Film Screening: Pray the Devil Back to Hell

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, as part of the Social Justice Leadership Series, Coexistence International hosted a screening of the inspiring documentary film Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008). The documentary tells the story of a group of Liberian women who were instrumental in bringing peace to their country after decades of civil war, and chronicles the development of this interfaith women’s movement amidst intense violence and poverty. The Liberian women’s peace movement provides a stunning example of the unifying power and resilience of grassroots activism.

Rosalind Shaw, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tufts University, author of Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone (University of Chicago Press, 2002) and co-editor of Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities After Mass Violence (Stanford University Press, 2010), among other books, introduced the film with a succinct overview of the Liberia’s recent history and contextualized the events there in terms of the West Africa region. Janet Johnson Bryant, a Liberian journalist who was one of the leaders of the movement, was present at the screening, and responded to questions at the conclusion of the film. She emphasized how the desperation to end the war brought together women of different religious, ethnic, and social backgrounds, and how they stayed mobilized during a transitional period in Liberia to play an instrumental role in electing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president in 2006 – the first woman elected to lead an African nation.

In her remarks Johnson Bryant also emphasized the fragile state Liberia currently finds itself in. While the country has been at peace for six years (its longest stretch of consecutive peace in recent history), she highlighted the significant challenges that remain to achieving sustainable development and meaningful coexistence. Johnson Bryant called on audience members to remain attentive to events in Liberia and to support the people of the Liberia as that nation perseveres and strives to move forward on a positive trajectory.

The event was well attended by more than 200 people from the Brandeis and Greater Boston communities. A program of the event, can be found here.

Film Screening: Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Related links