VCU news

By Cheryle Rodriguez

“I was 9-years-old,” said Yeatoe McIntosh, a woman recounting her experience living in Liberia. “I remember getting up so happy and then a neighbor came running and said, ‘They are coming.’ That’s when we heard the bombs exploding. We hid in our house for six days, until the troops found us. They brought us out and lined us up to be killed.”

McIntosh was one of the panelists invited to the Women, War & Peace conference at Virginia Commonwealth University to share her experience during a roundtable discussion about the Liberian civil war that has killed an estimated 250,000 people. The conference was held on Sept. 20 and 21 in the University Student Commons.

“We were reciting the 23rd Psalm, and for some reason the troops let us go,” McIntosh said.  “But our neighbors, including kids, were taken by the soldiers and they were all beheaded.”

The roundtable discussion was one of several panels, film screenings and workshops that educated participants about women’s roles in the Liberian and Malian wars and the peace-building efforts that followed.

Salter Penda, a third-year VCU student from Cameroon, documented the horrors of the war and its impact on Liberian women using photos and a summary describing each picture. Penda displayed his poster as part of the conference’s “poster session” for undergraduate students.  

“I wanted people to understand the difficulties and roles which women played during the civil war,” Penda said. “Also, I wanted to characterize the strength which women possess. Women have so much endurance, resilience, persistence and resistance.”

Among the many film screenings was the PBS award-winning documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” the story of Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, who helped lead a women’s peace movement in Liberia that led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected female president of an African nation.

The film’s producer Abigail Disney led a discussion about the film and the work of the Gbowee Peace Foundation USA.  

A luncheon on Saturday celebrated Mali’s National Day, observed on Sept. 22. Attendees Ibrahim ag Youssouf, Ph.D., a linguist, and Mme Zakiyaour oualett Haletine, former Malian minister of arts, trade and tourism, were awarded United Nations Service Medals for their roles in the conflict resolution and peace reconciliation after the Tuareg Rebellion, an armed conflict involving northern Mali.

“For me personally, the conference was very enriching,” Penda said.  “Africa has been characterized by civil wars and different forms of negativity. My goal is to show its positive characteristics.”

The conference grew out of a partnership between VCU, the Richmond Peace Education Center, Virginia Friends of Mali and the Richmond Sister Cities Commission. The School of World Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences hosted the conference.

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