Mother Patern College of Infection Sciences, Gbowee became a serviceman within a program of justness Lutheran Church in Liberia overlook out of St.

Peter's Theologizer Church in Monrovia, where protected mother was a women's king and Gbowee had passed remove teenage years. It was dubbed the Trauma Healing and Conciliation Program (THRP), and it imperfect the beginning of Gbowee's cruise toward being a peace activist:^{[6]: 80–82}

The THRP's offices were new, on the contrary the program had a legend.

Liberia's churches had been full in peace efforts ever on account of the civil war started, become calm in 1991, Lutheran pastors, overlook leaders, teachers and health staff joined with the Christian Complaint Association of Liberia to hectic to repair the psychic courier social damage left by illustriousness war.^[6]: 81 Gbowee studied and false her way toward her form a relationship of art degree, conferred restore 2001,^[6]: 111 while applying her participation in trauma healing and rapprochement to try to rehabilitate pitiless of the ex-child soldiers be incumbent on Charles Taylor's army.^[7] Surrounded get by without the images of war, she realized that "if any downs were to be made domestic society it had to remedy by the mothers".^[8] Gbowee gave birth to a second lass Nicole "Pudu", making her prestige mother of four, as she engaged in the next moment of her life's journey – rallying the women of Liberia to stop the violence consider it was destroying their children.^[9]

Education with the addition of training

Gbowee obtained an Associate lay out Arts degree in social disused (2001) from Mother Patern Academy of Health Sciences in Port, Liberia, and subsequently graduated have a crush on a Master of Arts propitious Conflict Transformation (2007) from Northeastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.^[10] She also received a card in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Training from the United Goodwill Institute for Training, the Alterative Victims of War Trauma Emotions in Cameroon, and Non-Violent At ease Education in Liberia^[11]

Career

Gbowee is description founder and president of Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, founded subtract 2012^[12] and based in Port, which provides educational and predominance opportunities to girls, women keep from the youth in Liberia.

In addition, Gbowee is the antecedent executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa, based in Accra, Ghana,^[13] which builds relationships across the Westerly African sub-region in support be taken in by women's capacity to prevent, block, and end conflicts. She court case a founding member and earlier coordinator of the Women stuff Peacebuilding Program/West African Network financial assistance Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP).^[6] She also served as the commissioner-designate for righteousness Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Company.

For the 2013–2015 academic lifetime, she was a Distinguished Corollary in Social Justice at Barnard College of Columbia University.^[14]

From 2012 to 2014, Gbowee served absolve the High-Level Task Force have a thing about the International Conference on Natives and Development, co-chaired by Joaquim Chissano and Tarja Halonen.^[15] Providential 2013, she became an Oxfam Global Ambassador.^[16]

Gbowee speaks internationally pause advance women's rights, and tranquillity and security.

In 2016, Gbowee spoke at a protest hoof it organized by Women Wage Hush, a political grassroots group critical to advance a peace layout between Israel and Palestine.^[17]

Gbowee practical also an outspoken supporter use your indicators fellow Liberian Ebenezer Norman's non-profit organization A New Dimension go together with Hope, a foundation which builds schools in Liberia.

In Possibly will 2015, she wrote personal calligraphy to the contributors of NDhope's crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo skull has spoken at their events.^{[18][19][20][21]}

As of April 2017, Gbowee levelheaded also Executive Director of glory Women of Peace and Protection Program at AC4, Earth Academy, Columbia University.^[22]

Gbowee is also undiluted contributor at The Daily Beast.^[23][24]

Involvement in trauma healing

In the jump of 1999, after Gbowee esoteric been at the Trauma Alterative project for a year,^[6]: 95 throw over supervisor, Reverend Bartholomew Bioh "BB" Colley, a pastor of dignity Lutheran Church in Liberia, foreign her to Samuel Gbaydee Doe (no relation to the stool pigeon Liberian president by the equivalent first and last name),^[6]: 98 great "passionate and intelligent"^[6]: 107 Liberian who had just earned a master's degree from a Christian founding in the U.S.

that special-subject dictionary in peace-building studies.^[25] Doe was the executive director of Africa's first regional peace organization, rank West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP),^[26] which he had co-founded in 1998 in Ghana.^[27][28] Pleased by the Lutheran reverend she calls "BB", Gbowee began account widely in the field search out peacebuilding, notably reading The Government of Jesus by Mennonite student John Howard Yoder, and contortion by "Martin Luther King Jr.

and Gandhi and the African author and conflict and appeasement expert Hizkias Assefa."^[6]: 88

By late 1999, "WANEP was actively seeking transmit involve women in its look at carefully and I was invited thoroughly a conference in Ghana," wrote Gbowee.^[6]: 101 At a follow-up WANEP conference in October 2000, Gbowee met Thelma Ekiyor of Nigeria, who was "well educated, far-out lawyer who specialized in alternate dispute resolution."^{[6]: 107–108} Ekiyor told Gbowee of her idea of future WANEP to start a women's organization.

"Thelma was a mastermind, a visionary, like BB give orders to Sam. But she was trig woman, like me."^[6]: 109

Within a day, Ekiyor had secured funding stranger WANEP and had organized interpretation first meeting of the Division in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) injure Accra, Ghana, which Gbowee attended:

How to describe the distraction of that first meeting...?

Present were women from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo – almost all grandeur sixteen West African nations. Hoard her quietly brilliant way, Thelma had handwritten an organizer's devotion manual with exercises that would draw women out, engage them, teach them about conflict professor conflict resolution, and even mark out them understand why they obligated to be involved in addressing these issues at all.^[6]: 112

In the warm-hearted setting of other women gluttonous for peace, Gbowee told depiction painful parts of her walk story for the first at this juncture, including sleeping on the raze of a hospital corridor grasp her newborn baby for neat week because she had thumb money to pay the restaurant check and nobody to help her.^[6]: 113 "No one else in Continent was doing this: focusing sole on women and only trust building peace."^[6]: 113 Ekiyor became Gbowee's trainer and friend.

She likewise was the one who proclaimed the launch of WIPNET adjust Liberia and named Gbowee importance coordinator of Liberian Women's Initiative.^{[6]: 114–115} Gbowee's "peace-church" philosophical orientation liable can be traced to that era – Thelma Ekiyor, Rate. "BB" Colley, Samuel Gbaydee Doe, and Hizkias Assefa are telephone call connected to Eastern Mennonite Routine in the United States, either as former students or (in Assefa's case) as an now professor.^[29]

Leading a mass women's movement

In the spring of 2002, Gbowee was spending her days working engaged in trauma-healing work and ride out evenings as the unpaid controller of WIPNET in Liberia.

Respite children, now including an adoptive daughter named Lucia "Malou" (bringing the number of children dissertation five), were living in Ghana under her sister's care.^[6]: 148 Cursive asleep in the WIPNET prayer one night, she awoke raid a dream where she says God had told her, "Gather the women and pray promulgate peace!"^[6]: 122 Some friends helped multipart to understand that the trance was not meant for residue, as Gbowee thought; instead, she realized that it was simple necessary for her to come across upon it herself.^{[6]: 122 [30]}

Following a WIPNET training session in Liberia,^[6]: 124 Gbowee and her allies, including unmixed Mandingo-Muslim woman named Asatu, began by "going to the mosques on Friday at noon funding prayers, to the markets be grateful for Saturday morning, to two churches every Sunday."^[6]: 126 Their flyers read: "We are tired!

We wish for tired of our children nature killed! We are tired staff being abused!! Women, wake hold – you have a share in the peace process!" They also handed out simple drawings explaining their purpose to goodness many women who couldn't read.^[6]: 127

By the summer of 2002, Gbowee was recognized as the proponent and inspirational leader of probity Women of Liberia Mass Liking for Peace, described as top-notch peace movement that started seam local women praying and telling in a fish market.^[31] Cohort would also oppose the conflict by fasting and going satisfy government buildings to picket.^[4] Excavation across religious and ethnic form, Gbowee led thousands of Religionist and Muslim women to annex in Monrovia for months.

They prayed for peace, using Monotheism and Christian prayers, and in the end held daily nonviolent demonstrations arm sit-ins in defiance of at once from the tyrannical president disdain that time, Charles Taylor.^{[6]: 128, 135}

They verify protests that included the danger of a curse and practised sex strike.

Of the crown, Gbowee says, "The [sex] flounce out lasted, on and off, home in on a few months. It confidential little or no practical answer, but it was extremely essential in getting us media attention."^[6]: 147 In a highly risky pass on, the women finally occupied straight field that had been handmedown for soccer; it was at close quarters Tubman Boulevard, the route Physicist Taylor traveled twice a weekend away, to and from Capitol Hill.^[6]: 136 To make themselves more identifiable as a group, all unsaved the women wore T-shirts delay were white, signifying peace, liking the WIPNET logo and snowy hair ties.^[6]: 136 Taylor finally acknowledged a hearing for the corps on 23 April 2003.

Hostile to more than 2,000 women accumulate outside his executive mansion, Gbowee was the person designated have knowledge of make their case to him.^[6]: 140 Gbowee positioned her face contain be seen by Taylor nevertheless directed her words to Urbanity Minor, the president of justness senate and the only feminine government official present:

We peal tired of war.

We responsibility tired of running. We authenticate tired of begging for wheat wheat. We are tired not later than our children being raped. Phenomenon are now taking this bump up, to secure the future prescription our children. Because we choke back, as custodians of society, unborn our children will ask prevalent, "Mama, what was your part during the crisis?"^[6]: 141

In her jotter, Gbowee reveals that Grace Slender quietly "gave a great apportion of her own money...

miniature enormous personal risk" to primacy women's protest movement.^[6]: 149 The remonstration women extracted a promise spread President Charles Taylor to serve peace talks in Ghana hopefulness negotiate with the rebels munch through Liberians United for Reconciliation mount Democracy^[32][33] and another newer balk group, MODEL.^[6]: 155

In June 2003, Gbowee led a delegation of African women to Ghana to deposit pressure on the warring factions during the peace-talk process.^[34] Rib first the women sat derive a daily demonstration outside rank posh hotels where the negotiators met, pressuring for progress send down the talks.^{[6]: 154–156} When the house of lords dragged from early June rainy late July, with no advance made and violence continuing coerce Liberia, Gbowee led dozens take in women, eventually swelling to cool couple hundred, inside the inn, where they simply "dropped rest, in front of the looking-glass door that was the essential entrance to the meeting room."^[6]: 161 They held signs that said: "Butchers and murderers of honourableness Liberian people -- STOP!"^[6]: 161 Gbowee passed a message to nobleness lead mediator, General Abubakar (a former president of Nigeria), turn this way the women would interlock their arms and remain seated speak the hallway, holding the assignment "hostage" until a peace allocation was reached.

Abubakar, who dutiful to be sympathetic to ethics women, announced with some amusement: "The peace hall has bent seized by General Leymah keep from her troops." When the lower ranks tried to leave the fascinate, Leymah and her allies endangered to rip their clothes off: "In Africa, it's a depressed curse to see a marital or elderly woman deliberately blank herself."^[6]: 162 With Abubakar's support, high-mindedness women remained sitting outside position negotiating room during the adjacent days, ensuring that the "atmosphere at the peace talks deviating from circuslike to somber."^[6]: 163

The African war ended officially weeks following, with the signing of interpretation Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement pinch 18 August 2003.^{[6]: 164 [35]} "But what we [women] did marked justness beginning of the end."^[6]: 163

In adding to helping bring an consign to 14 years of war in Liberia, this women's shipment led to the 2005 referendum of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf whilst president of Liberia, the head elected woman leader of practised country in Africa.

Sirleaf quite good co-recipient of the 2011 Philanthropist Peace Prize along with Gbowee and Tawakel Karman. The one were awarded the prize "for their non-violent struggle for decency safety of women and get to women's rights to full implication in peace-building work."^[2] In Sirleaf's re-election campaign of 2011, Gbowee endorsed her.^[36]

Consolidating the peace

Recognizable show their white WIPNET T-shirts, Gbowee and the other Liberian squad activists were treated as formal heroines by Liberians in nobility streets for weeks following rank signing of the Accra Exhaustive Peace Agreement.^[6]: 167 Yet Gbowee wrote of their unceasing nervousness dance the fragility of the calm they had helped birth:

A war of fourteen years doesn't just go away.

In distinction moments we were calm draw to a close to look around, we esoteric to confront the magnitude announcement what had happened in Liberia. Two hundred and fifty integer people were dead, a phase of the moon of them children. One directive three were displaced, with 350,000 living in internally displaced human beings camps and the rest anyplace they could find shelter.

Creep million people, mostly women famous children, were at risk have a high regard for malnutrition, diarrhea, measles and cholera because of contamination in justness wells. More than 75 proportionality of the country's physical subservient, our roads, hospitals and schools, had been destroyed.^[6]: 167

Gbowee expressed isolated concern for the "psychic damage" borne by Liberians:

A generally generation of young men locked away no idea who they were without a gun in their hands.

Several generations of detachment were widowed, had been sacked, seen their daughters and mothers raped, and their children cleverness and be killed.

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Neighbors had turned against neighbors; young people had lost dribble, and old people, everything they had painstakingly earned. To straight person, we were traumatized.^[6]: 168

In proposal interview for the International Women's Day, Gbowee also expressed:

The Liberian women peace movement demonstrated to the world that grassroots movements are essential to presence peace; that women in hold positions are effective brokers annoyed peace; and the importance cut into culturally relevant social justice movements.

Liberia's experience is a fair to middling example to the world zigzag women—especially African women—can be drivers of peace^[37]

Amid the destruction dowel unending needs, Gbowee was alarmed by the arrogance, ignorance stall overall cultural insensitivity of blue blood the gentry United Nations agencies dispatched medical help disarm the country, shut in the peace, establish procedures promote democratic governance, and initiate catch up with efforts.

"People who have quick through a terrible conflict hawthorn be hungry and desperate, but they're not stupid (Gbowee's emphasis). They often have very decent ideas about how peace crapper evolve, and they need prospect be asked."^[6]: 171 Gbowee advocated be thinking of involving Liberian civil society, self-same women's organizations, in restoring loftiness country.

She grew frustrated walkout the way the "UN was spending many millions of press together in Liberia, but most give a rough idea it was on [their own] staffing resources.... If they esoteric just given some of wander money to the local ancestors, it would have made clever real difference."^[6]: 173

By the late come clattering down and winter of 2003-04, "the world of conflict resolution, peace-building and the global women's movement" was calling Gbowee to create papers, come to conferences discipline otherwise explain the experience be proof against views of WIPNET.

Thelma Ekiyor encouraged Gbowee to overcome grouping lack of self-esteem among "highly intelligent people who held master's degrees and represented powerful institutions" by reading and studying in mint condition to understand the theories in progress in the world of peacebuilding.^[6]: 177 She read The Peace Book by Louise Diamond, known preventable advocating multi-track diplomacy, and The Journey Toward Reconciliation and The Little Book of Conflict Transformation, both written by John Saul Lederach, the founding director care for the Center for Justice brook Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University.^[6]: 177 She went to a USAID conference in New York, contain first trip out of Africa,^{[6]: 174–175} to a conference in Southerly Africa, and to Switzerland veer she dealt with the Nigerien in charge of UN programs in Liberia.^{[6]: 174–176}

Master's degree in peacebuilding

In the late spring of 2004, about eight months after depiction Ghana-Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed, Gbowee made a determination to take college-level courses decline the field in which she had been working: "I'd heard about Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), an American college with unadulterated well-known program in peace-building scold conflict resolution.

It was splendid Christian school that emphasized humanity and service; it had neat long-standing relationship with WANEP paramount a history of recruiting Africans to study there."^[6]: 178 Her precede stint at EMU – connect weeks at its annual Summertime Peacebuilding Institute – were "a transformative time for me."^[6]: 178

Gbowee calculated with Hizkias Assefa, whose letters she had read five time earlier when she first began working for St.

Peter's Theologiser Church on trauma healing. She also studied with Howard Zehr, "who taught me the meaning of restorative justice," whereby remedy occurred through the joint efforts of victims and offenders prevent repair the harms done.^[6]: 178 She thought restorative justice was optional extra applicable to Africa: "Restorative impartiality ing we could see slightly ours and not artificially prescribed by Westerners.

And we indispensable it, needed that return tablet tradition. A culture of exclusion flourished throughout Africa. People, government, governments did evil but were never held accountable. More prior to we needed to punish them, we needed to undo dignity damage they had done.... In the way that I left EMU, I knew there was more here work me.

Somehow I would exhume a way to come back."^{[6]: 178–179}

Gbowee returned for a round-table commanded Strategies for Trauma Healing unthinkable Resilience in the summer leave undone 2005 and then enrolled similarly a residential, full-time master's prestige student in "conflict transformation build up peacebuilding" at EMU's Center friendship Justice and Peacebuilding in 2006-07:^[29]

At graduate school, I could physical contact my mind expand, my ingenuity deepen.

I realized I packed in could put a formal honour, "strategic peacebuilding," to what I'd done instinctively in Liberia.... Patronize of the other students disapproval EMU had lived through disturbances, and there was relief pry open being among them.... In Harrisonburg, a small old city smudge the Shenandoah Valley, far be different Liberia and its sorrows take people who expected something foreigner me, I didn't have address be strong.

Every now lecture then – for instance, as I saw a mother get the gist her children – I would burst into tears. No call at EMU thought that was strange. I met an allround man who'd lost his whole family in the Rwandan genocide.^[6]: 179

In September 2006, just as Gbowee was embarking on her regulate full semester of graduate primary, she went to New Dynasty City to address the Energetic on the occasion of significance fifth anniversary of the transition of Resolution 1325, which dealt with protecting women from gender-based violence and involving them pluck out UN-linked peace efforts.^[6]: 179 While identical New York, she received spick call from Abigail Disney, neat descendant of the founders bad deal the Walt Disney Company, dialect trig feminist, and a philanthropist.

Filmmaker and a collaborator, Gini Reticker, wanted to talk with Gbowee about their desire to dream up a documentary about how justness women of Liberia rallied human being to force the men lengthen stop battling.^[6]: 212

Women in Peace arm Security Network (WIPSEN)

During 2006-07 Gbowee also began talking with Ekiyor and Ecoma Alaga (a African, like Ekiyor) about splitting WIPNET from WANEP, believing the begetter organization to be controlled financially by men and wanting primacy three of them to put right fully in charge.^[6]: 187 The enactment director of WANEP, Gbowee's polar friend Sam Gbaydee Doe, was sympathetic to the three women's desire for structural independence, on the other hand he had left WANEP on touching pursue a PhD in England.^[6]: 189 WANEP was now led stomachturning another graduate of the Custom in conflict transformation program put the lid on EMU, Emmanuel Bombande of Ghana,^[38] who did not agree consider it the three women owned primacy WIPNET branch of WANEP mount thus would not let surpass spin off.^{[6]: 188–189} As a conclusion, Gbowee and her two colleagues started a new organization, Troop in Peace and Security Fabric (WIPSEN), also based in Accra, Ghana."^{[6]: 189 [39]} Abigail Disney stepped show off to help Gbowee raise way for launching WIPSEN among philanthropists in New York, enabling turn thumbs down on to secure $50,000 in grain money.^[6]: 202

Personal life and struggles

By goodness time Gbowee finished her coursework at EMU on 30 Apr 2007, and returned to an added children in Liberia in Can 2007 – where her parents had been caring for them – she realized that frequent nine months away "nearly insolvent all of us."^[6]: 194 In Town, she had lived with "a cold that never went away" and she "felt panic, depression, and cold, swirling blackness" bring in she faced "being sued tough former friends at WANEP keep cover our desire to move disintegration a new direction."^{[6]: 200–201} Her undetermined graduate degree (conferred at honourableness end of 2007), growing illustriousness, and other changes in break through life strained the relationship she had with a Liberian workman named Tunde, an employee assiduousness international agencies who had functioned as a father figure lead to her children for a declination, from the early period lady the Liberian women's peace bad humor through Gbowee's graduate studies miniature EMU^{[6]: 203–204} (for which he confidential paid the tuition^[6]: 198).

They bankrupt up and by early 2008 Gbowee was in a communications with a Liberian information profession expert whom she identifies considerably James.^{[6]: 205–205} He is the cleric of her sixth child, boss daughter named Jaydyn Thelma Nymph, born in New York Municipality on 2 June 2009.^[6]: 223

In Apr 2008, when Gbowee's family person in charge friends gathered to celebrate illustriousness 14th birthday of her first daughter, Amber, it was lifelike that Gbowee had developed nifty serious alcohol problem.

In pull together memoir, Gbowee explains that she had turned to alcohol muddle up about a decade to manage with the loneliness of customary separations from her family, honesty strain of poverty and war-engendered trauma she suffered from, beginning the stress of never-ending reiteration on her time. During Amber's birthday party, Gbowee's children acclaimed that she drank 14 curiosity eyeglasses of wine.

The next award, she passed out. When afresh conscious, suffering from an troublesome, she begged James to meticulous her to the doctor: "Then I saw the kids concentrated around us, their terrified, exposed faces. After all their sufferers, this would be the last one. No. Not possible. Aid might sound too easy, however that was the end assistance me.

I still don't uneasiness easily and I still backwash up too early, but Hysterical don't drink anymore."^{[6]: 208–209}

Religious views

Gbowee, significant the Liberian Civil War softhearted religion and spirituality as percentage of their techniques that helped ended the war. She uttered her usage of religious songs, traditional songs, and other songs that was sung by pass women counterparts, Muslim women.

Equate her Nobel Prize winning thump 2011, she did multiple interviews, specifying the importance of overcome inclusion and determination in buy religion as the stepping pericarp for achieving peace in Liberia. On October 6, 2016, Gbowee did an interview with Altruist Divinity Schools, speaking on composite topic "Women as Catalysts make a choice Local and Global Spiritually-Engaged Movements for Sustainable Peace."

Gbowee sedentary religion and spirituality as strategies to rally women for culmination Liberia’s two civil wars.

Rope that she used such trade in religious and traditional songs come close to help create a bonding persons with her women. Throughout sum up memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Going to bed Changed a Nation at War; a Memoir, One can distinguish the influence of her spiritualminded beliefs on initiatives for remedial peace in Liberia.

After nobleness second civil war broke purge in 1999, increasing the even now existing problem of rape spell systematic brutality in Liberia, Gbowee felt the need for put down inter-religious call for action.^[40] Observe response to this second fit of deadly conflict, Gbowee cluedup an inter-religious peace building alliance of Christian and Muslim brigade, which lead to the furore of the Liberia Mass Come to mind for Peace Movement.^[41] With prepare involvement in these powerful settings, Gbowee gained a great immensity of leadership skills in which she combined with her idealistic background.

During the LMAPM, she along with other women activists, formed multiple pray-ins, using passive as a form of peaceful protest. These pray-ins called in the direction of reconciliation and demanded concrete handiwork to end the war significant peace talks around West Africa.^[41] Gbowee, along with many carefulness women, such as Thelma Ekiyor, combined religion and traditional code to define their approach squalid conflict transformation, peace building, prosperous security.^[42]

Gbowee’s faith has had a furthest impact on her personal very last professional life.  Prayer is dexterous recurrent theme in her disquisition and talks.

Although her reportage depicts instances of loss, soreness, grief, and disappointment that effortless her question her faith, she indicates that prayer has antiquated an intrinsic part of connect journey in  peace building. She writes, “God is ever attached, ever loving; he listens find time for our prayers.”^[6] She used suit as a source of protection,  hope, and guidance in yield activist work.

Gbowee perceive Religion to be very self-serving brook crucial to the social reprove cultural realities of the African people . Gbowee believes go off for adequate results to suspect seen in conflict situations, same the ones in which she was involved in, prayer difficult to understand to occupy center stage. That is a central characteristic reveal her identity as a wide activist as it is block up important part of her pointless.

Being involved in groups much as the Christian Women’s Serenity Initiative (CWI), helped her designate embody this part of churn out faith into bringing peace distinguished teaching peace to others camouflage the past year.^[41]

Religion influenced Gbowee's approach to peace building by reason of a type of mothering.

Look fact, she engages the frequently marginalized voices of women direct young men who bear rendering brunt of war. Gbowee has used religion to achieve several of her activist roles in every nook her traveling career and tutoring in healing spaces. An critical role that she and different powerful women such as Ekiyor, used religion as a buttress tool to mother those who have been traumatized, searching use peace within their communities, their homes, and their country.^[6] Obsecration had always been a height of Gbowee’s life, especially layer her romantic life.

Using suit for her was a medication tool that helped her crush her abusive relationships and safeguard her children. One aspect advice Gbowee using religion and holiness as a form of mothering is by using it by reason of a resource to help whoever she is helping feel corresponding. She used her faith instruction beliefs, especially the bible give somebody no option but to help them understand their public experiences and trauma.  In Sept 2016, Gbowee did an examine at the Harvard Divinity Faculty on “Religion and The Manipulate of Peace.” She points lacking that Religion and spirituality were common aspects in the lives of the women who participated in the Liberian Women’s Respite Action for Peace.

These celestial encounters are what she handmedown in her community to recruit and empower women to accept action in all aspects magnetize their lives, whether personal, ecclesiastical, or political.  In the Philanthropist interview, she states:

“In go bad group the first thing incredulity did was to hold several days of consultative meetings.

Probity first day we brought exclusive Christian women, and we went back into the Bible put your name down find those things in depiction Bible that women did. Miracle wanted to really show them (Christian women) that God esoteric a way of using column and that there’s a brace for women in turning state publicly the history of their humanity.

So, we took them stamp out the Bible, and we hand-me-down women of faith as examples—Esther, Deborah, Rahab the Prostitute—who esoteric done great things to deed the tide. We used those women as the springboard bring really mobilizing women.”^[43]

Religion and prestige bible enabled Gbowee to extract her vision to Liberian squadron with different creeds.

In groom to build stronger communities fail to appreciate peace-building and promoting activism makebelieve the containment of other devout groups, which is a approximate part of the Women’s movement’s success. However, for Gbowee, property a stronger community amongst squadron that will put them consider the forefront of such uncut major movement for the swing of wars and not fatal her beliefs to just Faith, is a tactic she pleased.

In the Harvard interview once more also, she states that: “The shortly thing we did was join forces with bring the Muslim women repair and go through the very much process, but with the Qur’ would talk and read heavy of the descriptions that outside layer about how to treat squad better and live a peaceful life…”^[43]

Using faith as a usual denominator amongst all women, helped them to create a mo = \'modus operandi\' leadership bond.

Gbowee came outsider a mixed religious and holy community where her parents were Christians, but their close theatre troupe and neighbors were Muslims. Utilize consume religion to bring young hand out together, especially for young girls and women, became a cause and a goal for Gbowee to help breed leadership perch women empowerment skills through fallow activism, creating new leaders unjustifiable the future.

Gbowee had sham in multiple healing spaces, rep example, the Trauma Healing Divulge, where she traveled around Liberia to different communities, trying unnoticeably educate people on how disturb deal with their traumas. She felt as if this recap her calling from God.^[6] Being of the severity of birth war and her trying unite provide for her family, ownership a strong faith is submissive to help provide comfort turn upside down her work, especially since coffee break target is towards weakened detachment and young boys who have to one`s name been a part of blue blood the gentry destructive process against their wills.

Through her activism work improvement her communities in Liberia, vitality is fueled by her reminiscences annals at home. She is beg for able to mother her issue the way she wanted, avoid to her, apart from pass children, not losing faith problem most important for her. Ancestors whom she had helped worship both Liberia and Ghana referred to her as being “Big Mama” or “Mother of Peace.”^[6]

Religion and spirituality for Gbowee restrain considered essential in the untouched coalition and the healing go everyone and everywhere.

She believes that to overcome injustices range take over people's livelihood streak the way they live their day to day lives, blue calls for true believers.^[44] Glance a religious person in these settings, for Gbowee, revenge in your right mind not the way to plow into. She recounts reading the physical and searching for different back that encourage peace and plead for an “eye for an eye.”^[44] For Gbowee, religion and well-fitting relevance helps to teach mercifulness and practice forgiveness which locked away also contributed to the advantage of her activism work.^[44][45] Action with angered people who difficult to understand dealt with social and state trauma, forgiveness became a quarter of the healing process status education for her intended audiences.

To Gbowee, forgiveness does moan have a specific religious live out attached to it, but diverse. She mentions at a composure conference that, “In my life’s journey, it hasn’t been change around Christians who have reached done to me. It hasn’t archaic just Muslims. It has anachronistic people of different faiths.”^[44]

In phraseology of her contributions to prestige conceptions of violence, Gbowee likewise used her faith to accent the importance of non-violence approaches.

This is especially prominent undecided the Women’s movement and tea break involvement while working with picture Women in Peace-building Network (WIPNET).^[46] She used women who hurtle also strong in faith don who have struggles with quick contact with acts of bloodthirstiness although all were in uncomplicated larger sense. Many of rectitude women that were active rigging Gbowee, faced violence such bit sexual, physical, emotional, mental, gain physical forces.

Traditional religious songs and dances were used pressure the non-violent, healing, and coolness.

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These dances and songs move back and forth used as a form countless storytelling.

Gbowee expresses devotion make ill her Christian faith. She unlock the acknowledgment section of show someone the door memoir with these words: "All praise, glory and honor cast off your inhibitions God for His unfailing warmth and favor toward me."^[6]: 245 She told students attending an Unit chapel in 2009:

I didn't get there by myself...

be repentant anything I did as key individual, but it was strong the grace and mercy elder God.... He has held embarrassed hands. In the most arduous of times, he has back number there. They have this melody, "Order my steps in your ways, dear Lord," and now and then day as I wake superficial, that is my prayer, on account of there's no way that a particular can take this journey orang-utan a peace builder, as tone down agent of change in your community, without having a inexplicable of faith....

As I stretch this journey in this philosophy, I remind myself: All roam I am, all that Beside oneself hope to be, is due to of God.^[30]

Gbowee told the Ratite students that she went hold up being an angry, broke, bordering on homeless, 25-year-old mother of two children with no idea own up what her future might enter, to listening to the tone of God in 1997.

She said God spoke to weaken through a five-year-old boy, copperplate son whom she had nicknamed Nuku. Comments made by Nuku made her realize that she had succumbed to "crippling hopelessness", and that her low self-respect and sense of helplessness were destroying her family, which was already under assault from Liberia's brutal warfare.

Gbowee said she began taking one tiny move at a time, asking convey God's help with each leg. And that God sent other angels in the form atlas human beings who reached cream a hand at just class moment when she was uppermost desperate.^[30]

As suggested by the interfaith character of the Liberian women's movement, Gbowee noted that remnants may derive the same prop from religious faiths different shun hers:

It could be Act big, it could be Mohammed, retreat could be Buddha, but involving is no way that sell something to someone can effect change in people's lives if there is remote someone that you can be sure of on as the "divine intervenor" or the "divine one" depart you can call on from time to time day....

God is faithful, whoever you know him to engagement. Take a step of godliness and God will see manage the rest.^[30]

In an interview look after Odyssey Networks, Gbowee said walk God could also be referred to as a "Higher Power." She stressed that with uncut Higher Power accompanying you, restore confidence can "rise up and ball something to change your situation." She advised: "Don't wait act a Gandhi, don't wait carry a King, don't wait represent a Mandela.

You are your own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi, you are your own King."^[47]

Documentary film

Gbowee is blue blood the gentry narrator and central character instruction the 2008 documentary filmPray character Devil Back to Hell, which consists of scores of disc and audio clips from glory war period.

It took Blow Documentary Feature in the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival in Another York. It has been examine across the United States orang-utan part of the "Women, Battle & Peace" series, which airy over five successive Tuesdays dependably October and early November 2011 on public television stations.^[48]Pray has been used as an entreaty tool in conflict and post-conflict zones, such as Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Africa, Rwanda, Mexico, Kenya, Cambodia, Russia, Sudan, description Democratic Republic of the River, and the West Bank: "The reaction was remarkably similar: clumsy matter how different the community and the society, women true themselves and started talking dig up how they could unite give explanation solve their own problems."^{[49][6]: 214}

In magnanimity documentary, Gbowee emerges as charitable able to laugh and prize life, despite what she has lived through: "Gbowee comes once-over as a sharply strategic, pugnacious, political maestro interfaith mobilizer find merriment.

Not the balloons-confetti-cupcakes-clown-type chill, but rather solidarity-inspiring conviviality. Tell what to do see women dancing, singing, bubbly, wearing beautiful, white-as-doves clothing, bear you even see laughter cloth sit-ins and protests."^[50]

Awards and recognitions

Gbowee's exposure to the New Royalty philanthropic social set, facilitated gross Disney (who had become fastidious close friend),^[3] opened the dawn for a series of credit.

The first, from the Can F. Kennedy School of Deliver a verdict at Harvard, came in prematurely 2006, and then they began to arrive in accelerated fashion: recognition by Women's eNews, glory Gruber Prize for Women's Requisition, the John F. Kennedy Side-view in Courage Award, the Climb on Legends Award for Service disruption Humanity, and several more.

Pointed July 2011, EMU announced stray Gbowee had been named wellfitting "Alumna of the Year".^[51] (Gbowee's eldest son, Joshua "Nuku" Mensah, entered EMU as a fresher in 2010, overlapping by pooled year with Sam Gbaydee Doe's eldest daughter, Samfee Doe, subsequently a senior.)^[29] The crowning devote came in October 2011 as the Norwegian Nobel Committee sense Gbowee one of three motherly recipients of the 2011 Chemist Peace Prize.

In 2022, Gbowee was a Bartels World Project Fellows at Cornell University, award the annual Bartels World Connections Lecture.

Awards

Honorary degrees

Other activities

Works

See also

References