Nobel Peace Prize Winner Leymah Gbowee Speaks at Rollins College

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Leymah Gbowee and noted columnist Sandra "Sandy B" Brown at Rollins College after Gbowee's presentation. PHOTO courtesy of Sandra Brown

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Leymah Gbowee was the featured speaker at Rollins College’s Winter Park Institute recently.  She is an internationally known activist, who played a pivotal role in ending the war in Liberia, West Africa, which lasted almost ten years.  The theme of her speech was Leading Change Through Activism: The Liberian Women’s Experience

Preceding Gbowee’s presentation was a two night event at Rollins College that began with the showing of a documentary of the struggle, “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” a thought-provoking commentary on the struggle and power of women, both Christian and Muslim, when they come together for a common purpose.

Leymah bore witness to the worst of humanity, under the tyrannical power of Charles Taylor, who made himself president through fear and terror.

Mighty Be Our Powers is a memoir written by Leymah, of how sisterhood, prayer and sex changed a nation at war. The election of the first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was as a direct result of the organization and power that came about through the work and determination of the sisterhood, under the leadership of Leymah Gbowee.