GANTA, Nimba – Members of the National Traditional Council of Liberia’s Women Wing have concluded a peace conference in Ganta with their Mano River Union counterparts.

The three-day conference was held at the Peace Empire Hotel and focused on the need for traditional women to take on leadership roles in their respective countries.

Satta Fofana-Saah, vice chair for administration at the National Traditional Council of Liberia, explained to reporters that the conference was called to convince women to pursue roles such as town chief or paramount chief.

“The opportunity we have here [in Liberia], most of them that came don’t even have that opportunity,” she said. “Some of them even asked about how a woman can become a paramount chief, or quarter chief, or town chief. One of the ladies from Sierra Leone talked until she cried; they don’t have that opportunity.”

Since the election of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2005 as president, Fofana-Saah said women have benefited by being thrust into leadership roles, something that their counterparts in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast are not experiencing.

“They are marginalized by men,” she noted, adding that men in the other MRU countries use women solely for their own happiness.

Fofana-Saah said the sub-region cannot maintain peace if women continue to be marginalized by their male counterparts. “If your mind is not set, you cannot be peaceful; that’s the reason we came together to share.”

She called on the governments of the MRU basin to collaborate efforts in using traditional women to maintain lasting peace.

At the end of the conference, she charged the delegates to “get back home and really appeal to their authorities; appeal to the men, to give them the chance, knowing fully well that the woman is the manager in the home.”

The women, at the close of the conference, drafted a resolution that is expected to be taken to their respective governments for actions. Naomi K. Harris, head of the Female Disabled Association of Liberia, read the resolution on behalf of the women.

The women’s gathering was supported by Carter Center’s Liberia office, with funding from USAID and the Swedish Embassy. According to the chief of party of Carter Center, Pewee Flomoku, he was impressed by the women’s action to come together to discuss issues surrounding peacebuilding.

“I am really, really impressed and happy that traditional women can take upon themselves to organize meetings,” he said. “We just came in to provide support to them; so that they can take step toward sustaining peace, toward preventing violence, to talk about sexual and gender-based violence, to talk about harmful practices against women, to talk about leadership, to talk about inclusive participation – that’s encouraging for us.”

Franklin Doloquee/ELBC contributed to this article. Featured photo by Franklin Doloquee