“Women have to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps”
By Frank Sainworla, Jr -fsainworla@yahoo.com
“Devastating, a great blow” are just two of the many shocking adjectives used to describe the death of one of Liberia’s most prominent women rights advocates, Mrs. Ruth Caesar, who died this week while on a health trip in the United States.
She believed strongly in the promotion of women’s rights and independence of women, as she firmly held the view that women should be educated, partners to men and not parasite.
“Women are on record to have risen themselves to leadership as was demonstrated by the historic election of Africa’s first woman President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2005, Mrs. Caesar told me in one of my many interviews with her in 2017 ahead of the presidential and legislative elections.
“Women have to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps,” she told me in the pre-elections radio program, LIBERIA AT ELECTIONS.
Holder of a Masters degree in Economics from the Wayne State University in the United States in the 1980s, Mrs, Caesar went into active women rights advocacy works many years ago, she told University of Liberia on their Fendall campus in the run up to the 2017 elections during one of her many inspiring lectures.
She was married to Mr. William Caesar, the head of the Legislative Budget Office at the Capitol Building.
Prior to her demise, she headed the Mano River Women Peace Network (MAWPNET).
News of her death has come as a shock to many in Liberia and across Africa and the world, because the name Ruth Caesar has for decades been a household word when the names of some of the key women who had been driving force in brokering peace in Liberia during years of civil conflict that officially ended in 2003.
Both on local radio and the Social Media Network, an outpouring of grief has begun to be expressed over the passing of the articulate and well-respected Liberian female rights advocacy icon.
Writing on his Facebook page, Mr. Victor G. Koon says: “I am absolutely devastated by the news of the passing of one of the sweetest, industrious, intelligent and principle-minded servant leaders I have been privileged to have known. Deacon Ruth Gibson Caesar, a public servant of many years, a champion of children’s and women’s rights, and a well-respected advocate for peace in Liberia & the West African subregion.
I called her Aunty Ruth! She was also a dear friend of my mom’s, and she invested and imparted many nuggets of wisdom in my life during the turbulent season of my youthful years!
This soft-spoken giant knew how to the say the sharpest and most difficult “truths in love” to the point that one would feel compelled to listen and act on her counsel. I will always cherish you, Aunty Ruth! Rest in God’s eternal peace! My deepest condolences to the Caesar family.”
Ms.Massa Washington, a former member of Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) says: “This is a hughe loss for Liberian women and a monumental loss for the Country. Caesar is irreplaceable.”
Veteran Liberian media Specialist, Teah Doegmah writes on Facebook, “RIP (Rest in Peace) the strong Advocator.”
Another Liberian man, Patrick Flomo says: “Liberia has lost a great woman. Rest in Peace Mom. condolances to the family.”
For Madam Bendu Hunter, Mrs. Caesar is great in death as she was great in life: “Rest in peace, you were great in life and remain great in death. Rest in peace. Sorry for this big loss and my condolences to the family.”
For Mr. Pete Norman, the passing of this iconic figure in the annals of Liberia women rights advocacy: “So sad; RIP Madam Caesar and my sympathy to Julius Francis and family.”
Mrs. Ruth Caesar will not only be badly missed by the women advocacy group sector, but the media community, as she believed in the power of the media and the fact that the media can be a double-edged sword.
“The media will either make you or break you,” she told me in one of my many interviews with her before the cold hands of death snatched this great Liberian woman away.
Mrs. Caesar was always advocating for the media to put on “a gender lens”, that is mainstreaming gender issues in their reportage.
Whether in life or in death, the passing away of one of Liberia’s most towering women’s rights advocates will no doubt hit hard the fight for gender equity. Now, Mrs. Caesar now joins the likes of the late Madam Mary Brownell and other formidable Liberia women rights champions who have departed this world.
It is hoped that their deaths will invigorate the other older and younger women in the women rights advocacy campaign to copy their decent examples, letting the lyrics of the popular hit of Liberia’s iconic female musician Miatta Fahnbulle reverberate: “Women oh…it is our time. Women oh…it is our time.”