“Guided by the Hand of God”: Liberian Women Peacemakers and Civil War
Robert Press Wednesday, 9 June 2010
In April 1996, during the sixth year of a devastating civil war in Liberia, Charles Taylor's rebel fighters set fire to the main Catholic church and its radio station directly across from the home of Mary Brownell in the capital city, Monrovia. The Catholic Church, its Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), and especially its Archbishop, Michael K. Francis, had been speaking out boldly against the war and its effects on civilians.
Mary Brownell ran outside and saw a crowd of women and men trying to extinguish the fire with buckets of water. Brownell said, "Forget about the radio station, forget about the residence [where the priests lived]; let's just save the church." And they did. One of Taylor's men spotted Brownell, who had been making public statements critical of the rebels and the war. He made a call on a hand-held radio, apparently to a superior officer. The response, overheard by a member of a second rebel faction, according to Brownell, was: "Leave her for now; we will get her later tonight."
To read the entire article, please visit this article's page at informaworld, where articles are available for purchase from Routledge, our publishing partner.