
Mighty Be Our Powers
How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War; a Memoir
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $13.97
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kimberly Scott
About this listen
As a young woman growing up in Africa, 17-year-old Leymah Gbowee was crushed by a savage war when violence reached her native Monrovia, depriving her of the education she yearned for and claiming the lives of relatives and friends. As war continued to ravage Liberia, Gbowee’s bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized that women bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts. Passionate and charismatic, Gbowee was instrumental in galvanizing hundreds, if not thousands, of women in Liberia in 2002 to force a peace in the region after 14 years of war. She began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together, founding Liberian Mass Action for Peace, launching protests and even a sex strike.
p>Gbowee’s memoir, Mighty Be Their Powers, chronicles the unthinkable violence she’s faced throughout her life and the peace she has helped broker by empowering hundreds of her countrywomen and others around the world to take action and takes listeners along on her continuing journey as she harnesses the power of women to bring her country peace, saves herself, and changes history. ©2011 Leymah Gbowee (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
How Beautiful We Were
- A Novel
- By: Imbolo Mbue
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made - and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests.
-
-
As relevant as it is heart-wrenching
- By Anonymous User on 10-18-21
By: Imbolo Mbue
-
This Child Will Be Great
- Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
- By: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first elected woman president of an African country, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was also listed as one of the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes. This evocative memoir recounts Sirleaf ’s childhood upbringing and rise to political power in Liberia. More than a simple biography, Sirleaf ’s account details how she stood firm in the face of physical abuse early in life and carried that strength over into her career as a young economist in Samuel Doe’s regime.
-
-
What a powerfully strong woman!
- By Gary on 10-18-11
-
Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization. Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted.
-
-
Jared Diamond Downs You in Explanation
- By Rob on 07-20-18
By: Jared Diamond
-
Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
- By: Dorothy Allison
- Narrated by: Julie McKay
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her family's history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next.
-
-
Breathtaking
- By heyblondie on 12-18-24
By: Dorothy Allison
-
Beyond Trans
- Does Gender Matter?
- By: Heath Fogg Davis
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond Trans pushes the conversation on gender identity to its limits: questioning the need for gender categories in the first place. Whether on birth certificates or college admissions applications or on bathroom doors, why do we need to mark people and places with sex categories? Do they serve a real purpose or are these places and forms just mechanisms of exclusion?
-
-
Raises Questions I Never Even Considered
- By David Larson on 10-19-17
By: Heath Fogg Davis
-
Notes of a Native Daughter: Testifying in Theological Education
- Theological Education between the Times
- By: Keri Day
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Notes of a Native Daughter, Keri Day testifies to structural inequalities and broken promises of inclusion through the eyes of a black woman who experiences herself as both stranger and friend to prevailing models of theological education. Inviting the listener into her religious world she not only uncovers the colonial impulses of theological education in the United States but also proposes that the lived religious practices and commitments of progressive Afro-Pentecostal communities can help the theological academy decolonize and reenvision multiple futures.
By: Keri Day
-
How Beautiful We Were
- A Novel
- By: Imbolo Mbue
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made - and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests.
-
-
As relevant as it is heart-wrenching
- By Anonymous User on 10-18-21
By: Imbolo Mbue
-
This Child Will Be Great
- Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
- By: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first elected woman president of an African country, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was also listed as one of the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes. This evocative memoir recounts Sirleaf ’s childhood upbringing and rise to political power in Liberia. More than a simple biography, Sirleaf ’s account details how she stood firm in the face of physical abuse early in life and carried that strength over into her career as a young economist in Samuel Doe’s regime.
-
-
What a powerfully strong woman!
- By Gary on 10-18-11
-
Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization. Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted.
-
-
Jared Diamond Downs You in Explanation
- By Rob on 07-20-18
By: Jared Diamond
-
Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
- By: Dorothy Allison
- Narrated by: Julie McKay
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her family's history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next.
-
-
Breathtaking
- By heyblondie on 12-18-24
By: Dorothy Allison
-
Beyond Trans
- Does Gender Matter?
- By: Heath Fogg Davis
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond Trans pushes the conversation on gender identity to its limits: questioning the need for gender categories in the first place. Whether on birth certificates or college admissions applications or on bathroom doors, why do we need to mark people and places with sex categories? Do they serve a real purpose or are these places and forms just mechanisms of exclusion?
-
-
Raises Questions I Never Even Considered
- By David Larson on 10-19-17
By: Heath Fogg Davis
-
Notes of a Native Daughter: Testifying in Theological Education
- Theological Education between the Times
- By: Keri Day
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Notes of a Native Daughter, Keri Day testifies to structural inequalities and broken promises of inclusion through the eyes of a black woman who experiences herself as both stranger and friend to prevailing models of theological education. Inviting the listener into her religious world she not only uncovers the colonial impulses of theological education in the United States but also proposes that the lived religious practices and commitments of progressive Afro-Pentecostal communities can help the theological academy decolonize and reenvision multiple futures.
By: Keri Day
-
Madame President
- The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
- By: Helene Cooper
- Narrated by: Marlene Cooper Vasilic
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the harrowing but triumphant story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, leader of the Liberian women's movement, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first democratically elected female president in African history.
-
-
Enlightening
- By Jean on 04-28-17
By: Helene Cooper
-
King Leopold's Ghost
- A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor could account for these cargoes, Morel almost singlehandedly made this slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Factory Girls
- From Village to City in a Changing China
- By: Leslie T. Chang
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A book of global significance that provides new insight into China, Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America's shores remade our own country a century ago.
-
-
Living in Shenzhen - and What A Disappointment
- By Abstraction on 03-01-10
By: Leslie T. Chang
-
Barracoon
- The Story of the Last ""Black Cargo""
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile.
-
-
skip the introduction!
- By Earin on 10-16-18
-
Tattoos on the Heart
- The Power of Boundless Compassion
- By: Gregory Boyle
- Narrated by: Gregory Boyle
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years ago, Gregory Boyle founded Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world. In Tattoos on the Heart, his debut book, he distills his experience working with gang members into a breathtaking series of parables inspired by faith.
-
-
Wow...
- By john williamson on 07-08-21
By: Gregory Boyle
-
Becoming Kin
- An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future
- By: Patty Krawec, Nick Estes - foreword
- Narrated by: Patty Krawec
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home." Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps listeners see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer.
-
-
Relearning History
- By Bo Buxton on 02-05-23
By: Patty Krawec, and others
-
Unbroken
- A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
- By: Laura Hillenbrand
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: Seabiscuit was a runaway success, and Hillenbrand’s done it again with another true-life account about beating unbelievable odds. On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared....
-
-
Indescribable
- By Janice on 12-01-10
-
The Nightingale
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Polly Stone
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
-
-
HEARTBREAKINGLY POIGNANT AND INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL
- By PatrioticMimi on 02-17-15
By: Kristin Hannah
-
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
- A Novel
- By: Mark Sullivan
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 17 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He's a normal Italian teenager - obsessed with music, food, and girls - but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior. In an attempt to protect him, Pino's parents force him to enlist as a German soldier - a move they think will keep him out of combat.
-
-
The Best Thing? It Really Happened!
- By Chip Atkinson on 08-07-17
By: Mark Sullivan
-
Infidel
- By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Narrated by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This New York Times best-seller is the astonishing life story of award-winning humanitarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A deeply respected advocate for free speech and women's rights, Hirsi Ali also lives under armed protection because of her outspoken criticism of the Islamic faith in which she was raised.
-
-
Tough, Candid Assessment
- By Paul Mullen on 02-18-08
By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
-
Climate Justice
- Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future
- By: Mary Robinson, Caitríona Palmer - with
- Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson's mission to bring together the fight against climate change and the global struggle for human rights has taken her all over the world. It also brought her to a heartening revelation: that that an irrepressible driving force in the battle for climate justice could be found at the grassroots level, mainly among women, many of them mothers and grandmothers like herself.
-
-
An absolute must-read!
- By Ksquared31 on 01-15-23
By: Mary Robinson, and others
-
The Business Ethics Field Guide
- The Essential Companion to Leading Your Career and Your Organization to Greatness
- By: Aaron Miller, Bill O'Rourke, Brad Agle
- Narrated by: Bill O'Rourke
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Any cursory online search will reveal thousands of books and articles that try to help you become a better manager or a better leader. In this audiobook, we propose a third set of skills that are often neglected but are just as essential for effective leadership: the ability to clarify individual and organizational values and to find a way forward when these values conflict. This audiobook will help you develop those skills and apply them in your organization to become a better leader.
-
-
Excellent Guide
- By Tyler Curtis on 12-25-24
By: Aaron Miller, and others
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Mighty Be Our Powers
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- nickkal5
- 01-04-21
Incredible book!
I completed this book within 24 hours of starting it. I feel personally connected to Leymah and the stories she so vulnerably shared, I cried through the last few chapters, the pain and the triumph are inspiring. I am grateful also for the education on something I’m ashamed to admit I knew nothing about.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- P
- 12-01-12
Strange How Little We Know of the World
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This is a must read. No matter how educated we are as part of the free world, we do not fully understand our world. Human beings are capable of some horrible things but this book is a great example of the good in those who have the courage to change their destiny and that of a nation. This happened and how funny we do not have any idea it even happened.
What other book might you compare Mighty Be Our Powers to and why?
This is a book all its own. You can't compare one woman's tale to another because there are so many similarities but vast differences as exemplified by Leyma Gbowee's story.
Which character – as performed by Kimberly Scott – was your favorite?
Leyma Gbowee, though I've heard Leyman's actual voice. I liked that Ms Scott didn't fake a Liberian accent.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes
Any additional comments?
A great moment to self evaluate after reading this.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- BP
- 09-27-16
Inspiring
An amazing account of a country's struggle to find peace. I was moved by the strength of Leymah and the women of Liberia. Their voices are one of peace, one of healing and reconciliation. I only hope I can be as courageous as these women are!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gemma
- 07-03-20
Brilliant - couldn't stop listening
LOVED it. An incredible story of faith, family and sisterhood. Very inspirational. I laughed and I cried. Also loved learning so much about Liberia. Can't recommend enough
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 03-19-22
Resilience and determination
This woman overcame so much. This book was absolutely gripping I couldn’t stop listening till the end. Good luck to her
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Coko
- 06-24-22
What Perseverance & Bravery
What an incredible story of survival and triumph! Only women can come together for peace. Men just jockey for power and money regardless of the pain and suffering of hundreds of thousands of their fellow humans.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazonholic
- 07-24-22
Great story
I loved this book ,was wonderfully narrated I felt like I went through the war with her!! Such a great humanitarian piece as well , women need to be in more leadership positions because we are naturally good at making better decisions for the good of the group than men!!! Thank you so much for sharing your story and journey to find you perfect place to help your country Liberia!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrea Jordan
- 06-21-21
Heartbreaking, but powerful.
Another memoir that would be an excellent requirement for highschool reading. Very informative. Have tissues nearby.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- campbell
- 09-09-21
Not for casual listening
This book is for any individual who believes in having a greater purpose. It's about a woman who grew into herself by making a mighty impact in her world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- fannman
- 01-26-23
great read
not a book I would normally read and there were parts that were hard to read (just very sad). still worth reading so much information about world events and womens struggle that was before unknown to myself. 10/10 would recommend
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!