Ellen Johnson Sirleaf bigraphy, stories - President of Liberia

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf : biography

29 October 1938 -

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 29 October 1938) is the 24th and current President of Liberia. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d'état, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She was one of the founders and the political leader of National Patriotic Front of Liberia, the warlord Charles Taylor's party. She placed second in the 1997 presidential election won by Charles Taylor. She won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006, and she was a successful candidate for re-election in 2011. Sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in Africa.


Personal life

In 1956, Sirleaf married James Sirleaf, whom she later divorced. Sirleaf is the mother of four sons and has eight grandchildren, she also has a few nephews. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Her great nephew, Emmanuel Sumana Elsar Sr., was her political advisor during the 2005 presidential elections against George Weah. Her niece by marriage is American comedienne Retta.

Family background

Sirleaf's father was Gola and her mother had mixed Kru and German ancestry. While not Americo-Liberian in terms of ancestry, Sirleaf is considered culturally Americo-Liberian by some observers or assumed to be Americo-Liberian. However, Sirleaf does not identify as such. Sirleaf's father, Jahmale Carney Johnson, was born into an impoverished rural region. He was the son of a minor Gola chief named Jahmale and one of his wives, Jenneh, in Julijuah, Bomi County. Her father was sent to Monrovia, where he changed his surname to Johnson due to his father's loyalty to President Hilary R. W. Johnson, Liberia's first native-born president. He grew up in Monrovia, where he was raised by an Americo-Liberian family with the surname McCritty. Sirleaf's father later became the first Liberian from an indigenous ethnic group to sit in the country's national legislature. Sirleaf's mother was also born into poverty in Greenville. Her grandmother, Juah Sarwee, sent Sirleaf's mother to Monrovia when Sirleaf's German grandfather had to flee the country after Liberia declared war on Germany during World War I. A member of a prominent Americo-Liberian family, Cecilia Dunbar, adopted and raised Sirleaf's mother.

Political career

1985 general election



1997 presidential campaign


Living octopus

Living octopus
