Since coming to power in 2006, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been trying to transform a country ravaged by civil war, writes SUSAN McKAY
THERE IS a huge billboard on the junction just outside Liberia’s department of foreign affairs on the Atlantic seafront in the capital, Monrovia. “Liberia shall rise again,” it says, over a smiling photograph of president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The first woman to lead an African country, she took over in 2006 after a series of brutal warlords who gained and maintained power through the use of extreme violence against civilians.
Liberia, on the west African coast, just north of the equator, was settled by freed slaves sent from the US in the 1840s. It has been riven by ethnic conflicts, many of them exacerbated by opportunistic interventions by foreign powers drawn by Liberia’s diamonds, iron ore and rubber plantations.
Sirleaf’s predecessor, Charles Taylor, is currently on trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. He was known as “Poppy” to the thousands of young soldiers, including children, who served in his bloody militias.
Sirleaf believes one of the qualities she has brought to the job is “a certain amount of sensitivity, you know, that comes from being a mother, from being in charge of a home, from being the person who has to face the society”.
“I keep telling people I’m a technocrat who happens to be a woman,” she says. “I want people to know I bring to the job all the technical competence that is required.”
But she does think women bring something extra to high office: “We make the hard decisions, but I think we examine the consequences with much more care in what we do.”
Sirleaf is still dealing with the consequences of what was done in the 14 years of civil war that ended with a peace accord in 2003 and her subsequent election. Out of a population of just over three million, 300,000 are believed to have died. More than one million fled the country or were internally displaced.
“The violence was profound,” says Sirleaf. “There were atrocities unimaginable. The death and destruction, the displacement . . . the entire countryside was completely depopulated because people came for safety to our capital city.
“Women were raped, made sex slaves . . . and then so many of them had to take over as heads of household because their husbands were killed.”
The war is over, but its malign influence continues. “It has introduced into our national psyche a culture of violence that still faces us today,” she says.
“It manifests itself in armed robberies, fighting, taking revenge over things that normally you would settle in court or through our old traditional way of dialogue . . . and then there is rape. This problem remains with us. There was a complete loss of morality.”
Liberia is palpably dangerous. Every house that has windows has bars on them, and hotels and apartment blocks have perimeter walls garlanded with barbed wire. There are security guards on the doors of any building containing anything worth stealing. Anger flares readily among the many men standing around on the streets of Monrovia. Women are at risk from gangs which steal, batter and rape. I am advised not to walk alone by day or night.
Asked to list the major issues facing her country, Sirleaf has no hesitation in placing unemployment at the top.
“We have thousands of young people, many of whom were affected by the war, and many of whom do not have skills,” she says. “So getting them trained and into employment is one of our major challenges.”
There are plenty of former warlords around in powerful positions, and plenty of former combatants, too, strung out on drugs and leftover rage. Most people live on less than a dollar a day.
“Our road and bridge systems were destroyed during the many years of conflict,” Sirleaf says. “That has constrained us from getting people back to their communities where they can resume farming.”
Some parts of the country are still inaccessible and driving even on the main roads is hazardous, with holes caused by bomb blasts as well as potholes. There are not enough schools, hospitals, courts or prisons, nor the staff to run them. Sirleaf believes most of the country’s people are traumatised to some degree, but there are hardly any psychiatrists or counsellors.
Billboards all over the country urge people to sign up to “team Liberia”, pay their taxes and register their workers. Corruption has long been endemic at every level of society and, back in 1979, when she was finance minister, Sirleaf spearheaded moves to tackle it in government. As president, Sirleaf has vowed to eradicate it, but she admits this will not be easy.
“Increasingly, we are finding out that corruption is a problem and that it is more entrenched than we had anticipated,” she says.
The president has been dogged by allegations that some of those close to her have not been exempt from this culture, and that she has not been sufficiently rigorous in pursuing them. She denies this.
Sirleaf had to flee Liberia for the US in 1985 when she spoke out against the regime. She pursued a career in the World Bank and as an assistant general secretary of the UN before returning to Liberia in 1997. She is a close friend of Mary Robinson. “She’s been with me ever since I took over the leadership,” says Sirleaf. “She’s been very supportive.”
Sirleaf is excited that Robinson’s idea of a twinning arrangement between Ireland and Liberia on UN article 1325 – ensuring that women have a role in peacebuilding – is being adopted by the Irish Government.
At 71, Sirleaf works seven days a week and needs, she says, just five hours’ sleep a night. Most days involve “meetings, meetings, meetings”, but there are also visits to remote schools and a lot of international travel.
“Obviously, whether I like it or not, I have to represent the aspirations and expectations of women all over Africa, perhaps even beyond. It is humbling and it is a big responsibility,” she says.
Sirleaf is popular and a war-weary people have high hopes for her ability to turn their country around. Often, when I ask someone what they think of her, their reply is a simple: “I love her”.
Susan McKay travelled to Liberia with the assistance of a bursary from Irish Aid’s Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund