The most striking thing about Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the 67 year-old who will be inaugurated on Jan. 6, 2006 as Liberia's -- and Africa's -- first woman president, is that she is as tough as nails with a history of toughness going back over 20 years.
In an exclusive interview, Johnson-Sirleaf, said she now wanted to be the "mother" to her divided nation, to bring reconciliation and, for young people, education and opportunities.
She has started on the road to reconciliation by, in all probability, inviting the man she defeated in the final round of elections in October to join her government. However, reconciliation for Liberia will be a huge task because the divisions go back many years and the president-elect has been a leading opponent of previous rulers.
PHOTO: AP
In 1985 she was imprisoned by Liberia's then military dictator, Samuel Doe, on suspicion that she had backed a failed invasion by Doe's former commander, General Thomas Quiwonkpa. But somehow, Johnson-Sirleaf survived.
I went to New York to interview her and had imagined I would find a woman scarred and probably chastened by her foray into politics. It was accepted at the time that to cross Samuel Doe was to walk into a waking nightmare with only one probable outcome. What I found instead, was someone whose commitment to the struggle for a democratic Liberia was undiminished.
She didn't exactly tell me she was actually plotting Doe's overthrow, but she spoke with such distaste about the mess into which Doe had plunged Liberia that I knew we would be hearing from her again.
PHOTO: EPA
It was, however, another Liberian, Charles Taylor, who launched the civil war which led to Doe's overthrow and death in 1990.
Some say the new president-elect had backed Taylor but whether she did or not she soon fell out with the new regime as Taylor became an autocrat every bit as detestable as Doe.
Her chance came again in 1997 when Taylor, under increasing pressure from the international community, called a presidential election in which she stood.
PHOTO: AP
She was defeated. No surprise there, as Taylor's troops dominated both the political and the physical landscape, but having won, Taylor quickly charged Johnson-Sirleaf with treason forcing her into exile once again.
Ironically, just as Taylor won support for his stand against Samuel Doe, Johnson-Sirleaf's opposition to Taylor simply enhanced her reputation as Liberians concluded that any woman who had dared to challenge two of Africa's most beastly desperadoes -- Doe and Taylor -- was something special. Her countrymen dubbed her "The Iron Lady."
And her time eventually came following Charles Taylor's own exiling in Nigeria -- he having finally exhausted the goodwill of the international community. In October this year, after seven years of civil war and with the help of a UN Force, Liberia once again held presidential elections.
Twenty-two candidates put themselves forward in the poll. The inconclusive first round was won by the soccer superstar George Weah (formerly of AC Milan and London's Chelsea) but in the second round run-off Johnson-Sirleaf beat Weah wining 50.4 percent of the votes, against George Weah's 49.6 percent. Liberia had elected not only its own first woman president but also, the first woman ever to become head of state on the entire African continent.
In an exclusive interview conducted with her over the phone from her home in Monrovia, Johnson-Sirleaf told me that she had been kept going, over the years, by her "irreversible commit-ment to democracy and the development of Liberia."
Her "success," she added, would serve as the "motivation to strive to reach the next level, which is to achieve reconciliation among all the people of Liberia." She would try and unite all the leaders of the society together to get the government "working efficiently."
She also told me she would try to be "mother" to her nation; to "reconcile" the people and "educate the young people and try to provide them with opportunities for reintegrating into the society."
And she has been true to her word. In the days after the election, supporters of the beaten George Weah took to the streets to express their displeasure at their hero's defeat. In response, the president-elect, called her opponent in for talks and he is likely to be included in her first Cabinet.
Joking with her about her Iron Lady nickname, I pointed out that there had been another woman before her, also called the Iron Lady -- the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher -- and that far from being a mother to her people, Baroness Thatcher had proved extremely divisive.
Johnson-Sirleaf chuckled and reminded me: "I earned that Iron Lady sobriquet in my own right; on the basis of my record in Liberian affairs."
Similarly, she would work so hard to inspire other women that her contribution to Liberian, African and indeed, world history, would be uniquely her own, she added.
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