It was not her being the first woman head of a Nairobi University department that made her the unique African woman she was. Neither did her senior political position as Deputy Minister in the Kenyan government make her exceptional. Rather, her actions as an environment activisit sternly resisting state security forces and forest authorities from overexploiting Nairobi's Karura Forest that pushed her to the top of the ladder on African women and development.
As a woman, her physical
resistence to the forces through the enviroonment ticket and subsequent frequent arrests that followed the 1999 stand out event won her wide recognition in Africa where such activities are mainly and wrongly associated with men only. Maathai's position was clearly captured by the media and immediately made her seem unique, otherwise, there are many African women putting up resistence and making life and death decisions at very local, village or community levels but who cannot be captured by the predominantly
elitist African national media that has failed to potray the active and rightful roles African women play in development.
There is no doubt that having been made heroness by the media, she and closest associates as well as other politicians seriously attempted to take advantage of her celebrity status to ascend to power, a fact that may prove claims that many people in Africa are seriously after political power rather than pursuing sustainable development course from the grassroot.
Using her popularity,
her husband tried in vain to cease power as member of parliament (MP) in the 1970s. She herself battled for an MP seat and Presidency in 1977 and failed, proving that she might have been popular as a development activist but people did not see her fit for political positions. Non-the-less, her activism and previllaged university academic position as vertinary medicine researcher and head of the department stirred action in many circles.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki may have elected her to the ministerial position in 2003 to avoid political pressure from Maathai's similar-mind environmental activistst, her increasing sympathizers but more so to win the votes and support of increasing Kenyan women who followed her guidence as a women liberation strategy.
Her greatest legacy is embeded to the
Green Belt Movement (GBM) that engages millions of women and men in environmental conservation in Africa and attracts support from an international front to support eqitable resource use as a strategy for mobilizing and empowering women across Africa and the world to replace growth imperatives and hierrachies with sustainable pathways.
Her legacy to liberate African women from the claws of neo-colonial institutions including the urban-centred media houses in most of Africa is clearly evident in her book titled "Unbowed" in which she gives graphic explanations of the potentials of rural women in protecting and developing basic household and family resources such as land, health and energy for the welfare of communities at large. In most of her writings, she emphasizes the strength of African traditional and cultural practices in resource conservation.
While the GBM shall have engaged and economically supported millions of women in Africa when it completes the "Size of Wales" campaign in which some one trillion trees are planned to be planted this year (2012), her sudden cervical cancer-causssed death leaves behind another challenge to women health issues.
Cervical cancer is leading in incidence in East Africa but it has not been given similar attention as other sectors such as the environment.
(To be continued)
