to an international bureaucrats and iconic political dissidents who was attempting to do something no woman had done before : win by popular vote the right to lead an african country. the men all fell in line behind george dion and complained the women supporting ellen were sexist .

it was a remarkable display. given the choice between a football player with no credible college education but to fantastic goals against byron and verona and a harvard educated development expert, the top male president candidate who fell short in the runoff with one exception and doors the football player. we are meanwhile honing his message for why he and not the old lady should run liberia settled on an educated people have failed theme . you do not know book i will vote for you became the runoff slogan and that theme was endorsed by the failed male presidential candidates who endorsed him . liberia had one of the lowest citizen rates in the world so that the literate would identify with the president who thought that was cool, right? wrong. but the men who endorsed that strategy failed to realize is how much the very idea was angering the market women.

those women may not have been educated themselves, but they worked day and night in the fields and markets to send their children to schools. now the men were telling them education wasn't important? just as the men fell in behind leah, the women fell in behind ellen. it didn't happen all at once. female political candidates had appeared all over the ballot running for senate in the house on the same ticket as top men and other male candidates. once the time came for campaigning for the runoff, those allegiances peeled away as even the women who were so members of parties that oppose ellen's unity party abandoned their men and took up the new mantra, vote for a woman. door-to-door the market women passed out t-shirts and handed out flyers. they slept on the side of the road and walked from village to village, exporting women to vote for ellen.

we have supporters responded by predicting that if she lost, the country would go back to war. no we are, no peace. that's the roth started resembling past elections in which does supporters said the same thing, vote for doe or the country goes back to war. that was how men managed to get their way, they threatened the people. except in november 2005, they appeared to have met their match. because the women had their own tricks, tricks that made their tactics look like boys play. you want beer? give me a florida id card, i will buy you beer.

10 liberty dollars for one. who's looking for money? bring your voter id card. a group of women had stationed themselves at a bar near the junction, a major intersection along the road to roberts field. the women the young men and a time-honored fashion, except this time it wasn't sex on the table. this time the women were the ones who took cash and the men were the ones with a commodity for sale. some of those boys were finished stupid, onemarket woman recalled . he was happy to go intodetail about what she called the women's crafty techniques . one silver to living in the sun sign as she laughed, many of the young men thought they were done with boating after the first round and didn't understand it would need their id cards again if their man was to pursue the presidency. others knew and didn't care, in the easing of a muggy hot

day, the floor of a crispy cold beer far outshone whatever benefits they thought there voter id card could bring them. as for the ones too smart to sell their cards, their mother simply stole them. they said they would be put in a civil suit for george weah, looking sheepish and quiet at the same time. one market woman who agreed to be referred to as the oman that she snuck into her son's room while he was sleeping, slipped his voter id card out of his wallet and buried it in the yard. years later, there was no shame among the women who stole their sons id card. yes, i took it. so what? for what he knew, i carried him for nine months. i fed him when he was hungry.

then they take our country and get away. [applause] after burying their sons voter id card, the women supporting ellen dug up an old video of a naked george weah. somehow a 14-year-old commercial for cologne that he made in italy happened to surface. in the commercial, [inaudible conversation] weah at the time a world-famous striker walks into a restaurant to greet his wife dinner date after dowsing himself in cologne. fully clothed at the beginning but when the woman season from across the room, she's so overcome that she imagines him naked. the commercial been cut with naked weah strolling across the restaurant while other white women in the restaurant

drool and fan themselves. finally we arrived at the table, leans toward his date and when he sits down, he's closed again and he says, wobbly, do the penne? to get an idea of how this commercial played in liberia, you have to understand this countries bible spouting puritanism and deep racial stars. many of the free american slaves who founded liberia were the mixed race children of white slave owners who proceeded to set up the same kind of society from which they had fled, except this time the lighter skinned colonists were the upper class lording it over the native liberians so matters of race still struck into the heart of the average liberian. that's why many liberians thought it was bad enough weah was strutting around naked on italian tv but in front of white women?

that was too much. weah walked but naked screamed the headlines in the new democrat newspaper which provided this hilarious synopsis of the commercial. the video seemed to portray white women in looks of sexual on ecstasy glancing at the black man with his athletic build and muscular features exposing his genitals walking before them. weah's political supporters tried talking their way out. weah committed no crime by posing naked, one party official helpfully told reporters. only constitutional deviance should not be elected. but the body politic quickly brushed it off there holier than thou quotes, adopting the convoluted structure at which liberian men were particularly adept, principal of the king pentecostal high school told reporters if the congress for democratic change can justify george

weah's but naked video from an international information superhighway on some constitutional rights, then liberians must be prepared for ac/dc rule to give audiences the reality and normal miss of murder and cannibalism. >>. >> the truth is, this quote of religious indignation, not what liberians of both sexes were mad, that weah was flashing his chiseled body, in front of white women. liberian women thought an objection of black women, liberian males were jealous. either way, this was a lose issue as supporters new it would be. >> on tuesday, november 8, the people of liberia woke up and went to the polls for the second time in four weeks. there was a real and culpable

tension in the air, a big was happening. helpful poll workers at the station were allowing pregnant women and nursing mothers to cut to the front of bernice freeman, luis sa and a handful of other women were passing around babies and toddlers. >> you want florida baby? >> bernice was spinning at one woman, taking a furtive look over her shoulder ? x to another woman she advised, pregnant, if they think you are pregnant you can vote in front. it was unclear whether the poll workers noticed how many different women were carrying the same baby. >> the needle that night a bunch of women were listening to the election news when informant came in with an update. the official results were in yet, some polls were open. the final tally would be known for weeks. but already there was a whisper in the air ellen five posting at different places, people were supposed to

disclose voting trends at the polling booth for those who have cast their votes, yet but all across the country, ellen's army of women were finding ways to start regulation. the workaround came by reverting to an old cool chad used to teach children the house a bit. at those schools, geode gold, every liberiankid knows the chance . on runoff night, the check took on a new meeting. any outside of polling booths, she asked an informant how the vote was doing. >> theeyes are voting officials in attendance , they grinned slightly. at those schools, the same. many added, you keep up. unity party,. >> people started dancing and singing. >> you keep up. >> then and election officials swear, you can't stop me from sending my apple

sold. she went to bed at night singing. the old lady was in the lead. on wednesday morning ellen woke up and walked into her living room finding campaign and aids excited about the returns. it wasn't just an elite, she was in the lead by a lot. the key percent to 40 percent. it was a lead she never relinquished during the days of counting that followed. >> old lady would be madame president. as the 25 years of liberia's descent into hell emerged a new leader area that person was a 67-year-old grandma. >> on november 23 after the official results were announced, ellen was heading back to her house and campaign headquarters juggling congratulatory phone calls from all over the world. in the backseat of her suv

were american friends steve cassian turned at her draining. the white house just called he said, president bush wants to talkto you. he recited a secure encrypted phone number , call that number. >> a minute later, ellen was on the phone with the american president accepting his congratulations. then the phone went dead. liberia in 2005 had been landlocked thanks to the war so everyone used cell phones. they took that service but purchasing scrap cards for boys on the side of the road. >> president-elect just run out of credit on her card. >> starting to cassian, this isn't presidential at all, is it. >> and word spread about ellen's victory, the market emptied as the woman who wanted to rally and as a door came jubilant into the streets. go to school, some of them yelled. go play football. i still think about that woman i saw in kabul all

those years ago. x one walking with her husband. carried carrying all those laws on her back. in so many ways this book is for her. >> thank you and i'm happy to answer any questions. >>. >> thank you for your wonderful presentation. i wasn't expecting this, that's great. >> you need to google the george weah naked video. you've got to do it. i spent hundreds of times research hours watching it. >>. >> research, i like research a lot. >> my question is a big part of johnson's early story.

[inaudible] >> i had the opportunity to meet here a couple years ago and she remembers me out here and he talked a lot about that she wanted a lot about education for her country. surprisingly though, 10 years later progress hasn't been as fast as expected. she's asking the citizens to bring in a public for education company. [inaudible] i'm wondering because i understand she has a lot of priorities, give me insight about why maybe in the broader spectrum what she was up against in terms of bringing education to all the kids. >> education is a huge deal and for the entirety of her presidency, test scores and liberia date in the toilet. a big part of that is because of the civil war.

for all two decades, everything stops. nobody went to school. you don't even have teachers and liberia today, it's not just a matter of building schools. you have to have people who know how to read and write to teach students so it's such a big challenge, it's a huge uphill battle. the decision to bring in bridge was controversial it's not as if the education system and liberia could get any worse than it has been. it's been pretty bad. so i'm curious to see how briggs does. i'm a skeptic myself but at this point people are throwing a lot of different ideas out there in an effort to get one thing that is a little bit hopeful is whenever i go back to liberia, i do go into schools and talk to students and one thing i've noticed is that the young girls in the school system through liberia now seem to think they can all be president which is kind of a

cool thing to see. >> hello. first of all i enjoyed your commentary on meet the press so thank you so much for that. my question has to do with an ancestor, my great-grandfather in monrovia. in about 1920, 24 and what i'd like to know is, someone did an interview with him but we don't have the masthead to tell us where the source was. hence the civil war, are there any records or archival information available, i don't know what the structure sounds like it's just kind of tore up so do you know if there's any newspapers or any

other source? >> yes and no. there is a history museum in monrovia but it was very, not completely destroyed but it was crippled during the civil war and a lot of artifacts were destroyed so there's something that's still there. there is a national archive in liberia , so you can look there. liberia has a very healthy newspaper competition and there's a healthy press there. >> so there are a lot of newspapers but i don't know if they're going to have archives that go back to 1920 so it's sort of, you might have to go and kind of put it, i think it would help if you knew who did the interview and where, dated appear in any newspaper? >> it appeared in a newspaper because it's a way it was

written. >> but they were doing that kind of stuff, i'll be right back. >> maybe i'll visit the country, thank you. >> thank you for your book. and i'm continuing the project with her and your book was, i didn't think anything could get better than her autobiography but the way that you were able to extract that with your own interviews and put your objective lenson it , it really is a tour de force for people who want to read on politics. >> but my question to you is now that president there presidency is coming to an end, and we've had the liberian education trust with the success that she has had an education in that arena, you've got rebuilding of the hospitals, some of the roads are back. you certainly have, she's

indicted and bringing to model some of the major leaders in the government for corruption and of course bola, what do you think promotes long-lasting legacy? >> i think it's got to be the women. there's no way no matter, she's had sort of a, this , she has a lot of flaws and her 12 years has disappointed a lot of people who expected more while at the same time she's still been the best that we've had ever. but i think that when you look at the legacy that she leaves behind, i can't say enough how big a deal that gender barrier that she busted through is. the idea that all over liberia you have women who

now carry have four years carry this country on their back economically realizing that they can turn that into political power and you don't have a viable female candidate running to replace her but that doesn't matter because i think that in the future, the women now have understanding these market women now understand just how powerful they can be when they want to. >>. >> i was an education volunteer and in liberia, i think the book came out in preparation for my trip i tried to find and lead as much as possible about liberia and the books were out-of-print at that time. i ended up going to liberia, loving liberia and lived there for three years and now i'm actually getting a phd and my topic is around

liberia. and my question to you is, i want to know if you could talk about where you see or what your intent is in terms of the biography of liberia and a lot of the material that is out there is inaccurate or just, there are lots of gaps in that as well and i wonder if you could history and literature or what you see there. >> you're right, there's not a lot out there. i realized that when i was working on my first book but there's more than people think. and there's a growing cadre of liberian writers who are also, some of them are here now putting their own stories to paper so i think you're going to see more coming out,

but you are absolutely right, there is a lot of things were destroyed during the war. liberians, it's a culture that has much more of a word tradition than a written one and the writing is picking up now but we don't have a lot of, there are history books on liberia but you're right that not all of them are accurate. >> i too wanted to thank you for "madame president". i'm a peaceful volunteer and i taught history and english at center college until high school and in the 60s there was only one woman in my classes and they don't have many men either because the high school was fairly new and so the students were like in their 30s who were graduating from high school.

we only had one woman and i was jealous of her but it's my understanding there is another election that's around the corner in the liberia and there are a bunch of candidates. i believe weah is running again. >> he could win. >> what is your projection on that election? >> it's going to be a great collection to cover. as a reporter i'm drooling as you have these all these characters running. charles taylor's wife is running. his former allies are running. we've got george weah's baby mama was running but she just pulled out. it's such a great, i mean, liberia, as a reporter it's like shooting fish in a barrel. i think it's going to be interesting. you have this pepsi-cola air, former board of directors, executive pepsi alice cummings who, and there's

this view that's kind of the establishment candidate but liberians could be very perverse and i don't this point know who they are going to end up going with. i don't think anybody could call it right now. it's completely a free for all. i can't wait to cover it. >> are the women behind any candidates? >> back in 2005 at this point in their election, they had coalesced behind having either. >>. >> thank you for writing this book. >> is there an impression that if coming to light? >> frankly, were going to have the election in liberia? it's most likely that this naked soccer player is going

to be president. what are your thoughts about what is this going to mean for the future of liberia? the economy is a mess, healthcare is a mess, and the senate citizens are hungry for much more. >>. >> they be disappointed and a lot of the things that are included in liberia as far as the security of otherparts of the economy , but going forward, what do you think this is going to mean as far as the, these people, is it their baby mama or someone else's becoming president. also, what do you think ellen is going to do going forward for liberia's political fabric? >> thank you. first of all i wouldn't assume. i don't think it's a foregone

conclusion that george weah is going to win. i think it's a free for all. anybody at this point could win. and i think that maybe people grow into groups. i think that one of the reasons i find, one of the places where i find optimism is that in the 12 years that ellen johnson sirleaf has been president she's opened up freedom of speech and freedom in the press in liberia to a level we've never had before so the liberian people are less possible of the sort of things they accepted decades ago. that's one of the reasons that why evil law, liberia was hit harder than sierra leone liberia came out of it faster than either of those two countries and that's in large part because liberian people were not going to tolerate the kind of ineptitude that would cause this to linger so i think that the sort of free for all

atmosphere that we have in liberia and the freedom of speech and freedom to criticize is something that liberians are not going to be willing to let go of and i think that's something that causes me to feel more optimistic about our future. i'm being shown a rapid sign. so i think this is all the time that we have today. i appreciate all of you coming in on this rainy saturday. thank you very much. [applause] >>. >> we want to hear from you. to us, twitter.com/tv or post a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/tv. >>. >> here's a look at authors recently featured on "after words", our weekly author interview program. craig surely discussed the

life and political career of newt gingrich, msnbc contributor charles sykes provided his thoughts on the conservative movement and investigative journalist art levine reported on the mental health industry. in the coming weeks, former face the nation anchor bob schaffer will examine the role of the media today. retired astronaut scott kelly will discuss his record-setting year aboard the international space station. federal judge john newman wrote reflect on his career first as a prosecutor and now with the federal appellate judge and this weekend, former fox news anchor gretchen carlson talks about the challenges of women who've been sexually harassed in the workplace. >> over 90 percent of cases and up in settlement. and what does that mean? that means the woman pretty much never works in her chosen career ever again and you can never talk about it. >> how else do we solve sexual harassment? >> we put in arbitration clauses which make it a secret proceeding so again,

nobody ever finds out if you file a complaint. you can never talk about it ever. nobody ever knows what happened to you and in most cases you are terminated from the country and the company and the one is left to work in the same position in which she was harassing you. so this is the way our society has decided to resolve sexualharassment cases , proof that women know that we can steal everyone else out there that we found so far in 2017 and the reason that we think that we have come so far is because we are not hearing about these cases. the reason we're not hearing about the cases is because the women are silent. against your settlements, with through forced arbitration. >> "after words" errors every saturday and sunday at 9 pm eastern and pacific. >>. [inaudible conversation]