Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Last Saturday I attended the West African private screening of Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a documentary by Abigail Disney on the role that Liberian women played in bringing about peace to their war torn country. The documentary left me and many members of the audience stunned, inspired and deeply moved.

I was stunned by the violence captured on film...an image of a young boy (he could be no older than 10) saying proudly 'I killed three of the enemy yesterday'. Who did this young boy classify as the enemy? His fellow citzens of Liberia, members of his community, neighbours?

I was stunned by the systemic violence, rape and torture of women. A story was narrated of a woman who had been told to sing, dance and clap by marauding soldiers whilst her husband was told to lie on the floor and her daughter aged 12 told to spread her lappa on the floor. The soldiers told the woman to sing, dance and clap whilst her daughter was raped and her husband had his neck cut off with a knife.

I was stunned by the bravery of a small band of women who mobilised across religious lines and demonstrated for peace, who petitioned Charles Taylor and the rebels for peace, who travelled to Ghana where 'peace talks' were to be held and after 6 weeks of stalling held a lock in until a peace agreement was signed.

Indeed, I am still processing what I saw at Saturday's screening and many thoughts rush through my mind, one of which I posed during the question and answer session that followed the screening:

Post conflict, women seem to play a fundamental role in peace building,so in post-genocide Rwanda for example, 50% of parlimentarians are women and in Liberia Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson was elected as Africa's first female president. If women play a fundamental role in peace building how can we encourage more women to become politically active? I don't believe that women cannot be war mongerers but I wonder if the socialisation that women recieve makes it less likely for us to be advocates for war. What are your thoughts?

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications