Leymah Gbowee

Leymah Gbowee
Name	Leymah Gbowee
Caption	Gbowee in 2012
Birth date	1 February 1972
Birth place	Monrovia, Liberia
Nationality	Liberian
Occupation	Peace activist, social worker
Known for	Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, 2003 Liberian peace agreement
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize (2011)

Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist and social worker who played a pivotal role in ending the Second Liberian Civil War. She is best known for leading the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, a nonviolent movement that brought together Christian and Muslim women to demand peace. Her efforts were instrumental in forcing a meeting with then-president Charles Taylor and securing his participation in peace talks in Accra, Ghana, which led to the 2003 Liberian peace agreement. For this work, she was a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize alongside Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman.

Early life and education

Leymah Gbowee was born in central Monrovia and spent her early years in Bong County. Her childhood was disrupted by the outbreak of the First Liberian Civil War in 1989, when she was a teenager planning to study medicine. The conflict forced her family to flee to a refugee camp in Ghana, an experience that deeply shaped her worldview. After returning to Liberia, she trained as a trauma counselor through the Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Program run by the Lutheran Church in Liberia, working with former child soldiers affected by the war. She later earned a master's degree in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in the United States.

Activism and the Liberian peace movement

In the early 2000s, as the Second Liberian Civil War escalated, Gbowee helped found the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), a program under the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding. Frustrated by the ongoing violence, she mobilized women across Liberia through the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. This movement famously began with local women praying and singing in a fish market in Monrovia. Gbowee and her colleagues, including Asatu Bah Kenneth, successfully united Christian and Muslim women, using strategic nonviolent protests, sex strikes, and persistent public demonstrations to demand a resolution to the conflict.

Role in the Second Liberian Civil War

Gbowee's movement gained critical momentum in 2003, when she led a delegation to the peace talks in Accra, Ghana. After negotiations stalled, she organized a direct action where hundreds of women, dressed in white, effectively blockaded the meeting hall, refusing to let the delegates, including representatives of the Government of Liberia, LURD, and MODEL, leave without a deal. This dramatic act pressured the warring parties, and her group secured a meeting with President Charles Taylor, compelling him to attend the talks. The sustained pressure from the women's movement is widely credited with being a decisive factor in the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement on August 18, 2003, which ended the active fighting.

Post-war work and advocacy

Following the war, Gbowee continued her advocacy through the Women Peace and Security Network Africa, which she founded. She served on Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and has been a prominent voice for women's rights and peacebuilding across Africa. She played a key role in the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as President of Liberia. Her leadership extends to international forums, including the United Nations, where she advocates for the inclusion of women in peace processes, as outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 1325. She authored a memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, detailing her experiences.

Awards and recognition

Leymah Gbowee's most prominent honor is the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, which she shared with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman. She has also received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, the Gruber Prize for Women's Rights, and the Geuzenpenning. In 2016, she was named a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations. Her life and work have been documented in the award-winning film Pray the Devil Back to Hell, part of the PBS series Women, War & Peace.

Personal life

Gbowee is the mother of six children. She has been open about the personal challenges she faced, including being a survivor of domestic violence during the war years. She maintains strong ties to her Lutheran faith, which has been a guiding force in her activism. Gbowee holds dual Liberian and United States citizenship and divides her time between Monrovia and New York City, where she continues her work as a global advocate.

Category:Liberian activists Category:Nobel Peace Prize laureates Category:1972 births