Wangari Maathai: A Prophet Not Recognized at Home
By Elisha Ratemo
NAIROBI--News of Nobel laureate Professor Wangari Maathai’s death, like that of any other, struck when least expected, sending a somber mood not only throughout the country but to the entire world, from close friends to those who came to know of her prominence now in death.
Her succumbing to ovarian cancer at a Nairobi hospital on the 25th of September is a great blow to the world of ecological conservation for the “force of nature” who stood against all odds to protect the environment from every form of plunder.
Upon her return to the country from treatment abroad, a joyful Wangari joked that she has never been hospitalised for failing health in the better part of her life, except when she was giving birth to her three children and for treatments from injuries she received in protests during the despotic Daniel Moi regime.
Born in remote plains of Nyeri in Central Kenya in April 1 1940, Wangari Muta Maathai, unlike most of her equals in those days, got enrolled in school at an early age of seven owing to her exceptional brilliance. Her outstanding performance saw her earn a scholarship to study at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in the US, thanks to the famous “Kennedy Airlift” by former US President John F. Kennedy then Senator, to offer western education to promising students.
After earning a bachelor's degree in biology in 1964 Maathai went on to receive a master's degree in biological sciences at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) in 1965. She returned to Kenya in 1969 to continue her studies at the newly established School of Veterinary Medicine at the University College of Nairobi (now University of Nairobi) while also serving as an assistant lecturer. In the same year she married Mwangi Mathai, a politician, with whom she had three children, but would later divorce her in the mid-1980s, claiming that she was too educated and “too difficult” to control.
Maathai went ahead to earn her Doctorate of Anatomy in 1971, becoming the first woman in the Eastern Africa region to receive a Ph.D. It’s the experience she had during her student years in the United States, being exposed to many demonstrations against the Vietnam War (1954-75) that made her realise that people had a right to speak out for what they believed in. This would offset her long journey in activism, basing it in matters of gender. She campaigned for equal benefits for the women working on the staff of the university during her period there, going so far as to attempt to turn the academic staff association of the university into a union, in order to negotiate for benefits. The courts denied this bid, but many of her demands for equal benefits were later met.
To upscale her activism activities Maathai Founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 which in its years has been able to plant over 42 million trees throughout Kenya and other neighbouring East African nations. The initiative initially started under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya, was to work with women to improve their livelihood and access to resources. Women were paid to plant trees as a form of combating deforestation and its adverse effects. It’s during her activism times with the movement that she would lock horns with the Moi government over dealings of the regime in encroaching forest covers and other public land for private allocations, the famous being her successful battle against plans by the government to build a sixty storey sky-scrapper at Uhuru Park that saw her branded the “mad woman” and the movement be labelled “subversive.” She would be beaten senseless by riot police, tear-gassed, thrown into custody for her protests against immense deforestation in Karura and Ngong forests by private developers, but her efforts later bore fruits, with the passing of legislations that banned these actions, giving her leeway to reclaim what had been destroyed.
In her Autobiography “Unbowed” published in 2004 Maathai writes: “When I see Uhuru Park and contemplate its meaning, I feel compelled to fight for it so that my grandchildren may share that dream and that joy of freedom as they one day walk there.”
Benjamin Kimani, a senior project officer at the Green Belt Movement recounts of relentless clashes that Maathai engaged the government to have environmental conservation institutions formed in the country and their aspects included in conventional documents like the new constitution.
She would also take into politics, following her involvement with the opposition during the first multi-party elections in the country in 1992. Later in the following elections she contested for both parliamentary and presidential seats on an independent party, but would severely lose both seats.
Her Nobel Peace Prize award in 2004 came in when least expected. It’s during this time when she was serving her tenure as Member of Parliament and as an assistant minister of environmental that the much acclaimed award came knocking. She won the 2004 peace prize for what the Nobel committee termed as “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace” an accolade that not only brought pride to her native country-Kenya, but also Africa, being the first ever woman in the continent to receive the award.
Even after the international credit little was done by the government to grant her the status that matched international admiration for an icon who had won over 50 international awards and several accredited environmental publications. She was never given promotion to even head her ministry, a move if followed would have given her political prominence more than she deserved, owing to the fact that her ties with President Mwai Kibaki were becoming wobbly. Even after losing her parliamentary seat in 2008 she would continue speaking of her ever greatest topic, taking to the streets in the same old manner to protest against excesses of Kenya’s entrenched political class and would face the same kind of tear-gas and running battles with the police treatment, something perceived to have had been long gone with the old regime.
In her 2007 interview with “Parabola”-an environmental magazine, Maathai told the magazine that her planting trees is a combination of both ecological and spiritual undertaking that she does out of conviction to conserve what was created and that which has been destroyed, something very physical that makes her feel that she is participating in the act of creation. She talked of the spiritual symbolism originally associated with the environment being trivialised, and its greed that has rendered the environment weak, threatening present and future lives.
“That concept of accumulation and privatization is responsible for our failure to recognize that we are required to take what we need from the environment and leave the rest for future generations,” she said.
Maathai’s last moments were seen to be very calm, with the disease seen to have taken big toll in her health. Her last appearance in the media is believed to be when she had returned from abroad for her cancer treatment, when the Green Belt Movement staff organised a surprise birthday celebration party at its Nairobi offices in April.
Her death has been greatly felt. Messages in her tribute continue to stream in from all corners of the earth and walks of life including world leaders, fellow Nobel laureates and international bodies, for her passionate works in environment, women's equality and human rights.
Former US Vice President Al Gore, a fellow 2004 Peace Prize recipient for his environmental work, said in a statement, “Wangari overcame incredible obstacles to devote her life to service — service to her children, to her constituents, to the women, and indeed all the people of Kenya — and to the world as a whole.”
Even as the government plans to give her a state burial, more is needed to be pledged to see her endeavour do not go to the grave with her.
Aloys Otieno, Assistant Director of institute of social ministry at Tangaza College talks of Maathai’s beauty that was seen in her constant relationship with very simple people. He terms Maathai as “a woman of all seasons and personalities,” who fitted with everybody.
“She was capable of combining her academic achievements with reality, constantly digging, planting trees and working with the very low of the society,” said Otieno. “An academic giant who had her head on the clouds and feet constantly on the ground.”
He added that he would want to see Maathai’s efforts to conserve the environment not deterred, and the said institution that is to be set up in her honour at the University of Nairobi should be dedicated to her endeavours.