The first woman president in Africa Visited my class

The first woman president in Africa, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, visited my class yesterday to talk to students taking my DIASPORA VISIONS course.

A Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and one of Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women in the world, President Sirleaf was a delight to spend time with.

President Sirleaf, as the first woman president of a country in Africa, is genuinely a postcolonial president, who has helped in the empowerment of the people of Liberia and has primarily given voice and agency to the women of Africa. Her presidency broke the patriarchal stranglehold on Africa, a stranglehold that has afflicted the continent with unnecessary warfare, bloodshed, and poverty, driven by testosterone and the insatiable male lust for power. President Sirleaf’s time in the highest office in Liberia brought peace, progress and prosperity to the country, the like of which Liberia had never enjoyed.

Later in the evening, she gave a wonderful lecture at the Hogg Auditorium, University of Texas, Austin.