08 octobre 2006
Wangari Maathai
It is by this simple act of planting a tree that everything started.
In 2004, Professor Wangari Maathai received the Nobel peace prize for her work as the founder of the Green Belt Movement, a grass-root organization now estimated to have planted over 30 million trees around Africa in a campaign to slow deforestation and erosion.
Although this is what made her famous, Maathai's message is going way beyond the simple protection of the environment.
Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner
“ I have been talking about the environment yes, but I have also been talking about good governance and I have been trying to say that it is very important that we consciously work for peace by avoiding mismanagement of our resources, inequitable distribution and mismanagement. So it's not just one thing, the environment, it is these 3 pillars, and we must consciously and deliberately work for the 3 pillars not just one.”
Maathai's love for nature can be traced to her childhood in the lush green hills around Kenya's highest peak, Mount Kenya.
She was pushed into activism after witnessing the cutting down of trees in the area to make way for cultivation. Her stance on the protection of forests led her to face strong political opposition in the 1990s.
Now a member of parliament, she insists that it is Africa's responsibility – and no one else's - to take care of its natural resources.
Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner
We have many friends in Africa, who feel bad when we are poor, who feel bad when we die of AIDS, who feel bad when we die of hunger, but they cannot come and do the work for us. They can only help us. So our leaders have to stand up and provide the leadership and manage these resources responsibly, allow us to share them more equitably, so we can live in peace with each other and give development a chance.
Her story, from a poor schoolgirl in rural Kenya to the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize, is an inspiration for many.
But as far as she is concerned, Maathai just considers herself the living example of what can be accomplished through hard work and perseverance.
Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner
When I went to high school I didn't pack any shoes, I didn't have any. I was walking barefeet. I didn't know what I would eat sometimes until my mother came home. But she found me working. When I went to school, I took advantage. I want to tell you there is nobody who doesn't have an opportunity on this planet.
