Goucher Presents a Conversation With Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

April 16, 2009 |

Goucher College presents a conversation with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state, on Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. in Kraushaar Auditorium.

Due to high demand from Goucher students, faculty, staff, and the greater community, no more tickets are available for this event.

Often referred to as Africa's “Iron Lady” for her strong will, Johnson Sirleaf has pledged to embark on neoliberal reforms to help her country “become a brilliant beacon, an example to Africa and the world of what love of liberty can achieve,” as she said at a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

She was born in Monrovia, Liberia, and educated in accounts and economics at that capital’s College of West Africa. After marrying James Sirleaf at age 17, she traveled to the United States in 1961 and earned a degree from the University of Colorado and a master’s in public administration from Harvard.

In 1971, Johnson Sirleaf returned to Liberia and began working in President William Tolbert’s True Whig Party government. She served as minister of finance from 1972 to 1973, but left after a disagreement over public spending.

In April 1980, General Samuel Kayon Doe seized power in a military coup and executed Tolbert along with several members of his cabinet. Doe began a purge of government, which Johnson Sirleaf narrowly escaped by choosing exile in Kenya.

From 1983 to 1985 she served as director of Citibank in Nairobi, but when Doe declared himself president of the republic in 1984, she decided to return. During the 1985 elections, Johnson Sirleaf campaigned against Doe and was placed under house arrest.
 
Sentenced to 10 years in prison, she was incarcerated just a short time before being allowed to leave the country once again as an exile. During the 1980s she moved to Washington, D.C., and served as vice president of both the African regional office of Citibank in Nairobi and of Equator Bank (HSBC).

Civil unrest erupted in Liberia again in 1990, and Doe was killed by a splinter group from Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia in September. An interim Liberia government was put in power, led by a succession of four un-elected officials. By 1996 the presence of West African peacekeepers created a lull in the civil war, and elections were held.

Johnson Sirleaf gave up a position as director of the U.N. Development Program Regional Bureau for Africa and returned to Liberia in 1997 to run for election. Of 13 candidates, she came in second to Charles Taylor, gaining 10 percent of the vote compared with his 75 percent. By 1999, civil war had returned to Liberia, and Taylor was accused of interfering with his neighbors and fomenting unrest and rebellion.

Johnson Sirleaf campaigned relentlessly for Taylor’s removal from office and played an active role in Liberia's transitional government . She ran for president in the 2005 elections and defeated the ex-international soccer player George Manneh Weah with a 59.4 percent of the vote.

In November 2007, Johnson Sirleaf was bestowed with the United States Medal of Freedom Award, the U.S. government’s highest civilian award, for her personal courage and unwavering commitment to expand freedom and improve the lives of people in Liberia and across Africa.

Her first book, This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President, will be published by Harper Collins Publishers this April.

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