Need to embrace Prof. Maathai’s perspective

“The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the simple act of planting a tree, we give hope to ourselves and to future generations.”

These are words by the late Prof. Wangari Maathai in the course of execution of her perspective of conserving the environment.

Prof. Maathai was a successful African Woman whose great achievements prove wrong the widely conceived notion by most African societies that to educate a girl is to enrich another family to which a girl would be married afterwards.

In the past most African families preferred to educate sons to their daughters as they saw that educating a girl was useless and wastage of resources.

On the wake of the significant roles played by women in the society, African families are now educating both males and females.

But Prof. Maathai was among few African women who managed to secure education during a very difficult period amid deep rooted syndrome that discouraged educating women.

Education background

Prof. Maathai went to school at the inspiration of her elder brother identified by one name of Nderuti. She received her education under Catholic Missionary nuns and graduated from Loreto Girls’ High School in 1959 before she joined Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas in US where she completed a bachelor degree in Biological Sciences.

In 1966, she earned a masters degree at the University of Pittsburgh and returned to Kenya and worked with the University of Nairobi-School of Veterinary Medicine where she developed her career and in 1971, she received a Ph.D and thus making the first African woman to chair a department at the University and to be appointed a Professor as well.

After many years of schooling, there reached a period for Prof. Maathai to reap what she had sawn. In the next years Prof. Maathai became an active participant in a number of environmental and humanitarian organizations in Nairobi including the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK).

Achievements

Alongside other activities, Prof. Maathai initiated a women’s Civil Society Organisation named Green Belt Movement (GBM) geared towards advocating for human rights and supporting good governance through environmental conservation.

The GBM was established in 1977 by Prof. Maathai and it initially started as tree planting programme meant to address the problems of deforestation, soil erosion, and scarcity of water but now is a fully empowering women. It has managed to achieve some of its goals including planting about more than 40 million trees throughout African continent and is targeting to plant 1 billion trees worldwide.

In executing her duties, Prof. Maathai achieved some of her ambitions that included stopping the construction of a skyscraper in Uhuru Park, ending the public land grabbing in Karura Forest, she also helped mothers of political prisoners and eventually freed 51 men who were held by the government.

Importantly, Prof. Maathai was elected an MP for Tetu constituency in Kenya and appointed by President Mwai Kibaki to be Deputy Minister for the Environment. In the 2007 post election violence, Prof Maathai acted as a mediator for peace, accountability and justice. She also played a very significant role in pressing for inclusion of the rights of all citizens to a clean and health environment in the constitutional making which bear fruits.  

Stumbling blocks

Right from her words that “Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do,” Prof. Maathai stumbled into blocks several times.

Together with her colleagues, she was repeatedly beaten, jailed, harassed and publicly disparaged by the Moi rule but she stood firmly and continued with her movements which afterwards made her a respectable women in Kenya and worldwide at large.

Awards and Honours

A saying that, ‘Give everyone his due’ proved to be evident when the international community recognized Prof. Maathai’s noble contribution and thus awarded her with several awards.

In 2004, Prof. Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work for sustainable development, democracy and peace.

Nevertheless, various governments bestowed on her the following honours; the order of the Rising Sun (Japan, 2009), the Legion D’ Honneur (France, 2006) and Elder of the Golden Heart and Elder of the Burning Spear (Kenya, 2004, 2003). She also received several other awards from organisations and institutions.

Unlike most Africans who are not accustomed to documenting their lives, Prof. Maathai documented her life, work and perspectives in four books that include; The Green Belt Movement (2003), Unbowed (2006), The Challenge for Africa (2008) and Replenishing the Earth (2010).

Prof. Maathai died in October last year and is survived by her three children and her granddaughter.

As it is widely accepted that, ‘People dies but ideas live’, people shall live to remember Prof. Maathai’s perspective and it could be wise if most people could embrace her approaches as she was always optimistic as her words suggests.

“I have always believed that, no matter how dark the cloud, there is always a thin, silver lining, and that is what we must look for.”

”We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!”