Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Hillary

In 1985, in the midst of Liberia’s long and bloody civil war and her campaign for a seat in its senate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf criticized military leader Samuel Doe’s regime. As a result, she was sentenced to ten years of hard labor. But against all odds, she would be released from prison after only a short time, go into exile, return, and be twice elected president, becoming the first woman elected to lead any African country.

As biographer Helene Cooper recounts in Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, perhaps her political ascent shouldn’t have been such a surprise. Days after Ellen was born in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, in 1938, an old prophet who wandered through the city making predictions visited the new baby. He took one look at her and is said to have announced: “This child will be great. This child will lead.”

But, first she married and had four sons. She eventually got divorced from her husband, who beat her severely. She got an education, studying both at home and abroad, and then got to work. She landed at the Ministry of Finance of the Liberian government, eventually rising to finance minister. She later ran for a senate seat, criticizing the regime of dictator Samuel Doe. He imprisoned her and then she fled the country. During her twelve years of exile in Kenya and the United States, she worked at the World Bank and the United Nations.

“So I urge my sisters, and my brothers, not to be afraid. Be not afraid to denounce injustice, though you may be outnumbered. Be not afraid to seek peace, even if your voice may be small. Be not afraid to demand peace. If I might thus speak to girls and women everywhere, I would issue them this simple invitation: My sisters, my daughters, my friends, find your voices!”

—ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF

After a tentative truce was reached in Liberia’s civil war, she returned to run for president in 1997 against warlord Charles Taylor—whom she originally had supported in his rebellion against Doe before turning against him once, as she would later put it, “the true nature of Mr. Taylor’s intentions became known.” She lost that race, but stayed committed to Liberia.

Ellen kept going. In 2005, she ran for president again. She campaigned on the promise that she would take on corruption, rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure, and work toward a peaceful, democratic Liberia. As she said, “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” Liberian women understood that. Many rallied behind Ellen, some walking for days and standing in line for hours to vote for her. As she marched through the streets of Monrovia during the last days of her campaign, people shouted, cheered, and waved signs that read “Ellen—she’s our man.” When the first round of votes was counted, she finished second, securing her place in the runoff election. On November 8, 2005, she won the runoff, beating a popular Liberian soccer star.

In her inaugural address, she called out violence perpetrated against women and girls during the civil war and promised “to make the children smile again.” Once she was president, Ellen closed Belle Yellah, the most notorious prison in Liberia. She appointed women to lead the police force and international security teams, and went out of her way to advocate for women’s inclusion in the security sector.

“My life was forever transformed when I was given the privilege to serve the people of Liberia—taking on the awesome responsibility of rebuilding a nation nearly destroyed by war and plunder. There was no roadmap for post-conflict transformation. But we knew that we could not let our country slip back into the past. We understood that our greatest responsibility was to keep the peace.”

—ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF

In 2006, she created a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to eradicate corruption and heal a still-divided Liberia. She had promised to make corruption “public enemy number one.” That proved an impossible task in a country where bribes had become a way of life. She fired ministers who spent government funds as though they were their own salaries. Critics decried nepotism when she appointed her banker son to lead the national oil company of Liberia. He ultimately resigned, but her reputation undertstandably took a hit. She also publicly apologized for having supported Charles Taylor in the early years of the civil war, and sent him to The Hague to be tried for war crimes.

Despite having originally planned to serve only one term, Ellen ran for president again in 2011. The country had made progress recovering from its brutal civil war, but not nearly enough; she wanted to continue the work. Her courage in bringing peace to the war-scarred nation, and the courage of Liberian women like Leymah Gbowee, drew attention around the world. Four days before her reelection, Ellen and Leymah were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Ellen called the timing of the prize a coincidence; she never once mentioned it on the campaign trail.

By that time, I had known Ellen for a number of years. I traveled to Liberia as secretary of state in 2009. She asked me to address the Parliament while I was there and stress the need for unity in the face of ongoing problems. She told me I would be speaking to an assembly that included her political enemies and former warlords, including the ex-wife of now-convicted war criminal Charles Taylor. I returned to attend her second inauguration in 2012.

In her two terms in office, Ellen racked up a notable list of achievements: She orchestrated Liberia’s first peaceful transition of power in seventy-four years when she left office in 2018, prioritized free and compulsory primary education, signed into law the first freedom of information law in West Africa, and reduced the country’s national debt to international institutions and other countries through better budgets, debt relief, and debt cancellation. But Ellen has warned that corruption remains a problem that has to be constantly addressed by all countries, even as it seems evident that she herself should have tried to do more. (It’s also true that for the first time in many years, we in the United States know only too well what she means.)

As someone who has followed Liberia’s challenges for years, I respect Ellen for her service under very difficult conditions. Her rise is proof that an unapologetic economic-policy wonk can not only toil away behind the scenes but also win elections and lead a nation. As she has said: “I work hard, I work late, I have nothing on my conscience. When I go to bed, I sleep.” That’s a pretty good summary for any life in public service.