Nobel Laureate Speaks Nobel Peace Prize Winner Visits UIndy

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Leymah Gbowee, a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke in Ransburg Auditorium at the University of Indianapolis on Feb. 15 at 2:30 p.m.

Leymah Gbowee is a peace activist and women’s rights advocate. She helped lead a coalition of Christian and Muslim women, the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, who staged public protests to help put an end to Liberia’s civil war that endured for 14 years. Gbowee accepted the award along with Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the woman who replaced president Charles Taylor after he was forced to resign and also the first female elected head of state in modern Africa.

The speech was jointly presented by UIndy’s International Relations program and the Sagamore Institute, with additional support from the International Center of Indiana and four other Indiana universities.

University of Indianapolis president Beverley Pitts gave the introductory remarks. She spoke about how Gbowee speaking on the campus was a high honor.

“Miss Gbowee is a born leader,” Pitts said.

Gbowee then took the stage and began to tell her story about why she wanted to make a difference. She described the conditions Liberia faced as having gone from bad, to worse, to ridiculous and knew that change was needed.

“We wanted the world to see that there was another side of that story,” Gbowee said. “Whatever we did we were going to see light of peace in our nation.

Gbowee said that her actions were guided by rebuilding sisters one woman at a time. That led to keeping the community together one woman at a time and rebuilding and reconciling a divided nation.

“Make the best of what you have because all you can do for yourself is make your community better one person at a time,” Gbowee said.

After the speech and a standing ovation from the crowded audience, Gbowee opened the floor to any questions. UIndy Associate Professor of International Relations Jyotika Saksena played a major role in setting up the lecture. She said that getting Gbowee to speak on campus was made possible by the international relations program’s strong partnership with the Sagamore Institute.

own reasons for inviting Gbowee to Indianapolis. Senior Fellow of the Sagamore Institute Donald Cassell is from the same area as Gbowee and has a special connection to Liberia. Also, Sagamore has been working on a project called the Indiana-Africa Connections Project, in which they are creating a database of all orga­nizations in Indiana that have a link with Africa. Saksena said that UIndy international relations graduate stu­dents helped work on this database.

Saksena believes that Gbowee had an important message to share.

“This is about how an ordinary person can make a big change,” Saksena said. “I think she used non-cooperation as opposed to violence to achieve her goal—like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Rosa Parks,” Saksena said. “She wasn’t some big person in politics, or a social leader but she got a lot of people together and had an idea of ending violence. In a world where there is so much war going on, for someone to end a conflict purely by peaceful means, civil disobedience; it’s a big lesson for us.”

UIndy associate professor of phi­losophy and religion Michael Cart­wright also played a role in setting up this event.

“Leymah Gbowee is in some ways Liberia’s Martin Luther King Jr.,” Cartwright said. “She is this incredible leader who has managed to use non-violence and her own ingenuity to bring warring factions together and when you are dealing with Charles Taylor and war lords in Liberia, that’s no small accomplish­ment.”

Gbowee has continued her work by serving as the executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa helping build the capacity of women across Africa to prevent, avert and end conflicts.

Cartwright said this event was a huge privilege for UIndy.

“There are people at Manchester [College] who remember [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] speaking,” Cart­wright said. “This is not the same time and not the same situation, but I wouldn’t at all be surprised if in 40 years people are saying ‘I was there when Leymah Gbowee spoke.’ She’s just really that kind of important moral figure.”

During the question and answer portion of the event, Gbowee spoke about how small actions can make large differences.

“You see the little changes in communities and it’s difficult to ignore,” Gbowee said. “Even the seemingly powerless are very pow­erful and can bring about changes.”