WE ARE GLAD that former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf continues to turned her Presidential Center for Women and Development into an “octopus’ operation,” routinely adding novel angles of strategic programme that would break the backbone of patriarchalism raging with reckless abandon on the African Continent. The EJS Center is intended, amongst other things, to build on the legacy of effective women leadership, providing the ideal nexus for a comprehensive leadership development for aspiring women leaders. The first of many programs focusing on cultivating excellence in women leaders is the Amujae Initiative – an initiative that aims to shift the landscape for women in public service leadership.
AS THE CENTER CELEBRATES its 5th anniversary this year, there comes another innovative angle of its feminist crusade, the MUSIEHJAH (local Vai language equivalent of “women’s house”) – a house where the women gather to talk, to mediate, to plan, to try to find the way of coexistence with their partners. It has come to complement and reinforce the presidential center’s flagship program, the Amujae Initiative, designed to inspire and prepare women to unapologetically take up roles and excel in the highest echelons of public leadership, and to bring other women along. Already, the Amujae, which in another local language (Kru) means “we are going up”, has had success with a network of elected personalities from across the continent, called “Amujae Leaders” who represent women from diverse backgrounds with a similar track record of achievements in public life and a shared passion for uplifting African women and girls and the continent as a whole.
WITH THE ADVENT of MUSIEHJAH project, the EJS Center is further enhanced, in the broader context, into having a place where women can go for training, for learning, for knowledge, for the opportunity to exchange strategies, challenges, successes and also a place where we can brand women who have already achieved, women who stand out in their society, women who challenge the status quo that they can come and have a place where they can be profound, their opportunities can be sent to other to see that what they do. As the MUSIEHJAH concept comes out of the shell of theory, it is to be found in many parts of Liberia if not in all of Africa soon as a ‘palava hut” where feminist indoctrination and animation will take place.
“WE DO SOME of that right now without having a place like MUSIEHJAH, but go somewhere else with the support Rockefeller Center. We have one of our major meetings in Kigali with the graciousness of president Paul Kagame,” said Ma Ellen in whose name the center is established.
Speaking during its launch at the 5th anniversary of the EJS, the former Liberian president said: “We also feel that we shouldn’t be going from place to place with those who will accommodate us. We need a place where they call their own. We started as a library and then expanded it into Amujae which is a flagship operation of supporting women, and because we have that library, there is an opportunity for scholars to learn about not only the history of Liberia, but to lean about the history of Africa and the world. Because we have collectives, lot of autobiographies, biographies, written words where scholars can come and sit, particularly women.”
SHE CONTINUED: “I want to strongly say, that MUSIEHJAH is not just for me. We want to see it stabilize, that is not me, that its go beyond me signifies what particular women in African countries have done to promote their society, to channel rights, to channel wrongs, and to talk about the rights of women and the protection of women.”
WE SALUTE MADAM Sirleaf and the EJS Center for leveraging groundswell of innovation and sense of creativity in lifting women and girls of the continent out of patriarchal bondage in which they have wallowed from time immemorial. We can say, without illusion, that MUSIEHJAH is timely, strategic and uplifting, and with sustained support and cooperation from partners and all of us, including the media, it can truly serve its purpose in counter-maneuvering and crushing the whirlwind of traditional stereotypes, violence, discrimination and all for of gender-based violence blowing across Africa. And that women will reach the pinnacle of public and private life with apology to any.
AGAIN, WE SAY ‘hats off’ to the former Liberian president and all EJS strategists and implementers for giving birth to the MUSIEHJAH Program. Wish you all the best! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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