Liberian Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee has the weighty task of trying to reconcile her war-scarred nation, and she plans to do it in jeans and sneakers, with as little bureaucracy as possible.

For the activist who led women to defy feared warlords and bring an end to a brutal war through what she calls "peaceful feminine havoc", the power of her Nobel Prize will allow her to cement the peace she fought for.

She was tasked with the job of leading a peace initiative by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who shared this year's Nobel with her and was this week re-elected in a poll tainted by violence.

"I know it is a daunting task. I know it's going to be very challenging because the last few days have proven to us that Liberia is still deeply divided along political lines, along ethnic lines, and along social lines," Gbowee said.

She was speaking a day after Sirleaf announced she would lead reconciliation efforts following the election which revealed wounds still deep eight years after Liberia's vicious war.

The opposition boycotted the election, and on the eve of the polls police opened fire on a crowd of protesting opposition supporters, killing at least two.

The following day turnout was a measly 38 percent, while it was clear that Liberia was more polarised than ever.

"You can't fight 14 years of civil war and have six years of democracy and think all is well," Gbowee said.

"There are still divisions, people who went through the war have not had anyone to listen to their issues."

She intends to throw herself into the challenge in the nation where she first led women in prayer, and later in a sex strike to force men to stop fighting.

"There is no way that I can do this work and have one foot out of the country so definitely I will be moving back," said Gbowee, who has been spending her time hopping between her base in Ghana and the United States.

Liberia was shattered and its people left traumatised by back-to-back conflicts between 1989 and 2003 in which some 250,000 were killed.

Warlords and presidents pitted ethnic groups against each other, drugged-up child soldiers were pushed into battle, women were raped, villagers maimed and everyone lived in fear.

In 2003, warlords signed a peace treaty in Accra, forced to talk because Gbowee and an army of 200 women blocked them from leaving the meeting room.

In the aftermath, Sirleaf was elected in 2005 and the country has slowly rebuilt infrastructure and its economy, but no real reconciliation efforts have taken place.

A South African-styled Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a report in 2009 and Sirleaf admitted this week the implementation was taking time, but said it had not been forgotten.

Gbowee said her initiative would tie in with TRC recommendations on community dialogue and the creation of a palava hut - a traditional meeting place for townspeople to discuss issues.

"The process is going to include a lot of consultations in communities. It is not going to be a process driven from office. I am going to be using my jeans and sneakers and going from community to community.

"This reconciliation has to be hands on, this process has to be from slum communities to urban communities to rural comunities. We have to take it to the people."

The TRC report also recommends certain people be tried for war crimes, but Gbowee warned this may divide the country even further.

"The peace we have is fragile, and we have to tread very carefully. I tell people every day, that everyone in this country that is seen as a villain, in their local community they are heroes.

"Until we begin to recognise that we have a divided society, we cannot continue to push for issues of things that will divide us even more. These are processes that are needed but we have to tread very carefully."

A typical example, she said, is ex-warlord Prince Johnson who came third in the first round of the elections with 12 percent of votes.

The international community sees him as the man who oversaw the torture and murder of former military dictator Samuel Doe. To his ethnic community who was targeted by Doe he is a hero.

Gbowee will start on November 29 with a Peace and Reconciliation Jamboree, a day of arts and culture where all political leaders will make statements of reconciliation.

"November 29 is a day that is seen as the end of the rains and the beginning of the sun. We hope it can also be the end of the reign of divisiveness during the political period," she said.