Leymah Gbowee

Interview

Interview, December 2011

Interview with the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman, 9 December 2011. The interviewer is Tomm Kristiansen, journalist at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).


Interview, October 2011

Telephone interview with Leymah Gbowee, recorded after the announcement of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, 7 October 2011. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Editorial Director of Nobel Media.

Interview transcript

[Leymah Gbowee] Hello?

[Adam Smith] Hello. May I speak to Leymah Gbowee please?

[LG] Leymah speaking.

[AS] Oh, hello! My name’s Adam Smith. I’m calling from the official website of the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.

[JG] OK.

[AS] Congratulations on the award.

[JG] Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

[AS] Thank you, it’s wonderful news. We have a tradition of recording just tiny interviews on the telephone with new Laureates. Would you speak to me for just two minutes?

[JG] Sure.

[AS] Thank you. May I ask what message you hope this prize sends to the world?

[JG] That the other 50 percent of the world – the women of the world – that their skills, talents and intelligence should be utilized. And I think this message is a resounding agreement to all of our advocacies over the years. That truly women have a place, truly women have a face and truly the world has not been functioning well without the input, in every sphere, of women.

[AS] That’s a wonderful message, thank you. And may I ask, when you were protesting for the end of the civil war in Liberia, armed with only white t-shirts, what gave you hope that you would succeed?

[JG] My hope was in those women who came on a daily basis – women who had been broken, women who had been abused, who had watched or observed the worst – their commitment, their perseverance, their passion for bringing peace to Liberia, that was my hope.

[AS] Thank you for speaking to us and congratulations again.

[JG] Thank you.

[AS] Thank you, good bye.

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To cite this section
MLA style: Leymah Gbowee – Interview. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Thu. 28 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2011/gbowee/interview/>

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