Venus Rising

ProfileIssue: Pisces 08

Nobel Prize Winner Wangari Maathai Helps Create a Path to Peace in Kenya

Wangari Maathai is the first woman in East and Central Africa to receive a Ph.D., and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1940, Ms. Maathai’s most notable achievement that lead to the Nobel Prize, is the founding of the successful Green Belt Movement in 1977. The GBM is a non-profit environmental organization created to assist Kenyan women and their communities in protecting their lands from erosion by planting trees and forming “green belts” to hold the soil in place. Strong-willed and bravely outspoken her entire life, Ms. Maathai is now taking on an even greater leadership role as a resolute spokesperson for resolving the underlying causes of the recent ethnic violence in Kenya. Since the violence began, she has been reaching out to Kenyans and the international community, imploring both to take strong leadership roles in paving a path of lasting peace.

The violence in Kenya started when opposition leader Raila Odinga accused President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the December 27 vote. Domestic and international observers declared that the election was deeply flawed. As a result, for over six weeks Kenya has been gripped by the greatest ethnically-charged violence in their history as an independent state, leaving over a thousand people dead and hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Unfortunately, this is the worst outburst of ethnic violence in Kenya, but it is not the first. During the 1992 elections, similar outbursts of ethnic violence occurred in Kenya’s Rift Valley. During that time, many people were killed and thousands were misplaced, never to return to their homes.

How could this happen in one of the most stable countries in Africa? According to Ms. Maathai in a recent article published by the Washington Post, “Kenyans know that these “tribal clashes” are a beast that can be awakened by politicians, particularly during general elections.” She explains that “Citizens are easily persuaded by politicians who promise land in exchange for votes. If the only way to get that land is to forcibly evict fellow Kenyans, neighbors become the easiest victims. Knowing that such crimes will most likely never be punished encourages the attackers.”

Modern African states are the result of superficial unions created by former colonial leadership. Within those states, tribal micro-nationalities exist that are now forced to live within a westernized system left behind in many cases with little to no infrastructure or political cohesion. Most Africans do not understand the new nation-state and remain deeply attached and loyal to their ethnic identities. In some cases, politicians seeking election have worked to fuel these ethnic biases to gain power or hold on to power to the detriment of the greater good.