Two of Johnson-Sirleaf's grandparents were
indigenous Liberians. Her father, the son of the
Gola Chief Jahmale and Jenneh, one of his many wives, was born in Julejuah,
Bomi County. As a result of her grandfather's friendship and loyalty to President
Hilary Richard Wright Johnson and on the advice of the President, her father was brought to , his name changed to Johnson and he was given to the settler family, McCritty.
Johnson-Sirleaf graduated from the
College of West Africa (Monrovia), a United Methodist high school. She received a Bsc in Accounting at
Madison Business College in
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. in
1964, an economics diploma from the
University of Colorado in 1970, and a
Master of Public Administration from
Harvard University in 1971. She is a member of
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated
http://aka1908.com/news/sirleaf/, a social action organization and the first collegiate sorority founded by and for Black women (1908).
Returning to Liberia after Harvard, Johnson-Sirleaf became Assistant Minister of Finance in President
William Tolbert's administration. In
1980, Tolbert was overthrown and killed by army sergeant Samuel Doe, ending decades of relative stability. Doe represented the
Krahn ethnic group and was the first Liberian president not to be descended from the elite ex-American slave community. For the next ten years, Doe allowed the Krahn people to dominate public life.
After the overthrow of Tolbert, Johnson-Sirleaf went into exile in
Nairobi, Kenya, where she worked for
Citibank. She returned to run for
Senate in
1985, but when she spoke out against Doe's
military regime, she was sentenced to ten years in prison. Released after a short period, she moved to
Washington, D.C.. She returned to Liberia again in
1997 in the capacity of an
economist, working for the
World Bank, and
Citibank in Africa.
Initially supporting
Charles Taylor's bloody rebellion against President Samuel Doe in
1990, she later went on to oppose him, and ran against him in the
1997 presidential elections. She managed only 10% of the votes, as opposed to Taylor's 75%. Taylor charged her with
treason. She campaigned for the removal of President Taylor from office, playing an active and supportive role in the transitional government, as the country prepared itself for the
2005 elections. With Taylor's departure, she returned to take over the leadership of the
Unity Party.
