Fearlessly Courageous: Unbowed
Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, center, dances with traditionally dressed Kenyans as she returns to Nairobi from Norway with her prize in 2004. (Radu Sigheti, Reuters Photo)
"OK, this is the tree. We're going to observe the tree until it produces seeds. When they're ready, we'll harvest them. We'll germinate them. We'll nurture them. We'll plant them in our gardens. If they are fruit trees, within five years we will have fruits. If they're for fodder, our animals will have fodder." Wangari MaathaiWomen: empowered, they become the hope of Africa. One African woman empowered herself and by that process inspired others. She was, of course, a remarkably capable and self-assured woman who had achieved much through determination, intelligence and strength of character. A Kenyan woman who remembered her childhood, of being affected by the sight of forests cleared, the flora and fauna destroyed so that crops could be grown for commercial plantations and export.
Children's memories that make a true impression on their psyches remain with them, form their outlook on life, represent their emerging values. Exploitation of a natural resource that harboured life, destroying that life to replace it with something of little value to the people who lived there, but which would make financial gains for foreign interests and a corrupt government represented a fundamental wrong to the child, and eventually inspired the woman to action.
Had she done little else, she would have been remarkable for the fact that she won a scholarship to study biology in the United States, returning to Kenya and earning a doctorate in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi, and finally being appointed to a professorship there. She became a director of the Kenyan branch of the Red Cross. She spoke to the United Nations of women struggling to survive in a hostile environment of penurious want.
She understood that her country's ecology was dependent on a life-cycle of interdependence; forests protected wildlife and also ensured the continuity of water preservation; environment degradation led to further disentitlements and endemic poverty and disease. She decided she would lead a movement of women dedicated to replacing the forests that had been destroyed. She taught women to plant trees.
"It wasn't something I had given much thought to. But it turned out to be a wonderful idea because it is easy, it is doable, and you could go and tell ordinary women with no education, "OK, this is the tree, we're going to plant it." She founded the Green Belt Movement to protect green spaces and forests and soon planting groups were busy in their thousands, planting trees.
She opposed political corruption, leading effective protests to change government action. After the fall of the government of Daniel Arap Moi, whom she opposed, she was elected an MP, and served for five years, appointed deputy minister of the environment. In 1991 she won the Africa Prize for helping to eradicate hunger. In 2004 she won the Nobel Peace Prize, recognized as a source of inspiration to those struggling for sustainable development, democracy and peace.
Dead now at age 71, this remarkable woman will truly rest in peace, her efforts having succeeded magnificently in helping to make the world a better place for African women.
Labels: Africa, Environment, Human Rights
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, September 27, 2011
<< Home