Threshold - Spring 2003

Alumna Plants Seeds for a Renewed Kenya
(Article from Threshold, the news magazine of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, Atchison, Kansas, Spring, 2003)
Wangari Maathai was named Nobel Peace Prize winner on October 8, 2004.

by Thomasita Homan, OSB

She is ready for the responsibility and she deserves the honor. In February, Dr. Wangari Maathai, Honorable Member of Parliament for Tetu Constituency, was appointed Assistant Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, and Wildlife in her native Kenya. Reflecting on her days at the Mount, she writes, “At a recent engagement, a young woman told me, ‘You really inspire me. And what I like about you is that you do your work with commitment and endurance.’ I know that comes in part from my experience at the Mount.”

She was one of the first two women from Africa to attend Mount St. Scholastica College. She writes of that experience (1960-1964): “Being a student at Mount St. Scholastica certainly influenced my life. I was surrounded by women who treated me as if I were their daughter. They did everything to help me, educate me, and enrich my life. I had already benefited from a full scholarship, yet I continued to receive so much more. I think this is partly where I got my deep sense of service and my detachment from things material. On a daily basis, I saw women working hard for higher goals and inner peace. This must have impacted my own conscience and values as I matured.”

Wangari is now internationally recognized for her persistent work for democracy, human rights, and environmental issues. She has addressed the United Nations on several occasions and has spoken on behalf of women at special sessions of the General Assembly reviewing the earth summit. She has served on the Commission for Global Governance and Commission on the Future.

She has received numerous awards, such as Woman of the Year (1983), the Right Livelihood Award (1984), the Better World Society Award (1986), the Windstar Award for the Environment (1988), the Woman of the World (1989), Honorary Doctor of Law, Williams College (1990), the Goldman Environmental Prize (1991), U.N.’s Africa Prize for Leadership (1991), Honorary Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Germany (1992), the Edinburgh Medal (1993), the Jane Adams Leadership Award (1993), and the Golden Arch Award (1994). She was listed on the UNEP Global 500 Hall of Fame and received an Honorary Doctor of Agriculture in Norway (1997). In June 1997, Wangari was elected by Earth Times as one of 100 persons in the world to have made a difference in the environmental arena. In 1986, the Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977, established a Pan-African Green Belt network.

She remained close to the sisters of the Mount. At the time of Sister John Marie Brazzel’s death, she wrote, “I feel that a part of me has died. A wonderful chapter in my life has ended. . . . I know that a part of me is now in heaven. It is so painful to think that she is not there in the same spirit and energy. I can only sit here and cry alone. And then I comfort myself by my faith. . . . She and others at the Mount touched my life so profoundly and made it so much better. May she sleep where it rains and where there is dew.”

Another influence was Sister Imogene Baker. “She was warm and welcoming,” she recalls. “Her door was always open and her office strategically located so that every time we passed, we would see her--she always had a smile.”

Nancy Landon Kassebaum, former U.S. senator, once wrote to Sister John Marie: “Dr. Maathai will play an important role in the future of Kenya. In the repressive political environment in Kenya, she will continue to need international support and friends like the Benedictine sisters.”

The relationship with the sisters and with the college is generational. Her son Waweru attended Benedictine College for two years before beginning graduate studies and her daughter Wanjira is a faithful communication link between her mother and her friends in Atchison.

Our friendship grows. Over 10,000 miles apart and yet so near, we have watched Wangari in her successes, in her political arrests, in all she has done for political justice and environmental growth. She writes, “I have been listening to the chants which I brought from Atchison. You have been in my mind and prayers! Thank you for wonderful messages of good will and solidarity. I am forever proud of my Benedictine heritage. God bless you all. All my love, Wangari.” And to Wangari we say we know you will continue to play an important role in the future of your country. We send you our prayers and love.

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[From a Guerilla News Network web article by Frances Moore Lappé, January 5, 2003. She is profiled in the book Hope’s Edge by Frances and Anna Lappé.]

"Wangari Maathai’s unorthodox march to the Kenyan parliament began in 1977 when she planted seven trees to celebrate Earth Day. She had just awakened to the devastating effects of de-forestation in her country where three-quarters of woodlands have been wiped out over the last 150 years. Maathai approached government foresters arguing that to fight the encroaching desert would take hundreds of thousands of mobilized villagers all across the country. The foresters laughed.

Maathai didn’t listen. Starting with a tiny tree nursery in her home, Maathai launched the Green Belt Movement. Today its 6,000 village-based nurseries – run largely by women –boast the planting of 20 million trees. Their efforts have transformed whole villages whose soils are rich and fertile again and revolutionized the lives of women who no longer have to travel long distances in search of trees for firewood.

"But tree planting is only an entry point,” Maathai reminded us. Villagers began to realize their own power and responsibility to solve problems in their communities and, gradually, in their country. From there, they began to challenge the government policies of turning over public forests to private developers and loggers. They began even to challenge the long-standing dependency on export crops whose falling prices have impoverished millions. And, they began to create what the Green Belt movement calls “food security” through reviving traditional crops and growing practices.

Maathai’s [ministry] appointment is particularly poignant: She had been jailed and beaten more than once by the Moi government for protesting its forest and public policies. At the news of Maathai’s triumph, women danced in the streets of Nairobi, calling her victory a victory for all women of Kenya …as well as for all those fighting desertification in Africa."


Tribute for Wangari Maathai by Sister Thomasita Homan