The FT published a special report today on Investing in Liberia, although there was more about the nation’s hardship on overcoming both plummeted commodity prices and the hardship of the ebola virus than about fresh and promising economic activity in the West African nation. Information and finance ministers Nagbe and Konneh weighed in respectively with strong defense of Liberia’s resilience and sustained growth. FT’s new Africa editor, David Pilling, in his first African report since taking over the helm in January, focuses on president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s determined battle to maintain national stability and sustained vibrance to the democratic institutions she has worked hard to put in place.
On page two, there is a single column insertion for Choosing the Hero, Riva Levinson’s forthcoming book about her inspired journey to help Ellen Johnson Sirleaf rise against all odds and become Africa’s first woman president. The book captures much of the untold story in both Washington and Monrovia and reveals unchartered waters in the political and personal journeys of two remarkable women. Kiwai Media will publish the title on June 1, a must read for those interested in contemporary Africa, behind the scenes US politics in the region, and powerful prose on how to decide who your heroes are and how you can channel your life and work to their cause. DA