Description

Leymah Gbowee was one of three women to receive the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize As a young woman growing up in Africa, seventeen-year-old Leymah Gbowee was crushed by a savage war when violence reached her native Monrovia, depriving her of the education she yearned for and claiming the lives of relatives and friends. As war continued to ravage Liberia, Gbowee's bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized that women bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts. Passionate and charismatic, Gbowee was instrumental in galvanizing hundreds, if not thousands of women in Liberia in 2002 to force a peace in the region after twelve years of war. She began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together, founding 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 broker by empowering hundreds of her countrywomen and others around the world to take action and takes listeners along on her continuing journey as she harnesses the power of women to bring her country peace, saves herself, and changes history.