Institute for African Development
Bartels Explainer
How did Leymah Gbowee's protests lead to lasting peace?
Naminata Diabate outlines the movement's tactics and explains how womens' protests helped end the Liberian civil war.
This year's Bartels lecturer, Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee, led an interfaith women's peace movement that played a pivotal role in bringing warlords to the peace table and ultimately ending Liberia's bloody 14-year civil war in 2003. The movement's historic achievement earned Gbowee the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. She continues her work as a global leader and activist for peace and women's rights.
"We need to specify that both a sex strike and the threat to strip naked are not nonviolent forms of protest."
On this page: Naminata Diabate describes the tactics used by Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, the interfaith women's peace movement Gbowee led, and explains how the protests helped end the civil war. Diabate is an associate professor of comparative literature in the College of Arts and Sciences and member of the Institute for African Development's faculty steering committee.
Coming May 3: Reserve Your Free Ticket Today!
A Conversation with Naminata Diabate
What types of protests did Gbowee and the peace movement she led carry out?
Leymah Gbowee and the interfaith women wrote countless letters to major stakeholders, organized vigils, fasting, meetings, deliberations, sit-ins, dancing and chanting, a sex strike—and finally threatened to strip naked. Most importantly, they deployed determination to bring peace to their country.
Were these nonviolent protests?
We need to specify that both a sex strike and the threat to strip naked are not nonviolent forms of protest. In fact, they constitute the most violent types that women in specific communities (such as the ones Leymah Gbowee and her comrades worked in) can deploy against their menfolk, and by extension, their societies.
A sex strike—which we see organized around the world and even in the United States—is not peaceful because it reverses the gender expectation of the female body as available for procreation, male sexuality, and pleasure, and relatedly, it opposes procreation, which can endanger the life of the community.
As for defiant self-exposure—another name I use for naked protest—it constitutes the last resort in specific circumstances that allegedly cause the targeted males a myriad of misfortunes, including shame, impotence, infertility, incurable diseases, and literal or social death.
What were the protesters trying to accomplish?
With multiple strategies, both violent and nonviolent, the women tried to attract the attention of the international community and force the warring parties and strongmen such as Charles Taylor to understand the suffering of the Liberian people—and to bank on the women’s unfailing determination to bring about peace.
How was this group of women able to succeed against strongmen like Taylor?
This grassroots group of women was able to succeed against the warring factions and strongmen thanks to their unwavering resolve to matter as peace brokers in their country’s journey through war and toward peace. Additionally, their resourcefulness in deploying multiple conflict management tactics—both modern and indigenous—to make a difference remains remarkable.
Why do you think their protests were effective?
The women’s protest tactics were effective because they refused to be muzzled. Their journey was strewn with violent counterattacks, including verbal abuse, humiliation, dismissal, physical brutality, and even death threats. Although they were at times weakened, these exceptional women always came back with more tactics to achieve visibility. The stakeholders, including Charles Taylor, could not but work with these women who refused to go away.
Don't miss the Bartels World Affairs Lecture with Leymah Gbowee on May 3: Reserve your free ticket today!
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Institute for African Development Seminar Series: Emergence of Black Entrepreneurs in Eastern Africa
April 21, 2022
2:40 pm
Uris Hall, G-08
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Institute for African Development
Institute for African Development Seminar: University of Ghana, Department of Adult Education and Human Resource Studies Special Topic Seminar Series, Spring 2022
April 28, 2022
2:40 pm
Uris Hall, G-08
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Issues in African Development Seminar Series examines critical concerns in contemporary Africa using a different theme each semester. The seminars provide a forum for participants to explore alternative perspectives and exchange ideas. They are also a focal activity for students and faculty interested in African development. In addition, prepares students for higher level courses on African economic, social and political development. The presentations are designed for students who are interested in development, Africa’s place in global studies, want to know about the peoples, cultures and societies that call Africa home, and explore development theories and alternate viewpoints on development.
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Institute for African Development
How the UN Trusteeship Council might have shaped a substantive decolonization—and why it didn’t
April 28, 2022
11:25 am
Uris Hall, G08
This is a hybrid event. Registration information is below.
This talk sheds light on what various actors engaged with the United Nations trusteeship system wanted decolonization to mean, what they thought, or hoped, it should mean, and their contests of power over normalizing its meaning. The speaker will explain the importance of the UN trusteeship system in establishing decolonizing norms, particularly the meaning of universal rights within those norms. In opting not to address land claims and abuse of power complaints that petitioners brought to its attention, the Trusteeship Council created a precedent for excluding substantive rights from decolonization’s meaning in international law. This talk will elucidate what decolonization could mean within the trusteeship system, by examining the making of Italian Somaliland’s trusteeship agreement within the Trusteeship Council.
About the speakers
Meredith Terretta, is Professor of History at the University of Ottawa. She examines transregional legal and rights activism, both past and contemporary. Professor Terretta is now co-editing, with Dr. Samuel Moyn, The Cambridge World History of Rights, Volume 5: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Her work appearing this academic year includes a special issue on African Refuge for the Canadian Journal of African Studies, co-edited with Dr. Philip Janzen, as well as single-authored articles on rights, international law, and decolonization in The Law and History Review; the Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East; and the Humanity Journal: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development.
This seminar is part of the spring seminar series with the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS).
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In accordance with university event guidance, all campus visitors who are 12 years old or older must also present a photo ID, as well as proof of vaccination for COVID-19 or results of a recent negative COVID-19 test. If you are not currently participating in the Cornell campus vaccination/testing program, please bring proof of vaccination or the results of a recent negative test.
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Institute for African Development
Institute for African Development Seminar Series: Income and Gender Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa
April 14, 2022
2:40 pm
Uris Hall, G-08
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Institute for African Development
What the War in Ukraine Means for Energy, Climate, and Food
Chris Barrett, IAD/SEAP
“One of the big casualties of the Russian invasion will be people who are already teetering on the edge in other places,” says Chris Barrett, professor of applied economics and management. “It’s not just Ukrainians. It’s Yemenis, and Syrians and Nigerians.”
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Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee
May 3: Bartels Lecture and Reception
Join us on May 3 at 5:00 for Leymah Gbowee, "Forging Lasting Peace: Movements for Justice in a Pluralist World." Reserve your free ticket today!
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Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee: Forging Lasting Peace
May 3, 2022
5:00 pm
Alice Statler Auditorium
Forging Lasting Peace: Movements for Justice in a Pluralist World (Bartels World Affairs Lecture)
In our ethnically, racially, linguistically, and religiously diverse world, how do we find common ground? Amid ongoing conflict and violence, how do we foster lasting peace? In our world full of inequalities, what practices of activism and solidarity lead to transformative change? Drawing on her experiences of mobilizing, demanding, and brokering peace, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee shares how action and activism can shape a just world.
A book signing and reception with refreshments will follow the lecture.
Lecture: 5:00–6:30 p.m. | Alice Statler AuditoriumBook signing and reception: 6:30–7:30 p.m. | Park AtriumFree ticket required for in-person attendance: Reserve your ticket. Join the lecture virtually by registering at eCornell.
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Learn more about our distinguished speaker by reading her book, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War. Pick up your copy from The Cornell Store and bring it to the book signing! Buffalo Street Books will also have copies for sale at the event.
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How did Leymah Gbowee's protests lead to lasting peace? Read a Bartels explainer by Naminata Diabate.
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About Leymah Gbowee
Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist, trained social worker, and women's rights advocate. She currently serves as executive director of the Women, Peace, and Security Program at Columbia University's Earth Institute and is the founder and current president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, founding head of the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, and cofounder and former executive director of the Women, Peace, and Security Network Africa. She is also a founding member and former Liberian coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for Peacebuilding.
Host and Sponsors
The Bartels World Affairs Lecture is a signature event of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Part of Einaudi's work on Inequalities, Identities, and Justice, this year's lecture is cosponsored by Einaudi's Institute for African Development and Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, in cooperation with Peace is Loud. To learn more about Peace is Loud and discover other empowering women peacebuilders, visit www.peaceisloud.org.
Bartels World Affairs Lecture
The Einaudi Center’s flagship event brings distinguished international figures to campus each academic year to speak on global topics and meet with Cornell faculty and students, particularly undergraduates. The lecture and related events are made possible by the generosity of Henry E. Bartels ’48 and Nancy Horton Bartels ’48.
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Institute for African Development
East Asia Program
Southeast Asia Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Institute for European Studies
South Asia Program
Film Screening: Pray the Devil Back to Hell
April 26, 2022
7:00 pm
Willard Straight Theatre
Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008) is the inspiring account of a group of ordinary women—Muslim and Christian, rich and poor, urban and rural—who came together to bring peace to their beloved but war-torn Liberia. The story of their protest's historic achievement is suspenseful and ultimately incredibly satisfying. According to Desmond Tutu, the film “eloquently captures the power each of us innately has within to make this world a far better, safer, more peaceful place.”
Join the Institute for African Development (IAD) at Cornell Cinema for a free screening of this documentary about the women's peace movement led by Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace laureate and speaker at this year's Bartel's World Affairs Lecture. Part of the Einaudi Center's work on Inequalities, Identities, and Justice, this year's lecture and film screening are cosponsored by Einaudi's IAD and Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Find out about the Bartels lecture and reserve your ticket to see Leymah Gbowee in person on May 3.
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How did Leymah Gbowee's protests lead to lasting peace? Read a Bartels explainer by Naminata Diabate.
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Discussants:
N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Director, Institute for African Development; Professor, Africana Studies and Research Center, College of Arts & Sciences
Muna B. Ndulo, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of International and Comparative Law; Elizabeth and Arthur Reich Director, Leo and Arvilla Berger International Legal Studies Program, Cornell Law School
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Institute for African Development
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STAARS) Seminar Series
April 13, 2022
8:30 am
Mann Library, 102
Presented in partnership with Cornell Global Development and the Institute for African Development
Overview
The 2021 STAARS Fellows will present their research projects. Each Fellow will get 40 minutes to present followed by 15 minutes for questions. Coffee, tea, and light breakfast fare will be available during each session.
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Location: 102 Mann LibraryRegistration for Zoom9:00 – 9:05: Welcome9:05 – 10:00: Laura Barasa, University of Nairobi, Kenya: Weather Shocks and Household Consumption in Tanzania: Does Crop Diversification Matter?10:00 – 10:05: Closing remarksWednesday, April 13, 2022
Location: 102 Mann LibraryRegistration for Zoom8:30 – 8:35: Welcome8:35 – 9:30: Babatope Akinyemi, Michigan State University: Impact of Home-Grown School Feeding on Household Food Security in Nigeria9:30 – 9:45: Coffee/tea break9:45 – 10:40: Tekalign Sakketa, German Development Institute: Insuring against drought, protection from conflict: Evidence from Ethiopia and Kenya10:40 – 10:45: Closing remarksWant to learn more about the STAARS Fellows? Check out more information on the Chris Barrett website.
The Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STAARS) project is a collaborative venture between the African Development Bank (AFDB), CGIAR Research Program on Policies Institutions and Markets (PIM), Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP), African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), World Bank, and Cornell University.
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Program
Institute for African Development