Interview by Ethirajan Anbarasan, UNESCO Courier journalist
Wangari Muta Maathai
In Madagascar, a woman plants rice in the ashes of a felled area of forest, home to the last survivors
of a lemur species.
A member of Kenya’s Green Belt movement.
‘The act of planting trees conveys a simple message. It suggests that at the very least you can plant a tree and improve your habitat. It increases people’s awareness that they can take control of their environment, which is the first step toward greater participation in society’
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A 20-million-tree green belt In a country where women play
a marginal role in political and social affairs, 59-year-old Wangari Muta Maathai’s
achievements stand out as an exception. A biologist, she was the first woman from
East Africa to receive a doctorate, to become a professor and chair a department–all
at the University of Nairobi. |
‘At one time Members of Parliament accused me and ridiculed me for being a divorced woman. I have felt that deep inside they were hoping that by calling into question my womanhood I would be subdued. Later they realized they were wrong’
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Kenya factfile Republic of Kenya (Jamhuri
ya Kenya) Source : UNDP Human Development Report 1999 |
A noted
environmental and pro-democracy activist hopes the next millennium will see a new
African leadership that puts people first
You once said that the quality of the environment cannot be improved unless and
until the living conditions of ordinary people are improved. Could you enlarge on
this?
If you want to save the environment you should protect the people first, because
human beings are part of biological diversity. And if we can’t protect our own species,
what’s the point of protecting tree species?
It sometimes looks as if poor people are destroying the environment. But they are
so preoccupied with their survival that they are not concerned about the long-term
damage they are doing to the environment simply to meet their most basic needs.
So it is ironic that the poor people who depend on the environment are also partly
responsible for its destruction. That’s why I insist that the living conditions of
the poor must be improved if we really want to save our environment.
For example, in certain regions of Kenya, women walk for miles to get firewood from
the forests, as there are no trees left nearby. When fuel is in short supply, women
have to walk further and further to find it. Hot meals are served less frequently,
nutrition suffers, and hunger increases. If these women had enough resources they
would not be depleting valuable forest.
What is at stake in the forests of Kenya and East Africa today?
Since the beginning of this century, there has been a clear tendency to cut down
indigenous forests and to replace them with exotic species for commercial exploitation.
We’ve now become more aware of what this involves and have realized that it was wrong
to cut down indigenous forests, thereby destroying our rich biological diversity.
But much damage has already been done.
When the Green Belt Movement (see box page 47) started its campaign in 1977 to plant
trees, Kenya had about 2.9 per cent of forest cover. Today the forested area has
further dwindled to around two per cent. We are losing more trees than we are planting.
The other important issue is that the East African environment is very vulnerable.
We are very close to the Sahara desert, and experts have been warning that the desert
could expand southwards like a flood if we keep on felling trees indiscriminately,
since trees prevent soil erosion caused by rain and wind. By clearing remaining patches
of forests we are in essence creating many micro-Sahara deserts. We can already see
evidence of this phenomenon.
We hold civic education seminars for rural people, especially farmers, as part of
campaigns to raise public awareness about environmental issues. If you were to ask
a hundred farmers how many of them remember a spring or a stream that has dried up
in their lifetime, almost 30 of them would raise their hands.
What has your Green Belt Movement (GBM) achieved and in particular to what extent
has it prevented environmental degradation in Kenya?
The most notable achievement of the GBM in my view has been in raising environmental
awareness among ordinary citizens, especially rural people. Different groups of people
now realize that the environment is a concern for everybody and not simply a concern
for the government. It is partly because of this awareness that we are now able to
reach out to decision-makers in the government. Ordinary citizens are challenging
them to protect the environment.
Secondly, the GBM introduced the idea of environmental conservation through trees
because trees meet many basic needs of rural communities. We started out by planting
seven trees in a small park in Nairobi in 1977. At that time we had no tree nursery,
no staff and no funds, only a conviction that ordinary country people had a role
to play in solving environmental problems. We went on from there and now we have
planted over 20 million trees all over Kenya.
The act of planting trees conveys a simple message. It suggests that at the very
least you can plant a tree and improve your habitat. It increases people’s awareness
that they can take control of their environment, which is the first step toward greater
participation in society. Since the trees we have planted are visible, they are the
greatest ambassadors for our movement.
Despite the Rio earth summit of 1992 and the Kyoto climate summit in 1997, there
has been no significant progress in environmental protection programmes and campaigns
at a global level. Why?
Unfortunately, for many world leaders development still means extensive farming of
cash crops, expensive hydroelectric dams, hotels, supermarkets, and luxury items,
which plunder human and natural resources. This is short-sighted and does not meet
people’s basic needs–for adequate food, clean water, shelter, local clinics, information
and freedom.
As a result of this craze for so-called development, environmental protection has
taken a back seat. The problem is that the people who are responsible for much of
the destruction of the environment are precisely those who should be providing leadership
in environmental protection campaigns. But they are not doing so.
Also, political power now is wielded by those who have business interests and close
links with multinational corporations (MNCs). The only aim of these MNCs is to make
profit at the expense of the environment and people.
We also know that many world political leaders are persuaded by MNCs not to pay attention
to declarations made in international environmental conferences. I strongly believe
that as citizens we should refuse to be at the mercy of these corporations. Corporations
can be extremely merciless, as they have no human face.
You started your career as an academic. Later you became an environmentalist,
and now you are called a pro-democracy activist. How would you describe your evolution
in the last 25 years?
Few environmentalists today are worried about the welfare of bees, butterflies and
trees alone. They know that it is not possible to keep the environment pure if you
have a government that does not control polluting industries and deforestation.
In Kenya, for example, real estate developers have been allowed to go into the middle
of indigenous forests and build expensive houses. As concerned individuals we should
oppose that. When you start intervening at that level, you find yourself in direct
confrontation with policy-makers and you start to be called an activist.
I was teaching at the University of Nairobi in the 1970s, when I felt that the academic
rights of women professors were not being respected because they were women. I became
an activist at the university, insisting that I wanted my rights as an academic.
Meanwhile, I found myself confronted by other issues that were directly related to
my work but were not clear to me at the outset, like human rights. This directly
led me to another area, governance. As a result I was drafted into the pro-democracy
campaign.
I realized in the 1970s that in a young democracy like ours it was very easy for
leaders to become dictators. As this happened they started using national resources
as though they were their personal property. I realized that the constitution had
given them powers to misuse official machinery.
So I became involved in the pro-democracy movement and pressed for constitutional
reforms and political space to ensure freedom of thought and expression. We cannot
live with a political system that kills creativity and produces cowardly people.
With your academic qualifications you could have lived a comfortable life in the
U.S. or elsewhere in the West. But you decided to come back and settle down in Kenya.
In the last 25 years, you have been verbally abused, threatened, beaten, put behind
bars and on many occasions forbidden to leave the country. Have you ever regretted
returning to Kenya and becoming an activist?
I did not deliberately decide to become an activist, but I have never regretted the
fact that I decided to stay here and to contribute to the development of this country
and my region. I know that I have made a little difference.
Many people come up to me and tell me that my work has inspired them. This gives
me great satisfaction because in the earlier days, especially during the dictatorship,
it was difficult to speak.
Until a few years ago, people used to come up to me in the street and whisper “I
am with you and I am praying for you.“ They were so scared of being identified with
me that they did not want to be heard. I know a lot of people were afraid of talking
to me and being seen with me because they might be punished.
I have been a greater positive force by staying here and going through trials and
tribulations than if I had gone to other countries. It would have been very different
to live in the West and say my country should do this and that. By being here I encourage
many more people.
Do you think you were subjected to virulent attacks and abuses because you questioned
men’s decisions?
Our men think African women should be dependent and submissive, definitely not better
than their husbands. There is no doubt that at first many people opposed me because
I am a woman and resented the idea that I had strong opinions.
I know that at times men in positions of influence, including President Daniel Arap
Moi, ridiculed me. At one time Members of Parliament accused me and ridiculed me
for being a divorced woman. I have felt that deep inside they were hoping that by
calling into question my womanhood I would be subdued. Later they realized they were
wrong.
In 1989, for example, we had a big confrontation with the authorities when we were
fighting to save Uhuru Park in Nairobi. I argued that it would be ridiculous to destroy
this beautiful park in the centre of the city and replace it with a multi-storeyed
complex.
Uhuru Park was the only place in Nairobi where people could spend time with their
families outdoors. The park was a wonderful place for people to go because it was
a place where no one bothered them.
When I launched the campaign opposing the construction of the “Park-monster“, as
the project later came to be known, I was ridiculed and accused of not understanding
development. I didn’t study development but I do know that you need space in a city.
Fortunately other non-governmental organizations and thousands of ordinary people
joined our protests and finally the park was saved.
The government, which wanted to destroy that park, has since declared it a national
heritage. That’s wonderful. They could have done that without fighting and without
ridiculing me.
What made you stand in the presidential elections in 1997? Despite your popularity,
why didn’t you win a sizeable number of votes?
I decided to stand for election for several reasons. In 1992, when a multi-party
system was legalized in Kenya for the first time, I tried very hard with other political
groups to unite the opposition, but in vain. When there were many opposition candidates
running for the presidency, I withdrew from the campaign.
As expected, the opposition lost those elections and everybody now accepts that the
campaign we launched for them to unite was right. We wanted to form a government
of national unity within the opposition in 1992. This is exactly what they are now
clamouring for.
In the 1997 general elections, my idea was to persuade the opposition to unite and
field a strong candidate from one ethnic community against the ruling Kenya African
National Union (KANU).1 But I was called a tribalist by some opposition groups for
proposing that idea. When all my efforts to unite the opposition failed, I decided
to run for president.
But during the campaign I also came to realize that in this country it is very difficult
to get elected without money. I didn’t have money. I realized that it doesn’t matter
how good you are, how honest you are and how pro-democratic you are, if you don’t
have money to give to the voter you won’t get elected. So I lost.
All this gave me a new experience. Now I can speak as an insider. I also realized
that people here are not yet ready for democracy and we need a lot of civic education
and political consciousness. People here are still controlled by ethnicity and vote
along ethnic lines. The ethnic question became a very important issue during the
last elections.
Despite having enormous natural resources Africa still lags behind other continents
in terms of development and growth. Why is this?
Poor leadership, without any doubt. This generation of African leaders will go down
in history as a very irresponsible one that has brought Africa to its knees. During
the past three decades, Africa has suffered from a lack of visionary and altruistic
leaders committed to the welfare of their people.
There are historical reasons for this. Just before independence was granted to many
African countries, young Africans were promoted by colonial rulers to positions until
then unoccupied by the local people and were trained to take over power from the
colonial administration.
The new black administrators and burgeoning elites enjoyed the same economic and
social life-styles and privileges that the imperial administrators enjoyed. The only
difference between the two in terms of the objectives for the country was the colour
of their skin.
In the process, the African leaders abandoned their people, and in order to maintain
their hold on power they did exactly what the colonial system was doing, namely to
pit one community against another. This internal conflict continued for decades in
many African countries, draining their scarce resources.
So what we need is to improve our leadership. If we don’t there is no hope, because
history teaches us that if you cannot protect what is your own somebody will come
and take it. If our people cannot protect themselves they will continue to be exploited.
Their resources will continue to be exploited.
It is also true that Western powers, especially the former colonial masters of this
region, have continued to exploit Africa and have continued to work very closely
with these dictators and irresponsible leaders. That is why we are now deep in debt,
which we cannot repay.
Africa also needs assistance from international governments to improve its economic
standing. For example, most foreign aid to Africa comes in the form of curative social
welfare programmes such as famine relief, food aid, population control programmes,
refugee camps, peace-keeping forces and humanitarian missions.
At the same time, hardly any resources are available for sustainable human development
programmes such as functional education and training, development of infrastructure,
food production and promotion of entrepreneurship. There are no funds for the development
of cultural and social programmes which would empower people and release their creative
energy.
I am hoping that in the new millennium a new leadership will emerge in Africa, and
I hope this new leadership will show more concern for the people and utilize the
continent’s resources to help Africans get out of poverty.