www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, November 2004Ecofeminist embodies Kenya's many struggles
Detroit--Dr. Wangari Maathai, founder of Kenya’s Green
Belt Movement which involves thousands of women reforesting their country, added
a number of new "firsts" to the many achievements of her 64 years when
she was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Not only is Dr. Maathai the first woman in Africa to win
the prize; she is the first recipient whose work directly addresses the
environment and environmental justice. After decades of persecution by the
dictatorial Daniel Arap Moi regime, Dr. Maathai was elected to parliament in
2002 by 98% of the vote and was subsequently appointed Assistant Minister for
the Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife. For the first time the Nobel committee, citing Dr.
Maathai as "an example and a source of inspiration for everyone in Africa
fighting for sustainable development, democracy and peace," acknowledged
that it had "expanded the term peace to encompass environmental
questions...peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living
environment." Professor Ole Danbolt Mjoes, for the committee, said "Maathai
stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic
and cultural development in Kenya and Africa…she has taken a holistic approach
to sustainable development and embraces...women’s rights in particular." ECO-SOCIAL STRUGGLES Dr. Maathai has fiercely defended women and poor people
against the abuses of government and corporate interests, as when in 1996, she
spoke out against an international agricultural research organization which
blamed poor farmers in the Third World for deforestation: "It is very
common for people making such conclusions to blame poor people. Poor people are
the victims, not the cause. In Kenya at the moment, we are fighting to protect
the remaining very few indigenous forests from some of the richest people in the
country." In 1999 she was among the Green Belt members beaten and arrested
by the Moi administration when they successfully protested the clearing of a
forest near Nairobi for a luxury housing development. She founded the Green Belt Movement in 1976 to enable
poor women to plant trees on their farms and on school and church compounds.
Almost 30 million trees later, the organization, comprised mostly of women,
combats the effects of deforestation while producing sustainable wood for
cooking fires. Most recently (October 9) Dr. Maathai urged U.S. voters to make a
choice against the war in Iraq and in favor of the Kyoto Protocol on climate
change. KENYAN WOMEN IN REVOLT Remarkable as her achievement is, Dr. Maathai comes from
a rich tradition of Kenyan women fighting for freedom. Their struggles have been
chronicled by News and Letters Committees since our beginning. The book PEAOPLE
OF KENYA SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES (1955) by Mbiyu Koinange describes Njeri, an
illiterate woman who organized hundreds of women to save pennies until they
could build a dormitory for the girls at the Kenya Teachers’ College. She
later organized the African Women’s League, numbering 10,000 members, and by
1955 was imprisoned with 9,000 other Kenyan women. More recently, Charity Ngilu was defeated by the corrupt
incumbent president of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi in her 1998 bid to become the
first woman president in sub-Saharan Africa. Ngilu had been urged to run by
working women in her neighborhood because of her battles for clean water and
clinics for the poor. (See NEWS & LETTERS, January-February 1998.) Their struggle continues with Wangari Maathai’s
achievements today. --Susan Van Gelder |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
