After the death of the wife of a prominent Liberian stirred national outrage, protesters carried their grief from the University of Liberia to police headquarters, saying Liberia can no longer treat abuse as a private matter.
Summary:
- Scores of women dressed in black marched through Monrovia to demand justice for Toni Jackson, the wife of prominent economist Samuel Jackson, and to call for stronger action against gender-based violence.
- They said her death is not only one family’s tragedy, but part of a bigger problem facing women across Liberia. Protesters want a full investigation, better protection for survivors, and a system that acts before abuse turns deadly.
- Police Chief Gregory Coleman addresses the protest, calling for more work on the prevention of domestic abuse and promising faster action on domestic abuse.
By Joyclyn Wea, gender correspondent with New Narratives
SINKOR, Monrovia— Dressed in black, chanting in anger and grief, scores of women marched through Monrovia on Monday to demand justice for Toni Jackson, the wife of Samuel Jackson, a prominent economist and XX and to press the Liberian government to act more forcefully against gender-based violence.
The women moved from the main campuses of the University of Liberia to the Capitol and then to the headquarters of the Liberia National Police, where they delivered a petition and held a short program on violence against women and girls. Their signs read: “Protect Women,” “Believe Survivors,” “Women Support Women,” “Healing Not Silence,” and “Stop Gender-Based Violence Against Women.”
Their voices rose in a song that carried both pain and warning: “We are unprotected; fix the system.”
Members of Peace Hub Women of Liberia joined the march from the main campus of the University of Liberia to the Police Headquarters on Capitol Hill.
The protest was sparked by the death of Toni Jackson, a South African national and the wife of Liberian economist Samuel Jackson. Advocates said authorities observed a deep cut to her head and multiple bruises on her body, details that deepened public suspicion and quickly turned the case into a national concern.
Toni Jackson died at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Monrovia after she was rushed there from Catholic Hospital for brain surgery. According to Jackson, he discovered his wife unconscious in their bedroom when he returned home. He said he initially took her to Catholic Hospital, but doctors recommended she be transferred to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital.
Following the announcement of her death, Rufus S. Berry II—who claims to be a close friend of both Jackson and his late wife—reported the matter to the Liberia National Police and called for an investigation into the cause of Mrs. Jackson’s death. Berry alleged that Jackson had previously abused his wife. Liberia National Police declared him a person of interest in the investigation into her death.
Mnay of the women who marched Monday said Toni Jackson’s death was not only one family’s tragedy. It was a national alarm.
“When we say justice for Toni,” Naomi Tulay-Solanke, a protest leader, told the crowd, “It’s not just Toni.”
That feeling has been shaped by high-profile cases such as this one but also by the quiet deaths of women far from the public eye. During the 16 Days of Activism in December, New Narratives and Front Page Africa reported the death of Esther, a 39-year-old mother of six in Mission Third, a remote community in Todee District, Montserrado County, where there is no police station, no clinic, and no easy transport. Esther collapsed in her yard after she was allegedly kicked by her husband. She died, like many rural women, with little protection and few ways to seek help.
“We are tired of dying. We are tired of being beaten. We are tired of the abuses,” Naomi Tulay-Solanke, executive director of the Community Health Initiative, said during Monday’s program at police headquarters. “These cases are not just numbers. These are human beings.”
Naomi Tulay-Solanke is addressing the crowd on why they have gathered and the state of domestic violence in Liberia.
A young survivor, identified as Odera Dollay, told the crowd she had lived through abuse for about a year. She said relatives had urged her to stay in the relationship and endure it.
“You’re a woman. Stay there. Bear it. Every relationship has a problem,” Dollay recalled being told by her mother and other family members. Then she described the violence more plainly: “It’s not just a problem. It’s a constant beating.” She said her partner sometimes threatened her with knives and locked her inside the house until she finally escaped with help.
Odera Dollay, a survivor of domestic violence, shared her story as she displayed body scars to the crowd at the march.
Other women said too many survivors are sent home, told to settle abuse “in a family way,” or left without strong police help until it is too late. Tulay-Solanke said that is one reason the protesters came directly to the police: to demand not only justice in Toni Jackson’s case, but also a change in how domestic violence complaints are handled across Liberia.
Women said this was not only about one death, but also about a pattern. They were asking the police and the courts to show that abuse inside the home is not a private matter, not a small matter, and not something to be excused until it ends in injury or death.
The crisis is being felt across the world. A 2023 report by U.N. Women and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime found that 51,100 women and girls around the world were killed in 2023 by an intimate partner or family member. That is about 140 deaths a day, or one every 10 minutes.
Liberia’s Domestic Violence Law, signed in 2019, was meant to strengthen the country’s response by recognizing domestic violence as a serious crime and requiring professionals such as health workers, school authorities, and social workers to report suspected abuse. But in practice, weak referral systems, too few trained officers, and the lack of shelters, especially in rural areas, have made enforcement difficult.
Women sit on the ground at the police headquarters awaiting to present their petition to the police inspector general.
In the petition delivered to police, advocates said violence against women in Liberia remains widespread and that estimates commonly suggest that roughly one in three to nearly one in two Liberian women experience violence in their lifetimes. The petition said survivors often face weak forensic support, underfunded services, limited shelter, and gaps in legal protection.
The petition also laid out a clear list of demands: a swift forensic-led investigation into Toni Jackson’s death, prosecution where evidence supports it, fuller enforcement of Liberia’s Domestic Violence Act, the establishment of a Family Court, stronger women and children protection services, better survivor support, and broader public education.
Receiving the petition, Gregory Coleman, the inspector general of police, sought to widen the moment beyond a single investigation. Too often, he said, violence against women is discussed in policy papers but not confronted in practice, as survivors continue to face weak services, delayed attention, and a system that responds too slowly.
“This should not be something that we always react to,” Coleman said. “There has to be a lot of work done to prevent these things from happening.”
Gregory Coleman, inspector general of the Liberian National Police, responded to the women’s petition after receiving it.
He said gender-based violence had been raised to a state security priority and promised steps to strengthen the police response. Within two weeks, he said, women and children protection officers across the country would be recalled for refresher training. He also promised more staffing, new annexes for protection services, and a digital platform to help track cases and improve follow-up.
Protesters writing on placards during Monday’s march.
By the end of the gathering, the women said their message was clear: Liberia’s survivors are speaking. And this time, they say, the country must not look away.
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the “Investigating Liberia” project. Funding was provided by a private donor and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The funders had no say in the content.
