Leymah Gbowee: Summary

In a time of death and terror, Leymah brought Liberia’s women together and led the nation to peace. Leymah Gbowee, the author of this book, was an ordinary girl before the rebels corrupted Liberia trying to overthrow President Doe. The war, the government, and the rebels switched her life upside down. Her dream as a doctor crashed, her family got separated geographically, Leymah ends up having six children with different fathers, but she brought peace and joy back in Liberia. Leymah knew exactly that women have the right to speak, right to deny men, and to show that women have powers.
Before the war corrupted, everyone, who knew Leymah’s family, thought they were the happiest family. But, for Leymah, it wasn’t really true. Her parents’ relationship was not good, and her father was cheating on her mother. Leymah’s father treated her good when she did something really good, such as going in to a good college, but normally he said it’s her mother’s responsibility
BB, the boss, suggested Leymah to work on the Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Program. The THRP was a program that tried to repair the psychic and social damage left behind by the war. By working the THRP, she was handling teenage boys who were used to fight in wars. Then after Leymah making progress on her work BB founded the West Africa Network for Peacbuilding, or WANEP. WANEP is a network to promote peace by building links between grassroots organizations across national borders. They had their focus of how Gandhi protested in India to make peace.
When Leymah gets to know about Thelma Ekiyor through WANEP conference, they became best friends like sisters. One day, she hears Thelma’s secret idea. Her idea was having a WANEP like network only for women. She wanted to create a network that helped to support women. Basically, the women type of WANEP was to make women have their voice and make peace between the rebels, the government, and the