Wangari Maathai's was a life of firsts -- and many parts. Visionary founder of the Green Belt Movement, Maathai was an advocate in Africa and beyond for social justice, human rights, democracy, and peace.
I had the privilege of knowing and working with Wangari for a decade, beginning in 2001. Wangari served on the advisory board of Brighter Green, the New York-based public policy action tank I run. And in turn, I am on the board of directors of the Green Belt Movement (GMB)-North America, which supports GBM's work in Kenya.
On Monday, Wangari was "trending" on Twitter all day. "What's Twitter?" I can hear her asking. One tweet reported that Wangari was the first African woman to trend -- another first to add to this catalogue: first woman in east and central Africa to earn a Ph.D., first African woman and first environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004). She was even born on a first, of April.
I first learned about her work with GBM to restore degraded environments through planting trees while providing income and agency for rural Kenyans -- mainly women -- when I was a graduate student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. I was struck by this approach, so unusual was it in the annals of international development. It bridged sectors normally kept separate: the environment, gender, poverty alleviation, governance, and even self-help.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Wangari and the Green Belt Movement had also become keenly engaged in Kenya's struggle to restore multi-party democracy. She led high-profile efforts to halt construction of a skyscraper in Uhuru ("Freedom") Park, an oasis of green, public space in congested downtown Nairobi and stop the "grabbing" of public land in forests by cronies of the notoriously corrupt then-president Daniel arap Moi.
The government didn't like her outspokenness. She was beaten, jailed, and vilified by the regime, derided for daring, as a woman, to challenge its prerogatives, and even evicted from her office. When Nairobi landlords were too scared to rent her suitable space, she moved the Green Belt Movement's operations — and its 50 or so staff — to her modest home in the city. That was Wangari. She would not be silenced; she would not be side-lined, either.
I first got to meet her in Nairobi in the summer of 2001 to talk to her about her writing her autobiography. "Do you think anyone would be interested?" she asked my partner Martin Rowe and me. "Yes," we said, "absolutely, particularly those working in global civil society." We added something like, "You've had a very interesting life." To which she raised an eyebrow and replied, "Do you think so?"
In October 2004, Wangari learned she'd won the Nobel. I was with her when she got the news, heading to her parliamentary constituency over rutted roads in rural Kenya. She had been elected to parliament when Kenya held its first free and fair elections in a generation in 2002. Wangari was disbelieving; never had she expected such an honor. "I didn't know anybody was listening," she said when she got off the phone.
Instead of heading back to Nairobi to do media interviews as she was advised, she continued on to a meeting she'd set up with her constituents. She explained she had won a very great prize, and then proceeded to the planned discussion. That, too, was emblematic of Wangari's commitment to those she served. I and a member of her staff were left to try to answer calls from the world's media in a field (literally).
Martin, Wangari, and I kept working on the autobiography we'd first mooted in 2001, which became Unbowed: A Memoir, published in 2006. We worked on two other books together: The Challenge for Africa (2008), a manifesto on African sustainable development, democratization, and governance and most recently, Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World (2010), an exploration of the values, like love for the environment and selfless service, that underpinned Wangari's life, and how others could embrace them.
The Green Belt Movement and Brighter Green also collaborated, particularly on projects related to climate change.
In recent days, many people have commented on Wangari's vitality; how could she be gone?. It's true: she had a fierce energy, which she shared. With her, you felt enlivened; obstacles seemed less insurmountable, setbacks and dispiriting news about work, or more often, the state of the world, didn't feel as leaden. Wangari was powerful, brilliant and bold, purposeful and persistent (definitely a workaholic), funny, focused, canny, and perhaps more than anything, generous. She was a heroine to me, as well as a mentor and friend. I will miss her deeply.
One of my favorite quotes of Wangari's, from Unbowed is this.
Those of us who witness the degraded state of the environment and the suffering that comes with it cannot afford to be complacent. We continue to be restless. If we really carry the burden, we are driven to action. We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!
Disclosure: I was compensated by Wangari for work on her books and by the Green Belt Movement for some other writing projects. I receive no compensation for serving on the GBM-North America board.
Follow Mia MacDonald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BrighterGreenNY
I don't have the mindset to continue along this path...being the little bird trying to put out the fire while the bigger animals stand by without helping. I want to see the over all forestry loss (accounting for new forestry) slow, then stop, then go in reverse. This has to factor in population growth, lifestyle and policy.
I don't know what 14 billion trees look like. Thinking of the sphere of Earth as a whole, 14 billion trees don't strike me as a lot. The loss of our standing forests seem to comprise infinitely more trees than that. Would planting a trillion trees have any appreciable effect on planet-wide forestry?
Ironically, the seemingly best way to act is by looking at the "forestry" of the suburban-size lot I live on. If people would hire me work in a quasi handyman capacity with their lots, I could perhaps propose new trees wherever possible.
Having left my non-profit life behind, I comment on blogs like HP, hoping that something I say will trigger a spontaneous revolution in tree planting that includes the whole world. It would make perfect sense.
May God help us to keep your candle burning by planting each a seedling and to care and defend the environment like you did and taught us!
But she will remain a Presence on earth.
Thank you for the book you encouraged her to write. I love Unbowed, and have read it over and over again.
I hope by starting the #WangariTrees initiative, that we will live to honour and celebrate her life and work.
My heart is broken, I did not expect her to go so soon. But I must rejoice, and continue with doing what she loved - saving the earth, in little ways.
#WangariTrees is my own little way of honouring Wangari Maathai, and hopefully, educate my community on the importance of nurturing and protecting our resources.
Details here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=293149220701311
She was one of the few, few women I looked up to, for strength, for resolve, for tenacity, for audacity. She was such a presence, so fearless, so determined, so focused, so steadfast in her resolve, so passionate - a creator, an innovator, a warrior-ess, an unflinching pillar for democracy, for human rights, for women's rights, for the environment, for Africa, for the World.
I am proud and humbled to have benefited from her strength of character, from her deep caring and compassion and from her unwavering spirit. She made a difference - and the entire world saw it , felt it, lived it.
Such a beacon of light!
My deepest condolences to her family; we mourn her loss deeply - it is humanity's loss ... but we also celebrate her life and are grateful for it; for her own individual sacrifices, in order to make this world better.
I salute you, Laureate Wangari Maathai. I am lucky, honored and humbled to have been influenced and impacted by you. Thank you for the legacy you left behind ... it will surely go on into beyond ...
Rest In Peace..
I truly enjoyed your exposé about your friendship and interractions with her. It was refreshingly beautiful and unique in as far as personalizing and humanizing her otherwise iconic, larger-than-life stature. So relatable ...
What a gift to have had this personal connection withher.
Thank you for sharing those special moments with us.
May her beautiful soul Rest In Peace..