About book This Child Will Be Great LP: Memoir Of A Remarkable Life By Africa's First Woman President (2009)
Don't get fooled by the word "memoir" in the title. This is not a memoir but an essay about the history and financial and administrative issues of Liberia in the recent past. Ellen Sirleaf's book is not about herself but about Liberia. While it is detailed, there is such a thing as being too detailed and most readers aren't looking for debt figures and how much financing is given to each sector in Liberia. The last part of the book reads like an essay on political promotion.So Liberia. If asked to pick a country that USA has completely screwed up for their own nefarious purposes, most people would choose Afghanistan. But that is nothing compared to what they did to Liberia. After using Africans to bolster their economy and work for free in the America, some leaders decide that now that the blacks have been emancipated, they really can't stay with white people *gasp*. So they send them away back to Africa and bully the native Africans into giving away land for the new settlers. Not content with this, they encourage the settlers to take control, leading to a huge split in society with the newly returned settler class, fresh with lovely new ideas about slavery and colonialism, try their hand at copying their erstwhile masters. And succeed. Fast forward a couple of hundred years and there is retaliation. And so on. Then civil war. America still played games and backed the militant regimes, a task it does remarkably well in the world. But at the same time, utterly refused to help with controlling the civil war or to help the people. But unfortunately, as Sirleaf points out, most of Africa cannot yet show the finger to the West, so they must put up with the unfair demands until the country can stand on its feet. Coming back to Sirleaf, she is an awesome woman who has suffered greatly and she is very inspirational. I think she is completely right in focusing on education, gender equality and creating a liberal market aimed at development as primary goals. I am especially glad that she thinks that women's rights must be an important focus for any future of Africa in general, and Liberia in particular. So, impressed with the woman, but not so impressed with the book. Fascinating account of the political process in Liberia, especially Sirleaf's role. I would have appreciated more information about the role of the market women who helped her in her campaign, as well as other grassroots movements instead of a perspective mainly focused on state to state relationships and intergovernmental institutions, but still found the challenges of how to transform a nation racked by conflict insightful- it gave me a bit of a different perspective of what Colombia will be facing when they finalize the peace deal. One thing I did not appreciate in terms of writing style was Sirleaf's habit of giving super obvious forshadowing.
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This is a great way to learn Liberian history via an interesting personal narrative.
—John
So far, I'm learning alot about the origin and history of Liberia, Africa.
—Quinze
I listened to book after hearing Mighty be our powers. very brave woman
—trionix
