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This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President

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This is a very honest autobiography of an extroardinary woman. Madame Sirleaf doesn't include many specific dates such as her birthdate but nevertheless guides the reader through a honest protrait of her life. She discusses the hardships of her tribal and mixed race origins, as well as the elite Americo-Liberian background she was born into as the daughter of a lawmaker and teacher. She talks honestly about her strained marriage which she entered into at age 17. She even relates how her pocessive husband put a gun to her head inorder to control her. Yet she managed to leave her husband, despite having four boys to raise and pursue her career as an economist and technocrate. A brilliant and confident woman who refused to except her nations and genders limitations, refuse to give up her beliefs despite being jailed and threatened by brutal dictators, would go on to become a folk hero in her native land and revered throughout the world. Sirleaf worked for and ruffled the feathers of every President she worked for in Liberia from Tubman to Tolbert to Doe and Taylor in a span of nearly 40 years, until she herself at age 67 became the first woman to be elected President of an African nation. Her ability to rise through the male dominated Liberian and International Monetary culture, is what makes her story so compelling and an inspiration to women around the globe. And her ability to incorporate Liberia and her own legacy in an acurate historical perspective makes this an very important work for scholars around the world.

H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's rise to power in Liberia as the first democratically elected woman president in Africa stands as one of the most definitive events of 21st century politics. Not only does her presidency firmly establish the integral importance of women leaders on the world stage, but her unique positioning as a woman with both African and Western roots -- genealogically, geographically, and intellectually -- signals a new kind of 21st century leadership consciousness of which we can suddenly see reflections everywhere. This new memoir traces her rise to power and the development of her distinctive leadership style, reveals her innovative philosophies of governance, and offers her timely reflections on current world affairs and pressing global concerns.

Those who found the Liberian civil conflict from 1989-2003 confusing and confounding will also find that this book provides illuminating insights about what happened and why. More importantly, President Sirleaf offers guidance through example and commentary about how to move beyond political and social conflict to peace, reconciliation, development, and, ultimately, prosperity. President Sirleaf's gift is the ability to look at the big picture and hone in on how people with fundamental disagreements and historical animosities can be harmonized and coordinated into a thriving open society that cultivates dissent under the banner of democratic process. The words "visionary pragmatism" (see Stanlie M. James and Abena P.A. Busia's academic book, Theorizing Black Feminisms: The Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women) come to mind.

Despite the challenges that President Sirleaf, and indeed Liberia, still face, we observe in this book a vision, a plan, sound strategy, and dogged determination in action. What President Sirleaf evidences in her story is how realpolitik and peacemaking can and, arguably, must be reconciled and integrated for effective 21st century leadership. While certain aspects of this book are clearly addressed to other world leaders, whether political or economic, and other aspects are clearly addressed to the Liberian citizenry, the generality of this text is addressed to everyday people worldwide who are genuinely concerned about social change and peace and are looking for both inspiration and real world example. Additionally, in my view, this book is well situated to help rehabilitate the relationship between the US and Liberia in ways that will ultimately set a new model for altering North/South and donor nation/developing nation relations more generally.

My only criticism of this book - which is really just a jumping off point for discussion - is President Sirleaf's treatment of the ongoing debate about African values (collectivism) vs. Western values (individualism). While her discussion is illuminating and nuanced, my sense is that this is no longer an either/or question but rather one which must be approached with an eye towards unapologetic integration of these two value sets. However, she more than makes up for this limitation in her cogent advocacy of gender development and gender mainstreaming as a feature of the way forward, not just in Liberia but worldwide.

No leader is perfect, but some leaders really change the quality of life on Earth. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia is one such individual and we have the good fortune to read all about it in This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President. I recommend this book highly, and, if you are similarly concerned with women, politics, and peace, offer the following suggestions for further reading: Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai, Love and Courage: A Story of Insubordination by Pregs Govender, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza, Learning True Love: Practicing Buddhism in a Time of War by Sister Chan Khong, and It's Always Possible: One Woman's Transformation of India's Prison System by Kiran Bedi.

This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President

President Sirleaf's absolutely riveting memoir clearly explains how and why Liberia imploded in 1980. She gives us an unvarnished look at Liberia's founding in 1822 by freed American slaves, carries us through the superficially peaceful Tubman years, and explains how her country's history and American ties led to the horror of 14 years of total anarchy. She ends her story with hope, pride, and plans for both Liberia and Africa.

Her personal story is a strong, honest and inspirational narrative. From an abused teenage wife to a United Nations assistant secretary general, from living in exile to being elected president, she has lived an amazing life and she tells the story well.

My family lived in a mining town in the Liberian bush from 1964-1972. We knew many of the problems that the country faced, and we had fears for its survival. President Sirleaf's memoir makes me want to return to help rebuild this remarkable country.

The current president of Liberia's autobiography is entitled "This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President". With a title like that, the reader cannot expect a tome replete with self-deprecating humility; but in amongst the politician's appreciation of her own achievements there is plenty for the reader to appreciate as well. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is an outstanding leader and a truly remarkable person.

Liberia was colonised in the 19th century by emancipated American slaves, the descendants of whom formed a powerful political elite in a country culturally divided between Americo-Liberians and native Liberians. The author, despite being of native Liberian heritage, managed to work her way up to the position of finance minister in the government before tensions arising from political and economic inequalities erupted into a bloody military coup in 1980, followed by a downward spiral of corruption and violence and then many years of savage civil war.

Time and again Ellen Johnson Sirleaf showed astounding courage in confronting injustice and oppression, first standing up to the president and demanding better conditions for the poor in the days of the Americo-Liberian government, then standing up to the brutal military dictator President Doe and expressing her opinions freely notwithstanding the imminent risk to her life. After many years in exile working for the World Bank and Citibank, the author returned to Liberia to run for president and surprised the experts by winning. The book is very interesting to read and contains many useful leadership lessons.

Having taught in Liberia with the first group of Peace Corps volunteers (1962-64); and having returned for a two week visit in the midst of upheaval, between one coup and the next attempt (1985); and having heard Ellen Sirleaf Johnson speak in Portland, OR in 2008; having recently visited with Bishop Bennie Warner, vice president in Tolbert's administration (1977-1980) who escaped the executions on the beach by happening to be in the U.S. at the time; and now reading Sirleaf Johnson's memoir, I believe her history to be accurate and her viewpoint believable. Would also recommend the memoir, The House at Sugar Beach, by Helene Cooper, a family member of what are called Americo-Liberians or Congos, who also escaped to U.S. in 1980 and is currently a journalist with Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

"I have been one of the lucky ones," writes Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (b. 1938), Africa's first woman president, in the very last sentence of her remarkable memoir. And not only her native Liberia, but the entire world, is all the better because of her. But as Sirleaf demonstrates in her autobiography, there was far more than luck to her improbable triumph over personal and political obstacles that included an abusive husband, imprisonment, house arrest, exile, and one of the longest and most violent descents into political anarchy on the continent.

Like most of Africa, slavery and colonialism left a bitter and complex legacy in Liberia. The elite "settler" class of Americo-Liberians ruled the country from a position of power and privilege that they had no intention of relinquishing, even though it bred a broad and deep hostility among sixteen indigenous and dirt poor ethno-linguistic groups. After the caretaker presidency of William Tubman (d. 1971), William Tolbert took office and continued the "kleptocracy" of corruption, patronage and nepotism. Then, in 1980, an illiterate thug named Samuel Doe staged a coup by murdering Tubman in bed, brutalizing his body, and publicly murdering thirteen of his cabinet members (Sirleaf was one of four ministers who was spared). Doe's ten long years ended when Prince Johnson (now a senator) tortured, mutilated, and murdered Doe, then distributed a videotape of the grisly deeds throughout the country. But Charles Taylor, not Prince Johnson, followed Doe, winning an election on his slogan, "You kill my Ma, You kill my Pa, I will vote for you." Taylor's psychopathic reign of terror lasted fourteen years and ended when he resigned in 2003; today he's imprisoned and on trial in the Hague.

When Sirleaf was inaugurated on January 16, 2006, she inherited a failed state that the Economist magazine identified as the single worst place in the world to live in 2003. Life expectancy at birth is 39 years, literacy for women is 40%, and unemployment swelled to 80%. Twenty-five years of civil wars slaughtered over 200,000 citizens and displaced another one million out of a population of 3 million. The economy and infrastructure (water, electricity, garbage collection, etc.) are in shambles. But in Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia also has one of the hardest working, smartest, and honest presidents in all of Africa. Thanks to her, the future of Liberia is brighter than it's ever been.

President Sirleaf's absolutely riveting memoir clearly explains how and why Liberia imploded in 1980. She gives us an unvarnished look at Liberia's founding in 1822 by freed American slaves, carries us through the superficially peaceful Tubman years, and explains how her country's history and American ties led to the horror of war and total anarchy. She ends her story with hope, pride, and plans for both Liberia and Africa.

Her personal story is a strong, honest and inspirational narrative. From an abused teenage wife to a United Nations assistant secretary general, from living in exile to being elected president, she has lived an amazing life and she tells the story well.

My family lived in a mining town in the Liberian bush from 1964-1972. We knew many of the problems that the country faced, and we had fears for its survival. President Sirleaf's memoir makes me want to return to help rebuild this remarkable country.

I was delighted to see this memoir in large-print format; my mother was able to read it in comfort. My review was originally written for the regular-print copy that I bought last summer.

President Sirleaf-Johnson is as much a leader as Nelson Mandela or Barack Obama. Only her status as a woman, and the nature of her country's history under brutal dictators and tyrants shadow what would ordinarily have been a story book movie already being filmed. Fearless and defiant in the face of death, president Sirleaf-Johnson's life is a compelling storage of dignity, and determination. As president of a much smaller country, President Johnson may have facilitated more tangible results than most of her Liberian predessesors. She certainly has earned higher marks than America's most recent head of state,preceding President barack Obama.

I typically slog through autobiographies - interested in the subject, but not necessarily enjoying the path, or glazing over through some of the details. But this book is different. I am devouring it. It is written honestly and eloquently, and the events unfold like a modern novel. Ms Johnson-Sirleaf is a compassionate and intelligent voice throughout. Learned a lot about Liberian history. It's a wonderful read. Two thumbs up!

This autobiography is very informative not only about her life but about the historical background of Liberia and she does a good job describing the cultural/political and ethnic issues in this region of West Africa.