Oslo Remembrances of the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremonies for Dr. Wangari Maathai
by Sister Thomasita Homan, OSB

We’re back from Oslo! December 17, at 2:30 a.m., Sister Mary Collins and I returned from our glorious trip to Oslo, Norway, where we were some of the many, many guests who attended the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremonies honoring this year’s recipient, Professor Wangari Maathai. Steve Minnis, Benedictine College president, returned earlier. I will let Sister Mary and Steve tell their own stories, in their own way. I need to sing my gratitude day and night for this experience. These words are one way I can sing.

Dr. Wangari Maathai, a 1964 graduate of Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) and I have been dear friends for many years, and I was elated to receive one of the thirty personal invitations to be her guest and sit with her group of family and friends on December 10, 11, 12. Most of the ceremonies were held in Oslo’s City Hall, in a very large gathering space whose walls are murals of Norway’s history. Vibrant flowers, a gift from Italy, added brilliant color and splendor to the room. Again, December 10, history was being made, etched in my heart and mind forever. The room hushed, then trumpets began to announce the arrival of the royalty, the Nobel Peace Committee, and, a radiant Wangari
Maathai. We stood.

A small group of performers began a lively African dance as the drums echoed the heartbeats of all of us. Music, violins, vocalists led us all to the introductory presentation by the Chair of the Nobel Peace Committee (his words are well worth reading at the Nobel site). Then Wangari stood and walked to the podium, slowly but energetically, she looked at us, and she began her lecture, speaking strongly and deliberately. Her Nobel Lecture was brilliant, wise, and future-oriented.

As I listened, I thrilled at seeing her and her work so affirmed—her work with the Green Belt Movement, her civic involvement, and her work as a member of the Parliament in her own country of Kenya. I knew she was also being affirmed by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, and by all of us in that room who represented a world yearning for peace and promise. I had been eager to hear her words; now I leaned into each word, and my heart gladdened as never before. Yes, I thought, she is now getting the recognition that is rightfully hers for her outstanding work for the environment in her own country of Kenya and extending to many countries
in Africa. She, who is the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in all of eastern and central Africa, is now the first woman from Africa to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

I attended every ceremony of the Nobel celebration those three days, when Wangari shone so brightly in the darkness of Oslo. (The sun rose about 9:30 a.m. and set about 3:30, but we made our own bright days.) Besides the official Nobel Peace Presentation, I attended a CNN interview with Wangari; the marvelous Nobel Peace Concert, co-hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Tom Cruise; a torchlight parade in honor of Wangari; a children’s program for Wangari and the Nobel Peace Committee; a very formal, very delicious Nobel banquet—whose every movement resembled a carefully coordinated liturgy and whose foods must have been a foretaste of some heavenly banquet; a presentation by Wangari in the Lutheran Cathedral; and a longed-for private visit my two companions and I had with Wangari in her hotel suite on Sunday morning. Besides my own hugs and words for her, I also gave Wangari a very specially designed necklace from her Mount St. Scholastica College class of 1964, and a memory-congratulatory book assembled by the sisters at the Mount. Steve had a college banner, signed by many students. We had a wonderful visit, and before we left, Wangari gave each of us two gifts: a beautiful bowl in African designed and signed on the back: “Always, Wangari— December 10, 2004” and a Green Belt Movement cup.

Wangari, we are very, very proud of you..my heart echoes again and again. And the stories…there are many, many more. I’ll never tire of the stories of the Nobel Peace days and a very noble woman who received the Nobel Peace Award in December of 2004.

Photo Gallery of the trip to Oslo