NYSL: Leymah Gbowee on "Mighty Be Our Powers"

http://www.nysoclib.org/notes/2011/mighty_powers.html

As a young woman growing up in Africa, Leymah Gbowee was broken by a savage civil war that destroyed life as she knew it. As war continued to ravage Liberia, Gbowee's bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized women are the silent sufferers in prolonged conflicts. Gbowee was instrumental in galvanizing women across Liberia in 2003 to force a peace in the region after 14 years of war. She began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together, founding the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, launching protests and even a sex strike. Gbowee's memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, chronicles the unthinkable violence she's faced throughout her life, and the peace she has helped to broker by empowering her countrywomen and others around the world. It takes readers along on her continuing journey as she harnesses the power of women to bring her country peace, saves herself, and changes history.

Leymah Gbowee is Newsweek's and The Daily Beast's Africa columnist. Her part in helping to oust Charles Taylor was featured in the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Gbowee is a single mother of six, including one adopted daughter, and is based in Accra, Ghana, where she is the cofounder and executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network-Africa.


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Category:

Education

Tags:

• The New York Society Library
• Leymah Gbowee
• Author Series
• Mighty Be Our Powers
• 2011
• September