“If young people can be used to foment violence and conflict, they can be used to bring about peace”– Gwendolyn Myers (Liberia) – 1/2

We are in conversation with Gwendolyn Myers, Liberian advocate for global youth, peace and security. In this first part, she tells us about growing up in Montserrado County in Liberia, and becoming famous as a teenager for speaking on the radio about child advocacy and peace building work. After emphasising the importance of her faith and its role in her ability to discern her purpose, we discuss how she pursued that purpose despite potential danger and the conflicting opinions of others (Part 2). 

Gwendolyn was interviewed by Françoise Moudouthe in late 2019 as part of a global project documenting girls’ resistance. The conversation has been edited into this two-part interview by Nana Bruce-Amanquah for our #GirlsResistWA series. You can find out more about the series here. 

Trigger Warning: This conversation contains mentions of violence and abuse that may be triggering for readers. Kindly take a moment to decide if you want to keep reading. If you proceed, we encourage you to focus on your well-being and stop reading at any point if you need to.

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When you think about the time of your life when you were a young girl, a teenager, what age comes to mind and why?

That period for me started just around the age of 13, in terms of when I really felt like my adolescent stage started and girlhood stopped. At 13, I was still in this space where I would want to do stuff and even with the sharp mouth I had, I would still have to go through being seen as a little girl. But that age was kind of a breaking point. It’s where the entire journey of me being a voice started. Even though I was still seen as a little girl, others acknowledged that this little girl had a voice. 

Tell me more about having a voice. 

When I was 13, I became an anchor for one of the famous children's programs in Liberia, The Golden Kids News, that was produced by Search for Common Ground. The point of the show was to highlight and speak about issues affecting and benefiting the lives of children. Search for Common Ground mentored me. As an anchor, I would come from school in my uniform and stand with a microphone in the street interviewing other kids and I’d bring them to the studio. Because of that, children and even people who were older than me would always get so excited to hear from me. By the time Golden Kids News was coming on, kids would run to the radio and say “oh, we want to listen to Gwendolyn, we want to listen to that young girl who can be on the radio.” So, I became famous just at the age of 13 because of having a voice.

One of the objects you brought to represent your adolescence was a microphone. Is this object linked to what you said about having a voice?

Absolutely. I picked the microphone because a large part of my story is about leading and standing strong. I am constantly a voice, and that's the best representation of my entire journey. Whether it is holding a physical microphone or having this conversation with you, whether I bump into someone on the street that needs to be encouraged and motivated, I speak to people. I do this when I'm on the train, when I'm in a taxi, when I'm driving… This is my life. I'm constantly providing that encouragement and motivation to people to keep moving on and live a peaceful world. 

We’ll come back to you experiencing fame at a young age but first, can you tell me a little bit about the place you call home? Where is home for you?

Home is where I can be able to have a peace of mind. Wherever I go, whatever I’m doing, home is just where I can be calm. In the midst of everything, whenever I’m calm, I feel at home. Wherever I feel at peace with people, then that is where I call home. And I always call myself a global citizen, meaning that I’m comfortable going all over the place and carrying messages of peace. But above all home is where I’m at peace with myself.

Could you tell me more about where you grew up?

I grew up in Montserrado County in Liberia. Monrovia is the capital city, but Montserrado is the County and that's where I actually grew up. I was born and raised in the 1990s, during the heat of the Liberian civil crisis. Liberia went through 14 years of civil devastation and unrest. I was born when bullets were flying all over the place. My mother explained to me how difficult it was for her to even get a blanket to wrap me in as a baby and for my dad to even get the few Liberian dollars needed to buy baby powder. So that’s why today, I really feel good whenever I see my relative or someone else give birth and everybody goes to the hospital to present gifts like baby clothes and other fancy things for the new baby. I never had that. I never experienced that. My entry into this world was never a glamorous journey and it would mark my challenges. But my journey also shows that it’s not about how you came into this earth or what you have, it’s about how you turn every situation around and find your own path. That child who never had a blanket and baby powder because of civil unrest was still able to find peace of mind. I am still that same child. These stories give hope to people. 

It’s certainly a very inspirational story. Could you tell me more about the people you grew up with and your relationship with them? 

I lived with my mom and late dad the whole time I was growing up. My parents were married for over 25 years and I lived in a family-oriented home. My parents raised a lot of people. Because of our Catholic Christian orientation, we had other people staying with us. We’ve always been able to take care of other children in the home, help them heal if they were sick, and send them to school to get an education. The home that I grew up in was not a home where we had it all. But trust me, we felt at peace with every little thing we had in every moment. Growing up, my mom would always stress the importance of living in a certain way and going by the teachings of our church. Having said that, this wasn’t the kind of home where when the parents say something, it’s the law and gospel. My parents would say stuff to us in the home, but my mom would always ask, “Gwen, what do you have to say?”. 

I’ve always been someone who would speak my mind but in a very respectful and positive way. And my parents paid attention to that. When you have children, you can watch for which one is outspoken. That voice that my mother recognized in me, she could see that it wouldn’t just go down. My mother always knew that she needed to stand strong and be present so that whatever she didn’t get to experience, her child would be able to experience. She never had that voice for herself, so she wanted to see it in her daughter. That’s why she was constantly serving as a guide and a mentor to me. My mother is somebody who often won’t say anything but even today, she has had to stand her ground. My mom is a very active woman. All the people who know my family would say I got my mom’s energy. 

That’s clear considering everything you were doing as a young girl! How did your parents respond to your rise to fame? 

My parents were instrumental. I talked earlier about my mom but my dad, who was a very quiet man, was also instrumental. My dad teamed up with my mother and encouraged me. That’s how I came to Talking Drum, another Search for Common Ground program in Liberia, where you would listen to these children on the radio. Whenever I came home from school, my dad would put on the radio, and we’d listen to this program together. He used to admire it and say, “Gwen, you can do that too.” I said, “But Daddy, how can I do that? I think it’s only for rich people’s children. I might have all this mouth to speak and read but I don’t think this is for somebody like me. Don’t waste your time.” But he still believed in me and wanted to try so he went to Search for Common Ground. He didn’t expect to meet anybody he knew there, but while talking to security, my dad saw one of his old friends. He told his friend that even if I could come while the young people were producing and just sit there to learn, he would appreciate it. So my father was the one who went knocking for an opportunity  to give me a voice.

It's great that your parents supported you so much. What was it like to be so young and be famous for this work that you were doing?

Honestly, I just wanted to kind of let it play out. In terms of being famous, the radio is a powerful tool, so once I found myself speaking out constantly on media channels, people would say, “oh yeah, I know her.” But that was just the media side of my journey. Being famous was a whole transition point for me. Since Search for Common Ground was also a peacebuilding organisation, I also used their media platform to do a lot of children’s advocacy as well as peacebuilding work. Then as a 17-year-old—I wouldn’t say little girl, let’s say young woman— as a 17-year-old young woman at the time, I started my non-profit, Messengers of Peace. I cannot talk about that journey and leave out that 13-year-old girl. There’s a connection from 13 up to 17, and from advocating for children with Search for Common Ground from the age of 13 to starting Messengers for Peace at 17. 

Can you tell me more about what prompted you to start Messengers of Peace? Did something happen when you were 17 that made you want to move on?

I was prompted by the state of crisis in my country and knowing that young people were constantly being used to foment violence and conflict. I was inspired by the UN peacekeeping mission that was happening on the ground. The UN mission had this fantastic program where they had young people come and represent different UN missions around the world to talk about peace. In 2008, there was a video teleconference for youth around the world and lots of young people including myself attended to represent the peacekeeping mission in Liberia. That video teleconference provided a lot of insight. We listened to the stories of people around the world during the different peacekeeping nations’ presentations. 

Soon I started wondering what would happen if the UN peacekeeping mission ended. Would that mean that young people’s involvement in this work would end just like that? Could nothing else be done? With those questions that I had, I contacted people in charge of some of the community outreach programs at the UN at the time. I said, “Listen, what happens if people can actually be used to prevent violence? I think the same young people can be used to bring about peace. It is time to change the conversation. I think we can do this.” This was before the beginning of Messengers of Peace, but it was a big inspiration for starting the non-profit. And people used to quote that thing I said: “If young people can be used to foment violence and conflict, the very same young people can be used to bring about peace.” 

That’s an incredible amount of insight to have at such a young age. Can you tell me more about where your insight comes from? 

There is a burning fire inside of me that is constantly looking for what to do next. I always say I don’t take credit for that inner drive or that passion. I’m thankful to God for it. I can’t leave out the part of my journey that is linked to my faith. I don’t know about other people, but for me, that passion and insight came from my faith. And there’s no better way I can share my story. I’m not ashamed and I’m proud to talk about how my journey is connected to my faith. The insight I’m talking about is that voice that is always quiet – what we call the spirit of discernment. If you have that spirit of discernment, it’s a gift. If it’s speaking to you, you need to be able to pay attention. 

And it appears in different ways for different people. Sometimes it’s in the details we take for granted but can be very important. For example, I’ve been able to mentor other young women and there are things they share with me. “Oh, you know Miss Myers, when I talk to people or when I do this work, I feel good.” I listen and tell them: pay attention to that. Those feel-good moments they’re talking about leads them in the right direction and somebody can tap into that hidden potential to help them. In many places, you’ll see people just following the crowd. I am the kind of person who says don’t just go with the wind. I tell young people: don’t just follow the wind. 

Just now you talked about your faith and now it makes sense why one of the objects you chose to represent your adolescence was a rosary. Besides insight and passion, could you say more about the role your faith has played in your advocacy?

My inner peace and strength to continue moving on all comes from my Catholic Christian background. That rosary and the crucifix explain my entire journey. If my journey had a slogan, it would be “by faith she leads”. So for everyone who knows Gwendolyn, everyone who follows me on social media, that’s what they see: by faith she leads. I strongly believe that no matter what, I can overcome any circumstance and any challenge that I’m faced with because of my faith. It is always the one thing that I know that is deeply behind everything I do. There’s always that peace of mind and stability even in the midst of the storm.  

My faith can take me beyond any boundary. No matter how many times I fall I will continue to rise because the one in which I put my belief also fell, and He was able to rise. My faith is why I have always been spiritually compelled to reach out and lend a helping hand to people. It is why I can be resilient and continue being at the forefront of peace and security work regardless of all the challenges that I face. I am a young woman coming from a poor conflict country and living in a male-dominated society doing what is seen to be men’s work. I always say to myself, I wouldn’t have come this far if there was not this powerful force that was behind it. 

In the next part, we continue speaking to Gwendolyn about how she discerned her purpose and persevered to pursue it. Click here to read the next part.