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Planting
the Seeds of Peace
by Positive News
Dr. Wangari Maathai, the leading Kenyan environmentalist, civil rights activist and
deputy environment minister in the Kenyan government has been awarded the 2004 Nobel
Peace Prize. Citing her "stand at the front of the fight to promote ecologically
viable social, economic and cultural development in Kenya and Africa," the Nobel
committee established a number of precedents. Dr. Maathai is the first African woman
to receive the prize and it is the first time that the environment has been considered
as part of the struggle for peace.
Dr. Maathai is the winner, among many other awards, of the Goldman Prize, the Golden
Ark award, the Africa Prize for her work in preventing hunger and the Right Livelihood
award. This year, she received the 2004 J. Sterling Morton Award from the Arbor Day
Foundation for her role in establishing the Green Belt Movement [greenbeltmovement.org],
the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation's award for her outstanding
commitment to human rights and conservation, the 2004 Petra Kelly Prize for Environment
from Germany's Heinrich Böll Foundation, and the Norway-based Sophie Prize.
She has been featured in Time magazine and has been profiled in a number of books,
most notably Hope's Edge by environmentalists Anna Lappé and Frances Moore
Lappé, and Speak Truth to Power, edited by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo.
As Dr. Maathai relates in her book The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach
and the Experience (Lantern Books, 2003), environmental conservation, women's rights,
good governance and the struggle for freedom are all components of a peaceful world.
For decades, Dr. Maathai labored to further women's rights and protect the environment
-- often at great personal cost and under the threat of physical violence. One of
the leading lights of the National Council of Women in Kenya in the mid-1970s, Dr.
Maathai and members of the Green party in Kenya were instrumental in stopping the
Moi government from building a 62-story tower block in Uhuru Park, the main public
green space in Nairobi. Dr. Maathai's campaign was ultimately successful, but she
saw seven associates killed and was herself a victim of intimidation and threats.
When Dr. Maathai used the park as a rallying point for a campaign to release political
prisoners, she was beaten by government thugs.
"I stand before you and the world humbled by this recognition and uplifted by
the honor of being the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate," said Wangari Maathai after
receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo Norway.
Here are further extracts from her speech:
"As the first African woman to receive this prize, I accept it on behalf of
the people of Kenya and Africa, and indeed the world. I am especially mindful of
women and the girl child. I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and
take more space for leadership. I know the honor also gives a deep sense of pride
to our men, both old and young. As a mother, I appreciate the inspiration this brings
to the youth and urge them to use it to pursue their dreams.
"In 1977, when we started the Green Belt Movement, I was partly responding to
needs identified by rural women, namely lack of firewood, clean drinking water, balanced
diets, shelter and income.
"Throughout Africa, women are the primary caretakers, holding significant responsibility
for tilling the land and feeding their families. As a result, they are often the
first to become aware of environmental damage as resources become scarce and incapable
of sustaining their families.
"The women we worked with recounted that unlike in the past, they were unable
to meet their basic needs. This was due to the degradation of their immediate environment,
as well as the introduction of commercial farming, which replaced the growing of
household food crops. But international trade controlled the price of the exports
from these small-scale farmers and a reasonable and just income could not be guaranteed.
I came to understand that when the environment is destroyed, plundered or mismanaged,
we undermine our quality of life and that of future generations.
"Tree planting became a natural choice to address some of the initial basic
needs identified by women. Together, we have planted over 30 million trees that provide
fuel, food, shelter and income to support their children's education and household
needs. The activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds. Through
their involvement, women gain some degree of power over their lives, especially their
social and economic position and relevance in the family. This work continues.
"Initially, the work was difficult because historically our people have been
persuaded to believe that because they are poor, they lack not only capital, but
also knowledge and skills to address their challenges. Instead they are conditioned
to believe that solutions to their problems must come from 'outside.' Further, women
did not realize that meeting their needs depended on their environment being healthy
and well managed. They were also unaware that a degraded environment leads to a scramble
for scarce resources and may culminate in poverty and even con
flict. They were also unaware of the injustices of international economic arrangements.
"In the process, the participants discover that they must be part of the solutions.
They realize their hidden potential and are empowered to overcome inertia and take
action. They come to recognize that they are the primary custodians and beneficiaries
of the environment that sustains them.
"Entire communities also come to understand that while it is necessary to hold
their governments accountable, it is equally important that in their own relationships
with each other, they exemplify the leadership values they wish to see in their own
leaders, namely justice, integrity and trust.
"Through the Green Belt Movement, thousands of ordinary citizens were mobilized
and empowered to take action and effect change. They learned to overcome fear and
a sense of helplessness and moved to defend democratic rights.
"In 2002, the courage, resilience, patience and commitment of members of the
Green Belt Movement, other civil society organizations, and the Kenyan public culminated
in the peaceful transition to a democratic government and laid the foundation for
a more stable society.
"It is 30 years since we started this work. Activities that devastate the environment
and societies continue unabated. Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for
a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system.
We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our
own -- indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder.
This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger
family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process.
"In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift
to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have
to shed our fear and give hope to each other.
"That time is now."
Positive News is a 75,000-circulation international publication reporting on the
people, events and influences that are helping to create a more positive future for
the world and its people. Read it online at www.positivenews.org.uk
Copyright © 2005 Positive News Publishing Ltd. |
| April 2005 |
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