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This year marks the 60th anniversary of the sheroic (not heroic) march of brave South African women who confronted the mighty apartheid South Africa.
As we celebrate this historic occasion, it is appropriate, in the spirit of Pan-Africanism, that we celebrate another milestone in African history – that of the 10th anniversary of the victory of Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female president in Africa.
Just as the South African women faced a heavily armed regime, Johnson Sirleaf challenged a battle-tested military heavyweight, Charles Taylor, who had vowed that no woman would rule Liberia while he was still alive.
Despite meagre resources compared with Taylor’s, Johnson Sirleaf was elected president, with overwhelming support from Liberian women.
There is no better time than now to celebrate Johnson Sirleaf’s legacy.
That is so because, in the governing party, the ANC, there is a lot of talk about a woman succeeding President Jacob Zuma as both the ANC and South Africa’s president.
Concerns have been expressed that some powerful men in the ANC approve of a female president, with the objective of using her to advance their own selfish interests.
If this is so, it is a recipe for disaster for the African revolution. An examination of Johnson Sirleaf’s political life, on this occasion of our Women’s Day, affords us the opportunity to learn some lessons.
Because she is a former employee of the World Bank, an institution that has treated Africa unkindly, many viewed Johnson Sirleaf’s ascent to power suspiciously.
Few know that Johnson Sirleaf herself was critical of the World Bank, having gone on record as saying that “often bank employees went to sovereign countries and spoke to presidents and ministers as if they were lecturing children on what they should and should not do.
This was arrogance, plain and simple, and I knew it.”
Regarding the complaints of those who have suggested that the World Bank’s true goal is that of advancing US interests, Johnson Sirleaf is unequivocal:
“I say that, to be sure, it is very clear that the World Bank serves the interest of the major Western powers and that its primary decisions are made by them.
“The very structure of the bank ensures as much: its president is always an American, nominated by the president of the US.
What’s more, the US owns such a large percentage of shares that it can exercise veto power over any major decisions made by the bank.”
This is a principled position that many an African leader can only articulate in whispers. But this African woman has put it on public record.
It has often been said that many women, once in powerful positions, want to be seen to be as rough as men, if not rougher. Her leadership has demonstrated drawing a line between being “tough” and “rough”.
In her autobiography, This Child Will Be Great, Johnson Sirleaf states that “... one aspect of traditional African culture I hope my countrymen will never lose, is the support of the extended system”.
“In Liberia, as in all of Africa, parents routinely help their children care for [their] grandchildren – not just temporarily, not for a few hours or for the night, but for weeks and months and even years.”
Johnson Sirleaf reminds Africans that the concept of “family” in Africa means “having concern for the aged and your family, taking them in and giving them [a] haven.
I would hate to see things here such as nursing homes.”
We celebrate Johnson Sirleaf, not just because she is a female leader, but because of the African values she urges us to uphold and advance.
We celebrate her because she has defeated all odds, being a divorcée who emerged from verbal and physical abuse and, despite all that, borrowing from Maya Angelou, still she rose.
Sesanti is an associate professor at Unisa’s Institute for African Renaissance and deputy editor of the International Journal of African Renaissance Studies
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