Perhaps the Nobel Committee seeks to redefine feminist values -- a bold gesture, but one which could go further, postulates Gamal Nkrumah Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel wished the Nobel Peace Prize to be administered in Norway, which was then an impoverished backwater, virtually a Swedish colony. Little did he suspect, I suppose, that a century later Norway would become one of the world's wealthiest nations and the most politically correct. Navigating the new Norwegian Peace Prize rapids is a challenge for any progressive internationalist these days. All sides of the global political divide -- North and South, and even West, have hammered the Nobel Peace Prize. And, its choices of winners often offend advocates of every shade of the ideological spectrum. Still, people all over the world vie for receiving the world's most coveted award. Yet the Nobel Peace Prize has insidious effects too. When the Nobel Peace Prize was launched, it was given two almost impossible tasks. First, it had to provide appropriate approbation for someone who "... shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Nobody knows exactly how the logic of the Nobel Peace Prize really functions. Mahatma Gandhi was nominated four times, but never actually received the Prize. Czech President Vaclav Havel, Nigerian political activist and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Philippine President Corazon Aquino and Pan-Africanist pioneer and president of the first African state south of the Sahara to gain independence from a European power Kwame Nkrumah never won the prize, but perhaps should have. Nobel, I presume, did not particularly believe that he was standing up for the little man, or woman for that matter. I have no doubt, however, that Nobel felt that it was in his interest to play it safe when choosing the winner of his prestigious prize. Many would argue that it is a dubious honour. And this is where Nobel's recipe remains half- baked. The second, even more difficult, task was to induce a profound transformation not just of society but of social values. This is the unspoken verity or raison d'être of the Nobel Peace Prize. After a 110 years of its inception, it is crystal clear that the Nobel Peace Prize, largely thanks to the advancement of secularist and Western liberal values, has achieved remarkably well the second objective. The first, less straightforward and perhaps a little aberrant, is being reached in a rather less straightforward fashion. The choice of this conjectural laureate who has "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations" is rather difficult to ascertain. Choosing someone who has worked for "the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses" is a little bit simpler, but still rather elusive. Particularly damaging was the breakdown of credibility of the Nobel Peace Prize when Adolf Hitler was short-listed in 1938, thus sending the message that even mass murderers were eligible for the most prestigious international peace prize. The world generally, and the Nobel Committee in particular, had to reflect on the fundamental question at stake. From the word go, the selection process followed a thematic proposition. This year, it is clear that the Nobel Committee had the role of women as peacemakers and initiators of political and social change uppermost in their minds. "We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society," the Norwegian Nobel Committee declared upon announcing this year's winners. Other African countries and continents other than Africa experiencing social and political unrest and economic turbulence and exporting turbulence have given more convincing proof of the commitment of their women. But why were women from relatively small and politically insignificant countries chosen as having a particular responsibility in this respect? War-torn Liberia and politically unstable Yemen are the cases in question. Yemen is a part of the Arab awakening even though Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh clings tenaciously to power. Liberia is a more intriguing choice. The two brutish Liberian civil wars are long over even though the scars they created are far from erased. Women in Angola, Congo, Sudan and other African countries suffered the very same indignities -- rape, sexual slavery, the butchering of beloved ones, maiming and murder -- as Liberian women. Forbes Magazine named Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as the 51st most powerful woman in the world in 2006. Likewise the British-based, the Economist, declared Johnson- Sirleaf "arguably the best president [Liberia] ever had." The Havard-educated Johnson-Sirleaf undoubtedly deserves accolades, but why was she chosen together with her compatriot Leymah Gbowee? Why spotlight Liberia and not women of substance from the other African countries that are undergoing civil war? I personally thought of Rebecca Garang, widow of the founding father of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) who is an activist and a politician in her own right. The SPLM is a movement that championed the rights of the underdog in Sudan. And that to the best of my knowledge worked tirelessly for "fraternity between nations [North and South Sudan] and for the reduction of standing armies and for convening and promotion of peace congresses" as attested to by the Comprehensive Peace Treaty of 2005 between the Sudanese government and the SPLM. Rebecca Garang not only stood by her husband throughout the gruelling years of gruesome wars. But she has proven to be an indefatigable peace activist and development worker with a focus on women. This is just one example that comes to mind. Making women perform better under impossible situations and ending the conflicts of interests in wartime are laudable aims. Leymah Gbowee and Johnson-Sirleaf come from the same country, Liberia, but they are in many respects radically different women in terms of personal experiences and career choices. Gbowee works in the Ghanaian capital Accra as director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa. So far, she has not exhibited any ambitions for political office, but naturally that could change later. Gbowee's autobiography Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War was a bombshell. "We the women of Liberia will no longer allow ourselves to be raped, abused, misused, maimed and killed," Gbowee proclaimed in an anguished tone. A divorcee, Johnson-Sirleaf is a mother of four and has eight grandchildren. Her great grand- nephew Emmanuel Sumana Elisar was her political advisor during her presidential campaign against football star George Weah. Her detractors often accuse her of nepotism, a charge she vehemently rejects. From humble beginnings Johnson-Sirleaf aimed high and was determined to become a career woman, first in banking and international finance before branching out, rather reluctantly, into politics. Sirleaf signed into law the Freedom of Information bill, the first legislation of its kind in West Africa. Johnson Sirleaf was the first sitting head of state to receive the Friend of the Media in Africa Award from the African Editor's Union. Johnson-Sirleaf served as vice president of the Africa regional office of Citibank in Nairobi in 1981 and later for the World Bank. Then in 1992 she was appointed as assistant administrator and then director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa. Then she plunged into politics wholeheartedly. The West ardently backed her presidential bid and Washington championed her cause. Johnson-Sirleaf's biggest test in the international arena came with the creation of the United States Africa Command better known as AFRICOM. Following the establishment of AFRICOM by the US military, Johnson-Sirleaf offered to permit the US to headquarter the new command in Liberia, the only African leader to do so. The command was eventually headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. The question that concerns many Africans is whether such a bold gesture by Johnson-Sirleaf determined her winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. Executive Director of WISPEN Leymah Gbowee, too, is widely perceived to be an unswerving proponent of secularist social values even though she herself is a devout Christian. Gbowee is a member of the African Women Leaders' Network for Reproductive Health and Family Planning (AWLN). How this 39-year-old reconciles being a mother of six and a family planner beats me. "As Africa's first democratically-elected woman head of state, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is a powerful symbol of women's leadership on the African continent and beyond," noted Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah of the Ghana-based African Women's Development Fund (AWDF). "Leymah Gbowee, through her tireless mobilisation of community women across religious and ethnic lines, first in Liberia and then across West Africa, signifies the power and impact of building movements for women's rights, peace and democracy," notes Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah. Gbowee got Christian and Muslim women in Liberia to work together for peace. The White T- Shirts movement she founded won many accolades. And, so did her Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. Women emerged as a political force against violence in Liberia. And, because of the peace activism of women such as Gbowee, Liberian women today have achieved tremendous political and social status. Leymah Gbowee was responsible for organising a peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Gbowee trained as a trauma counsellor and worked with victims of rape and torture as well as with ex- child soldiers. "If any changes were to be made in society it had to be made by the mothers," Gbowee declared. Johnson-Sirleaf comes by her politics naturally. Her father became the first Liberian from an indigenous ethnic group to sit in the country's national legislature. Johnson-Sirleaf curiously backed ex-president Charles Taylor against the late Liberian dictator Samuel Doe during the First Liberian Civil War that erupted in 1989. Born in October 1983, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the 24th and current president of Liberia, and is in many ways the antithesis of Gbowee. She assumed office on 16 January 2006 after winning the 2005 presidential elections. Even though some Liberians consider her of Americo-Liberian ancestry, she herself does not consider herself so. She doesn't identify herself as one of the Americo-Liberians, the putative elite, descendants of African American slaves who founded Liberia and monopolised power for much of the country's history. Her paternal grandfather is an ethnic Gola and her maternal grandfather is German while her maternal grandmother is ethnic Kru. Whatever her ethnic background, Johnson-Sirleaf is a different kettle of fish from Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman, the third member of this year's Nobel Peace Prize trio. Karman's human rights group Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) was an integral part of the Arab awakening, but that is an entirely different story. It seems the Nobel committee is playing politics here, signalling to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh that he should step down in the face of the "non-violent struggle" led by Yemenis like Karman. The political message we can take from these awards is very much a mainstream one, where women who support Western-style democracy and liberal principles, fighting for "women's rights to full participation in peace-building work" are being celebrated. However, why the three women were chosen from among millions of women activists worldwide, the world will never truly know.
