{"id":11928,"date":"2012-03-19T14:33:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T18:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=11928"},"modified":"2012-04-02T11:53:04","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T15:53:04","slug":"be-%e2%80%98your-own-mandela-%e2%80%a6%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/be-%e2%80%98your-own-mandela-%e2%80%a6%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Be \u2018Your Own Mandela \u2026\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Courtesy Daily News Record, Mar. 19, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/peacebuilding\/leymah-gbowee\/\">Leymah Gbowee<\/a>\u2019s journey to becoming a Nobel Peace laureate began, ironically enough, because she was angry.<\/p>\n<p>Angry about the way women\u2019s roles were reduced to little more than cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. Angry about rampant rape and domestic abuse throughout her native Liberia. And angry about the country\u2019s \u201csenseless\u201d civil war.<\/p>\n<p>At James Madison University Saturday, Gbowee, a joint recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, told those gathered for the 2012 International Student Leadership Conference how important that anger was \u2014 and even more significantly, how she channeled it into a constructive plan of action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou must be angry,\u201d said Gbowee, who mobilized women into an influential peacebuilding movement in Liberia. \u201c[But] when you\u2019re angry, there should be no talks of revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gbowee\u2019s anger, instead, led her to create the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement. The non-violent organization \u2014 some 2,500 women strong \u2014 helped bring the second Liberian civil war to an end in 2003 after four years of conflict.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe need for people to answer \u2018yes\u2019 to lead change is so great,\u201d said Gbowee, who has been in the United States since Feb. 26 speaking on average at two events per day. \u201cIn order to see the change you want to see, you cannot [contribute to a movement]. You have to lead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gbowee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October along with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemeni women\u2019s rights activist Tawakkul Karman.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Local Ties<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The weekend-long leadership conference, sponsored annually by JMU and Eastern Mennonite University, brought together about 200 international students and advisers from higher education institutions across the nation. Gbowee gave the event\u2019s keynote address at JMU\u2019s Festival Conference and Student Center Saturday morning, marking the second time she has visited the area since winning the Nobel. Even before her recent visits, Gbowee was no stranger to the central Valley. The 39-year-old earned a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/cjp\/grad\/\">master\u2019s degree in conflict transformation<\/a> from EMU\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/cjp\/\">Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a> in 2007. And Gbowee\u2019s son, Joshua Mensa, is currently an EMU sophomore.<\/p>\n<p>Gbowee is also the co-founder of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wipsen-africa.org\/wipsen\/\">Women Peace and Security Network-Africa<\/a> and supported the creation of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wanep.org\/wanep\/programs-our-programs\/wipnet\/8-women-in-peacebuilding-wipnet.html\">Women in Peacebuilding Network<\/a>. Her movements helped get Sirleaf elected the first female president of an African nation. Her work also was influential in creating a lawful definition for rape in Liberia, which previously did not have one. The west African country now has one of the strongest rape laws in the world, said Gbowee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI describe the world as upside down,\u201d she said. \u201cGood is seen as evil, evil is seen as good. People like yourself and myself [are] trying to tilt it upright through the tiny actions we do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Giving advice to college-aged leaders, Gbowee told them to be persistent, bold and selfless and to have focused goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no way you can lead a change if it is all about you,\u201d said Gbowee. \u201cYou cannot lead a change if you are not passionate about your issues because it is that passion that will wake you up when your knees are aching\u2026 when there\u2019s no money in the bank account\u2026 [it will] keep your adrenaline pumping when you think about your work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Gbowee regaled the audience with personal stories and advice, some audience members had barely noticed that 90 minutes had flown by.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t feel time,\u201d Lynchburg College freshman Karen Figueroa said with a look of awe on her face. \u201cIt\u2019s the most inspiring thing I\u2019ve ever heard in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the event drew to a close, host Salorne McDonald asked students to \u201cremember the words emblazoned on the back of your shirts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The words were a quote from Gbowee advising: \u201cDon\u2019t wait for a Gandhi, don\u2019t wait for a King, don\u2019t wait for a Mandela,\u201d referring to a trio who are arguably best known peace activists of the 20th century.\u00a0 \u201cYou are your own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi, you are your own King.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Daily News Record, Mar. 19, 2012 Leymah Gbowee\u2019s journey to becoming a Nobel Peace laureate began, ironically enough, because she was angry. Angry about the way women\u2019s roles were <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/be-%e2%80%98your-own-mandela-%e2%80%a6%e2%80%99\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Be \u2018Your Own Mandela \u2026\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":11929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[5864,14107,10067,17234,8510,5690,13893],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-11928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-conflict-transformation-program","tag-joshua-mensah","tag-leymah-gbowee","tag-ma-in-conflict-transformation","tag-nobel-peace-prize","tag-peacebuilding","tag-women-in-peacebuilding-network"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Be \u2018Your Own Mandela \u2026\u2019 - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/be-\u2018your-own-mandela-\u2026\u2019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Be \u2018Your Own Mandela \u2026\u2019 - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Courtesy Daily News Record, Mar. 19, 2012 Leymah Gbowee\u2019s journey to becoming a Nobel Peace laureate began, ironically enough, because she was angry. 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