Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan activist for the preservation of the environment and women's rights, is the first African woman to win the award
Mark Lacy, New York Times, Haaretz, Walla!
and Angari Mathai, yesterday. She also took part in the struggles to cancel the external debt of African governments and against the takeover of public lands by African elites
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Nairobi. Wangari Maathai, an environmental activist from Kenya, is a 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner; Maathai heads a movement that planted about 30 million trees in Kenya and throughout Africa, and is one of the most prominent fighters in her country for women's rights. In its reasoning for the selection, the Nobel Prize committee announced that the winner is "a role model and a source of inspiration for all Africans who fight for just development, democracy and peace."
During her decades of activity in Kenya and the rest of Africa, Dr. Maathai was beaten by the riot police, denounced by the government as a subversive, and ridiculed for her efforts to promote women's rights in a country where men have always ruled; But she didn't give up. Her friends in Kenya yesterday planted her in a sturdy tree - perhaps one of the ficus or elm trees planted around Kenya. The women's movement of Mathai, 64 years old and a veterinarian by training, arose using the same trees.
Since the accelerated modernization and urbanization trends began in Africa, deforestation has gone on and on; Whole forests disappeared, and the landslides caused by this severely damaged agriculture and the nearby villages, which could no longer obtain wood for fire and other needs. Mathai knew about all this, and finally couldn't hold back any longer: in 1977, she recruited several women, and planted individual seedlings in her backyard. This was the beginning of the "green belt movement".
The movement grew, and now includes hundreds of nurseries across Africa, where free seedlings are given to women
planting them in public and private lands. For each tree taken in, the woman who planted it receives a small sum of money. For many women on the continent, who live on the thin line between hunger and survival, planting the trees is a good deed, which also helps them finish the month.
"We are trying to make women understand that they can change," Mathai said a few years ago. "We are trying to give people the power, to show them that they can build - and also destroy - the environment."
When the ruling party in Kenya wanted to build a skyscraper in the center of a park located in the heart of Nairobi, Mathai defended the residents who use the limited green spaces that exist in this difficult and crowded city. She went on demonstrations against the decision and thereby provoked the wrath of the government, which decided that her movement was subversive. Mathai did not give up, and continued to wrestle. The ruling elite that pushed for the construction of the building was finally forced to withdraw from the plan.
"She always taught us to believe in ourselves. She told us that what's right is right, even if the whole world is against you," says Wangi'ra, one of her three children. "'Nothing is impossible,' is another thing she always told us. She has a real passion to fight for what she believes in. There is a flame in her heart, and she tried to pass a little of it on to us."
Mathai's work was not only focused on ecology; She was also an important activist in the fight to cancel the external debt of African governments, and fought against the takeover of public lands by African elites. Corruption in Africa is particularly high on her list of struggles, as she claims she encountered it during her divorce trial in the early 80s. Her husband, who was an MP, then accused her of having an affair with another MP. Mathai denied his accusations, but the judge ultimately ruled against her. She accused him of being corrupt and unfit to fulfill his duties - and was sent to prison for the night.
Her worst confrontation with the government occurred in 1992, when she led protests and a hunger strike to secure the release of opposition political prisoners. The president of Kenya at the time, Daniel Earp Moi, ordered the police to attack Maathai and other women. The police did not hesitate to carry out the order, and beat her until she lost consciousness.
Kenya has undergone an accelerated process of political liberalization since then. In 2002, Mathai was elected to parliament as a representative of the Mount Kenya district. That's where she was the other day, in her peaceful home surrounded by trees at the foot of the mountain, when she received the phone call and was informed of her winning the Nobel Peace Prize. "I am completely shocked, and very, very happy," she said tearfully to the dozens of journalists who tried to contact her in the following minutes.
Maathai says that the high and solid Mount Kenya, whose peak can be seen from the window of her house, has been her source of inspiration over the years. Maathai herself is also a source of inspiration for many women, and her role as a role model will greatly increase after she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Recognition of the struggle to preserve the environment
By Rinat Zafarir
The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize for the first time for a struggle for the preservation of the environment reflects the growing recognition in the world that this activity is an integral part of struggles for social justice and security in areas where there are conflicts over natural resources. This was also the conclusion of the United Nations Environment Agency (UNEP), which is headquartered in Kenya, and therefore its leaders were particularly happy about Wangari Maathai winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The head of the agency, Klaus Toepfer, defined the winner, Wangari Mathai, as one of the most determined defenders of the environment, peace and democracy.
Already in the 70s and 80s, activists for the environment were involved in social and political struggles. One of the most prominent of them was Chico Mendes, who fought for the preservation of forests in Brazil and defended the rights of workers in the rubber plantations, and was killed in this struggle. Many activists for the environment in South America have taken care of preserving the rights of Indians who depend on the existence of rainforests. Another prominent activist in the environmental field, Vandana Shiva from India, is fighting to protect the rights of residents in rural areas in India who have found themselves faced with plans to build dams that threaten the environment and their homes.
The environmental movement in the world is gradually assimilating into it the close connections between the social and political aspects and the environmental aspects, such as damage to health or exploitation of natural resources. The message of the environmental movement is that the struggle for social justice requires concern for basic rights, and one of them is the right to live in a healthy and clean environment. Another message is that wherever there are struggles over scarce natural resources, there is a high probability of tensions leading to wars. That is why, for example, environmental organizations in the Middle East are working to solve the water problems.
A Nobel Prize winner
Environmentalist - Earth
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