Leymah Gbowee's Dream

How a dream led to a peace movement

Did you know the Liberian women’s peace movement started with a dream?

I become a little obsessed with moments like these when I learn about them (another one: I recently wrote about Descartes’ dreams). I was reminded of Leymah Gbowee’s dream when one of my students presented about the Liberian women’s peace movement for our class on nonviolence (I’ve written about the class in my three most recent posts on my other Substack space, Enchantable.

The message from her dream was: “Wake up and gather the women of the churches to pray for peace.”

When she received the dream, she was doubtful and didn’t feel like she could be the carrier. But eventually, she did carry it forward, and she gathered the women to pray, which eventually turned into a massive peace movement that successfully pushed for peace negotiations, a peace agreement, and later, the election of the first female president in Liberia and the African continent, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Leymah Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

Leymah Gbowee goes onto say in the video: “The dream bearer is the dream carrier.” If you have the dream, you have a responsibility to carry it forward. We have an obligation to our dreams to carry them forward. We owe it to them. If you have it, you have to be the one.

I feel incredibly inspired learning about this. The movement is a stunning example of the power of women’s movements, of nonviolent resistance, of people power. If you want to learn more about the movement, I recommend the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell. The above video also provides an excellent brief summary.

But to learn that it started with a dream?! That blew me away. What if she hadn’t taken the dream seriously? What if she hadn’t carried it? The world would not be the same.

It also highlights for me the power of our dreams, and the power of listening to them and remembering. The power of the messages they hold for us. Maybe most of our dreams won’t lead to a nonviolent revolution - but maybe some will. And we have to be paying attention to them to know.

What have your dreams been asking you to take action around?
Have you received a message from a dream that you were doubtful you could carry forward?
What messages might our dreams be giving us about how to meet this moment that we might not be listening to?

If you would like further inspiration around this, I wrote about reciprocity and taking action around our dreams in some earlier posts, including this one.

May we be open to the beauty of the messages of our dreams.
May we have the courage to carry them forward.

Sweet dreams,

Stephanie

Stephanie Knox Steiner, PhD is an enchantress, mother-scholar, dreamworker, community weaver, and peace educator who currently lives and teaches at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. She has been writing down her dreams since she was a teenager, and studied community dreamwork as part of her doctoral studies in the Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Ecopsychologies specialization at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She writes prolifically about enchantment, interbeing, and re-imagining education at her other Substack, Enchantable.