Black Looks

Africa now has it’s first woman President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is not the first female African leader.  Nubian Soul reminds us that  "Ruth Sando Fahnbulleh Perry (Ruth Perry) was leader of Liberia from 3
September 1996 until 2 August 1997 as chairwoman of the Council of
State, which governed Liberia following the overthrow and murder of
former dictator Samuel K. Doe".  As does Mshairi "second African women president"

In retrospect, George Weah never had a chance. His credentials never really added up to an officer of state. How did he think he could compete with a Harvard educated economist, former vice-president of Citicorp, past UN assistant secretary-general, senior World Bank official, one time president of Liberia Bank for Development and Investment and of course  political detainee in Liberia.

All of a sudden the world is discovering a new phenomena, known as the "strong African woman".  African women have always known they posses strength even when they are being portrayed as victims of patriarchy, tradition, violence and poverty by the media, academia, NGO reports and the rest.  Last week Hope Flower reported on an article in the UK Guardian about one of only three (the other two are in Namibia and Mozambique) women finance ministers in the world,  Nigeria’s finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.  She too is a Harvard trained economist and ex World Bank official – will she be the next President of Nigeria?

Last year Time magazine named Okonjo-Iweala as one of the world’s heroes; this May, Gordon Brown hailed her as "a brilliant reformer"

What better references than Gordon Brown and Time magazine!

But its not just finance ministers where African women are making themselves known. They are prime ministers (Mozambique) vice presidents (Zimbabwe, South Africa and Uganda) and the Rwandan parliament has the highest number of women in the world at 48%. In Cameroon roughly half the judges are women.

But the strength of character and true power in the sense of overcoming great obstacles is not limited to women in government and presidents of banks.   It is found on the streets of Monrovia, Freetown, Kivu, Maputo and Kampala by women who have been through hell and back but are still standing and managing their lives.  Women who have sacrificed their lives, their professions in the pursuit of social justice and human rights.  Women whose names we never hear in the media, heroines only within their families and communities.  There are women who have risen above patriarchy, tradition, poverty and class more often than not with no support from anyone.

Tags: Liberia African Women