The Green Belt Movement: Ecofeminist Movement of Wangari Maathai

 

Regy Joseph¹, Dr. Rachel Bari²

 

¹Research Scholar, Department of Post Graduate Studies and Research in English, Kuvempu University, Jnana Sahyadri, Shankaraghata, Shimoga, Karnataka, India

 

 

ABSTRACT:

This article focuses on the activities of The Green Belt Movement , the ecofeminist movement of Wangari Maathi, the Kenyan Writer and Noble laureate of 2004. The argument the Green Belt Movement as a movement with strategies for action directed towards an ecological revolution and sustainable development. This conception is essential to an examination of Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya who use tree planting as an activity to advocate for social change, ecological revolution and empowerment for women. The Green Belt Movement’s goal is to establish public green belts and fuel wood plots by local people, especially women in the spirit of self-reliance and empowerment as well as to combat soil erosion. The movement over a period of nearly thirty years has mobilized poor women to plant an estimated thirty million trees.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

If there is a biologist that most completely captures the marriage of environmentalism and feminism, it is the Nobel Prize-winning ecosocial activist  Wangari Maathai. Mathaai is celebrated for embodying  a particular set of ideas about how a woman in the third world should behave - selflessly, fearlessly – and is praise for being ‘wise’, rather than for being clever. She is in danger of being recast as a kind of ‘Mother Africa’ figure, rather than being remembered as the woman who said: ‘I don’t see the distinction between environmentalism and feminism.’ She was the champion of ecofeminism in Africa, especially in Kenya. (Jennet Web).

 

Her books Unbowed: A memoir, (2004), The Challenges for Africa,(2009) and The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience, (1985) throws light into the activities she has undertaken to bring socio-political changes in Kenya as an eco feminist social activist. As a member of the National council of women in Kenya, she founded the Green Belt Movement. She explained the origin of her Movement in her Nobel Prize acceptance Speech:

 

“I was partially responding to the needs identified by rural women, namely lack of firewood, clean drinking water, balanced diets, shelter and income. Tree planting become a natural choice to address some of the initial basic needs identified by women.

Also, tree planting is simple, attainable and guarantees quick, successful results within a reasonable time. This sustains interest and commitment.  So together we planted over 30 million trees that provide fuel, food, shelter and income to support their children’s education and house hold needs. The activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds. Through their involvement, women gain some degree of power over their lives, especially their social and economic position and relevance in the family.” (Maathai Web).

 

There seems to be the sense that via recourse to earth struggles, a dual struggle of women is generated from ecological activism as is reflected in the life and work of Maathai and her Green Belt Movement. The Green Belt Movement uses tree planting as a strategy for environmental conservation, provision of fuel, clean water and income for rural women as well as for providing a platform for women in leadership through capacity building. Maathai and the Green Belt Movement have also used tree planting in pressing for democratic reform in advocacy activities towards preventing forest destruction, bringing to end poor governance and human rights atrocities such as tribal clashes and corruption, especially the illegal allocation of public land Therefore, Maathai has been a strong force in Kenya's environmental and political arenas. She is also known as ‘mama miti, a Swahili name meaning the mother of trees. 

 

In awarding Maathai the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel committee also placed emphasis on the importance of human rights in international politics. Peace, it seems, can only last where human rights are respected. Of even greater emphasis are the rights of women and other marginalized groups in the world today. In many societies, gender concerns are usually relegated as secondary to national concerns. This consequently has an impact on policy formulation and implementation with women being marginalized.(Maathai Web) In her reply speech she highlighted the role of  African people especially the women in the conservation of ecology, “I'm quite sure that, with this kind of a prize, a lot of prejudices against women are automatically removed. I can say without exaggeration that everybody in this country, and I'm sure many people in Africa are extremely happy, and are associating themselves with the prize - both men and women. And I'm sure that, at such a time, men appreciate the role that women can play. I know that, for many men in this country, they're very proud. And they associate themselves with what the women have been doing. And this is something that I had already seen in the work that many men associate themselves. So, I think that, at a certain level, when women are dealing too with real issues, and when those issues are recognized, that there is no longer the gender bias, and that both men and the women converge in their appreciation”.(Maathai Web).

 

Maathai articulates a gender perspective in which women's knowledge, experiences and perceptions are given validity and fore grounded in analysing and presenting issues. Gender equality and equity are not only a question of fundamental human rights and social justice, but are essential to the functioning of the environment as well (Moma, 114). Women, particularly those living in the rural areas, play a major role in managing natural resources such as soil, water, forests and energy. Their tasks in agriculture as well as in the household make them daily managers of the environment. Therefore, as the world's food producers, women have a stake in the preservation of the environment and in environmentally sustainable development. Land and water resources form the basis of all farming systems, and their preservation is crucial to sustained and improved food production.

 

The argument therefore views the Green Belt Movement as grassroots political movement that discerns interconnections among all forms of oppression with strategies for action directed towards an ecological revolution and sustainable development. This conception is essential to an examination of Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya who use tree planting as an activity to advocate for social change, ecological revolution and empowerment for women. So  Maathai's Green Belt Movement is treated as an alliance between women and nature in asserting the political agency of both.

 

Maathai’s ecofeminism has to be viewed  from  the Kenyan experiences of the  impact of colonialism on Kenyan women, women's roles in food production, changing land tenure  patterns, the impact of colonial policies on women's right to land, the marginalizing impact of commercialisation and commodity production on Kenyan women and a  gender perspective in interpreting the relationship between Kenyan women and their environment by critically examining deep-rooted gender ideologies on appropriate roles for men and women. Traditional roles women such as food and firewood gathering link women to environment management.

 

Rural indigenous women in Kenya continue to experience scarcity in relation to fuel wood procurement for their household use, which includes issues related to significant environmental strain, demanding workloads, health and nutrition concerns and the overlooked specifics of knowledge and use requirements. Deforestation and reforestation of monoculture species for purposes of commercial production has led to the diminishing of indigenous forests. This has affected women's ability to maintain a subsistence household. Indigenous trees provide a variety of trees for food, fodder household utensils, dyes, and medicines whereas monoculture species do not.

 

As Jiggins (1994) asserts, in a male dominated world, masculine ideals and definitions are taken as normative and, in the absence of strong female leadership, patterns of male preference reassert themselves in policy, bureaucracy and implementation. In contrast, the women's movement creates management styles and organizational structures that allow for democracy and diversity. These movements have a great impact on socioeconomic dimensions of humans such as the Green Belt Movement in Kenya in developing tree nurseries and tree planting campaigns. (28). Indeed, Maathai confirms that women, through the Green Belt Movement, have become innovative in using techniques unacceptable to professional foresters (usually male). Kenyan women have played a major role in tree planting such as establishing exotic wood plantations such as pines, eucalyptus, and cypress which are the basis of the country's timber industry today. Both the colonial and the current education system have promoted exotic biological diversity of trees and crops for rapid economic returns at the expense of indigenous species. The Green Belt Movement has confronted the challenge to persuade farmers to plant indigenous trees in order to conserve local biodiversity.

 

Kenya's women are currently involved in the process of redefining their identities, their roles and meaning of gender. According to Thomas-Slayter and Rocheleau (1995), “this process entails strengthening their sense of human agency individually and through collective action with an emphasis on cooperation, struggle and sometimes resistance. Kenyan women are increasingly involved, not only in activities to manage and expand resources, but in political and social action as well. Local organizations and grassroots movement are seen as central to effective social change and empowerment of women. It is often through women leaders and organizations that women speak out against environmental destruction and advocate for a peaceful and healthy planet. Such organizations and movements focus on practical needs such as provision of water and fuel sources. They also operate in environmental, economic and social arenas. And Maathai and the Green Belt Movement  are at the forefront in advocating for a reorganization of political, social and economic aspects related to women in Kenya.”(115).

 

The Green Belt Movement’s goal is to establish public green belts and fuel wood plots by local people, especially women in the spirit of self-reliance and empowerment as well as to combat soil erosion. The movement over a period of nearly thirty years has mobilized poor women to plant an estimated thirty million trees. Tree planting therefore has served to provide fuel, food, shelter, building materials, fencing material and income to support their children's education through the sale of timber, firewood and fodder. The tree planting activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds. (246).

 

Furthermore, the Green Belt Movement has used tree planting as an entry point to community development. Whilst tree planting has always been the central activity, the Green Belt Movement programmes have expanded to include Green Belt Movement  civic education, advocacy, food security, green belt eco-safaris, and "women for change". In the area of civic education, the Green Belt Movement has established a pilot civic education and advocacy project to raise public awareness on the need to protect the environment and be active participants in the political process by voting. The Green Belt Movement  Learning centre in Nairobi offers seminars on good governance, advocacy, culture, environment and environmental justice. The Green Belt Movement is a catalyst in empowering the women in Kenya

 

Through its advocacy programmes, the Green Belt Movement  has initiated advocacy activities since the late 1980s directed towards preventing forest destruction, ending poor governance and ending human rights atrocities such as tribal clashes and corruption. In 1997, “the Green Belt Movement  established a Pan-African Green network to share the Green Belt Movement  approach through two-week training workshops. The overall goal of the programme was to share the approach while raising awareness on the importance of conserving local biodiversity.” (Maathai, 69) 

 

"Women for change" is the newest Green Belt Movement program. Commissioned in early 2003, the program aims to assist, especially young girls and women, to confront the challenges of growing up, such as to make complex decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, and to gain knowledge and skills to protect themselves against HIV and AIDS. The programme also aims to facilitate the establishment of income generating activities such as tree planting, bee keeping and food processing to engender economic empowerment. Tree planting has also been useful in providing a platform for women in leadership. (69) 

 

According to Maathai, through their involvement in the Green Belt Movement, women gain some degree of power over their lives, especially their social and economic position and relevance in the family. In speaking about the success of the Green Belt Movement in relation to women's involvement, Maathai highlights her commitment to and leadership of a grassroots, people-based African ecofeminism:

“I placed my faith in the rural women of Kenya from the very beginning, and they have been key to the success of the Green Belt Movement. Through this very hands-on method of growing and planting trees, women have seen that they have real choices about whether they are going to sustain and restore the environment or destroy it. In the process of education that takes place when someone joins the Green Belt Movement, women have become aware that planting trees or fighting to save forests from being chopped down is part of a larger mission to create a society that respects democracy, decency, adherence to the rule of law, human lights, and the rights of women. Women also take on leadership roles, running nurseries, working with foresters, planning and implementing community-based projects for water harvesting and food security. All of these experiences contribute to their developing more confidence in themselves and more power over the direction of their lives.” (37)

 

It is worthy to note that Maathai has placed her faith in rural women. Ecofeminism as explained earlier has been critiqued for homogenizing women by not considering issues such as class and resource content among women. Ecofeminism assumes that all women have the same relationship with the environment and seems not to make a sufficient distinction between the urban women who may be driven by consumerist ethics and rural women who easily identify with nature. Maathai and the Green Belt Movement  as an ecofeminist activism make a departure from this homogenization by identifying a group of rural women and focusing on their needs. However, the word rural is problematic as one cannot define whether rural women are termed as such by their proximity to the urban areas or in terms of their ability to access economic, social and other needs. For instance, it is difficult to classify women living in the slums of Nairobi city as either urban or rural. Indeed, ecofeminism has also been accused of defining the environment as ecologically based, resulting in a rural bias, hence ignoring the issues of urban areas such as women living in the slums. Moreover, based on the experiences of Maathai and women in the Green Belt Movement, it would seem that Kenyan women have had difficulty in entering patriarchal decision-making structures. African women face the challenge of trying to achieve a consensus amongst themselves on how to respond to the persistent gender hierarchy in ways that are personally liberating as well as politically positive. Involvement in organizations such as the Green Belt Movement has enabled women to meet critical domestic needs as well as to meet the challenge of increased involvement in the market and cash economy.

 

Through their collective labour women can generate income for the group members through revolving credit schemes and by providing required labour inputs for their own farms at peak times in the agricultural cycle. African women therefore have to tread the delicate balance between trying to achieve greater public representation for themselves while supporting the rights of African states to be autonomous decision makers. Maathai and the Green Belt Movement can then be seen as an African ecofeminist activism in their bid to advocate for democracy in Kenya's political and economic structures while still resisting western imperialism. Thus  Maathai’s ecofeminist views revolves around Green Belt Movement  and the emancipation of women and  environment.

 

REFERENCE:

1.       Maathai, Wangari. The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the approach and the experience.   New York: Lantem Books.2004.Print.

2.       Unbowed: A Memoir. New York :Anchor Books.2007.Print.

3.       The challenges for Africa. London: Arrow  Books.2010.Print.

4.       Danielle, Castelli. Wangari Maathai: Ecologist, Author, Feminist.The Guardian. 08 April 2011.London.2011. 

5.       Garrard,G, Murphy, PD. Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy. Urbana: Univ. Illinois Press. 1998. print.

6.       Holden, Madronna.  Ecofeminism Class notes. Oregon State University. 2009.Print.

7.       Jiggins, J. ‘Changing the Boundaries: Women Centered prospective on the Population and Environment. Washington: Island Press.1994.print

8.       Moma, C. Democracy and Environment. London: Zed books.1992.print.

9.       Thomas-Slayter,B and Rocheleau, D. Gender , Environment and Development in Kenya: Grassroots Perspective. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.1995.Print

10.     Jannet, The green social activist Maathai. 28 June 2011.Web.12 May 2012. <http://www.imow.org/wpp/stories/viewTopic?topicId=110

11.     Maathai, Wangari. Nobel Presentation Speech. 21 December 2004. Web. 21 March 2009.

12.     <http:// www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/ 2004/presentation-speech.html>