Pray the Devil Back to Hell

“Look, if you have any power to put a stop to the war, you go and do it.”

-Vaiba Flomo, President, Christian Women’s Peace Initiative

It’s easy to look at conflict areas and throw your hands up in the air. What are we supposed to do about violence in Afghanistan? The Middle East? The Democratic Republic of Congo? The most jaded and tired responses from journalists, policy analysts, and activists are the easiest to find. The situation will never change. The violence is cultural. There’s nothing anyone can do to change the pattern of generations. It is an age-old hatred. Even the most starry-eyed idealists can find themselves overwhelmed and disillusioned by the seemingly unstoppable momentum that years of violence and hatred can accrue.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a documentary film by Abigail E. Disney and Gini Reticker, is an inspiring antidote to the sense of hopelessness and futility that can become to seem endemic in areas with longstanding ethnic, tribal, religious, and/or political hostilities. This documentary is a must-see for anyone who needs to be reminded that change is possible, even when efforts to stabilize regions and countries start small, even when the peace activists have far less power or money than the fighters, even when years of violence have disrupted educational systems and economic activity. As cheesy as this sounds, even in my head before I write it, Pray the Devil Back to Hell will remind you once again that the process of peace can be started and maintained by individuals armed with little more than resolve and strength of purpose.

Although Pray the Devil Back to Hell was released in 2008, it still serves as a valuable testimony to the power of individuals—and in this case, the power of women—to be agents of change against seemingly insurmountable conditions. The documentary begins, as many do, with a brief summary of the situation.

“Liberia, a West African country of 3 million people, was founded in 1847 by freed American slaves.

Their descendants formed an elite class which dominated indigenous ethnic groups for more than a century. Rising tensions finally erupted into civil war in 1989.

From then on, Liberians suffered a prolonged period of violence. At times, fighting was concentrated in the countryside. Other times, the conflict raged through the capitol, Monrovia.

By 2002, over 200,000 people had died. One out of three people had been displaced.

There was no end in sight.

Then, ordinary women did the unimaginable.”

Leymah Gbowee, a social worker and the founder of the peace movement summed it up more succinctly:  “It was hell on Earth.” Visions of refugees marching barefoot on unpaved streets, houses on fire, and teenage soldiers firing into the air from jeeps hurtling down jungle paths cycle through as she recounted the different explanations given for the fighting—“power, money, ethnicity, and greed.”

It was a dream of speaking against the war in front of her church that moved Gbowee from frustration and despair to activism. From there, the beginnings of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace sounds like it was planned point-by-point according to a strategist’s handbook, but the movement gained power from a combination of resolve, persistence, and cooperation.

Gbowee rallied her church around and reached out to other Christian churches. A Muslim woman heard her speak in front of the church and promised to mobilize the Muslim community. Charles Taylor’s government and the rebel forces, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), were divided along Christian and Muslim affiliations respectively, but the women bridged the divide and coordinated their efforts to reach out to the religious leadership. Gbowee said, “If the women started pressurizing the pastors and the bishops, the pastors and bishops could start pressurizing the [governmental] leaders. And if the women in the mosque started pressurizing the imams, they would pressurize the warlords also.”

Image taken from Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Together, the women started to demonstrate at a local fish market. Gbowee said, “It was the first time in the history of Liberia that Muslim women and Christian women came together.” The number of demonstrators grew into the thousands, united under a banner that said “The women of Liberia want peace now.” Singing and dancing, dressed in white and with their hair covered by scarves, the women sat through threats emanating from the president, adverse weather, heat, hunger, and desperation before the came up with their next idea: a sex strike.

Vaiba Flomo, President of the Christian Women’s Peace Initiative, explained the impetus behind the sex strike. “We said to the women, ‘One way or another, you have a power as a woman, and that power is to deny the man your sex. And tell him the reason you’re going to deny him. Look, if you have any power to put a stop to the war, you go and do it.’” Asata Bah Kenneth, the woman who brought the peace movement to the Muslim community, shared the sense of camaraderie and support the women gave each other.  “Some of the women who were part of it came back and said, let me tell you, you know I had no control, this just happened. We said, ‘Pick up from there.’” Gbowee added, laughing, “And their husbands were equally praying for them, because for them, the end of the war meant a good beginning of enjoyment for us.”

The importance of the sex strike faded as the international community increased pressure on Charles Taylor and the rebel groups to meet and sign a peace agreement. The women’s movement issued a statement avoiding any political demands and calling only for peace. They signed their statement as “The Women of Liberia” and marched on the capitol to present it to the Parliament.  Finally, Charles Taylor acquiesced to a meeting. Gbowee read aloud a statement in front of the president and an assembled crowd, still dressed only in white and with her head wrapped in a white scarf: “The women of Liberia, including the IDPs, we are tired of war. We are tired of running. We are tired of begging for bulghur wheat. We are tired of our children being raped. We are now taking this stand to secure the future of our children because we believe, as custodians of society, tomorrow our children will ask us, ‘Mama, what was your role during the crisis?’” Charles Taylor saw that popular support was on the women’s side, and he agreed to take part in peace talks.

During the same time, the women’s movement sent a delegation of women to Sierra Leone, where the rebels were rumored to be meeting.  By meeting with them one-on-one and engaging in dialogue with the leaders, the women convinced the rebel leaders to take part in peace talks as well.

The peace talks did not go smoothly. They broke down several times, and agreements dragged on while former warlords argued over which posts they wanted in the new transitional government. Former Nigerian President and Chief Moderator General Abubakar said, “We were getting nowhere, and we were really reaching the end of the road. What can we do to get these people to sign this peace agreement? They are still jockeying for more and more.”  When attacks reached the American Embassy, where many displaced Liberians had been seeking refuge, Gbowee had had enough. She and the rest of the women who had been demonstrating outside the peace talks locked arms and started a siege of the conference hall. The chief moderator supported the women’s siege, demanding that the warlords meet the women’s demands that a resolution be reached within two weeks. Finally, the warlords signed a peace agreement.

In the period after the signing of the peace agreement, the women’s peace movement continued to play an integral role in Liberian reconstruction and the dearmament of the rebel forces. They also succeeded in democratically electing Africa’s first woman president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

The most striking thing about this documentary is how applicable it seems to other conflict zones throughout the world. The women’s peace movement in Liberia was successful not because of luck or some special circumstance, and they definitely didn’t live in a government that protected them physically from assault or rape. Rather, they brought peace to Liberia through unity, resolve, and strength of purpose, qualities that can be found and harnessed anywhere in the world.

For more information, check out the following links:

Pray the Devil Back to Hell homepage

“Women’s Role in Liberia’s Reconstruction” by Dorina Bekoe and Christina Parajon, United States Institute for Peace

“Liberia’s Post-War Development: Key Issues and U.S. Assistance” by Nicolas Cook, Congressional Research Service

“An Uncompromising Woman” by Daniel Bergman,  the New York Times (feature on Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf)

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