Wangari Maathai is the first African woman to ever win a Nobel Peace Prize Award, renowned for her conviction and relentlessness in her initiative as she pioneered linking of the environment protection and conservation with Human rights.
Commencing with just a backyard tree garden, the Nobel peace prize winner managed to attain a goal of environmental conservation to the maximum as she motivated the masses to join in and uphold the protection and conservation.
Wangari Maathai was well-known as a political, social, and environmental activist. In 1977 she started a grass-roots movement aimed at countering the deforestation that was threatening the means of subsistence of the agricultural population.
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) was founded by Professor Wangari Maathai in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK) to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure.
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) has four main areas of activity— Tree Planting and Water Harvesting, Climate Change, Mainstream Advocacy, Gender Livelihood, and Advocacy.
some of the powerful, inspiring, and similarly motivating words she quoted that remain as writings on the wall despite her demise decades ago are:
“Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don’t need a diploma to plant a tree.”
― Wangari Maathai, Unbowed
“In trying to explain this linkage, I was inspired by a traditional African tool that has three legs and a basin to sit on. To me, the three legs represent three critical pillars of just and stable societies. The first leg stands for democratic space, where rights are respected, whether they are human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, or environmental rights. The second represents sustainable and equitable management and resources. And the third stands for cultures of peace that are deliberately cultivated within communities and nations. The basin, or seat, represents society and its prospects for development. Unless all three legs are in place, supporting the seat, no society can thrive. Neither can its citizens develop their skills and creativity? When one leg is missing, the seat is unstable; when two legs are missing, it is impossible to keep any state alive; and when no legs are available, the state is as good as a failed state. No development can take place in such a state either. Instead, conflict ensues.”
― Wangari Maathai, Unbowed
“A tree has roots in the soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded and that no matter how high we go it is from the roots that we draw sustenance. It is a reminder to all of us who have had the success that we cannot forget where we came from. It signifies that no matter how powerful we become in government or how many awards we receive, our power and strength and our ability to reach our goals depend on the people, those whose work remains unseen, who is the soil out of which we grow, the shoulders on which we stand”
― Wangari Maathai
“There comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness . . . that time is now.”
― Wangari Maathai
“When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope.”
― Wangari Maathai
“The world’s interactions with Africa are not necessarily motivated by altruism, but by the self-interest of states seeking to maximize their opportunities and minimize their costs, often at the expense of those who are not in a position to do either.”
― Wangari Maathai, The Challenge for Africa
