Nobel Prize Winner: Small Steps Change the World
St. Petersburg Times
March 24, 2006
Wangari Maathai in the Republic of Congo, February 2005. Photo: Marcus Agar.
TAMPA—She has accomplished big things, but Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, said it’s often the small efforts that have the most impact.
“It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference,” Maathai said. “My little thing is planting trees.”
Maathai spoke to 1,000 people at the University of South Florida’s Special Events Center on Thursday night. She recounted her life story and offered advice on how to foster peace and help the environment.
“We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment,” Maathai said to resounding applause.
Maathai, who founded Kenya’s Green Belt movement to restore Africa’s forests, was elected to the Kenyan Parliament in 2002. She endured beatings, went to jail and received death threats while fighting for democracy in Kenya, but refused to be silenced. Maathai said her fascination with the environment started more than 60 years ago when she was a young child in Kenya. She would play by a river, pretending frog eggs were beads for a necklace. The eggs would break, and tadpoles would swim free.
“I would be on my knees looking at them and admiring them, trying to have them on my neck, until my mother would call and wonder what . . . I was doing in the river,” Maathai told the laughing crowd.
Maathai came to America in the 1960s to study as a Kennedy Scholar. Upon returning to Africa, she noticed the toll that deforestation had taken on the environment. Companies had mowed forests and paid farmers to grow salable crops, such as coffee, tea and sugar cane.
She set out to educate women about forestry and economics. She helped them plant trees, and paid them for their work. The Green Belt Movement was born. And the dictatorship ruling Kenya at the time took notice, seeing something subversive about this small step toward restoring the African landscape.
“The government said, “You don’t only plant trees, you give people ideas,’ ” Maathai said. “That was wonderful, because I knew they understood.”
In 2004, Maathai became the first African to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She said she did not expect the prize, since the environment is not usually linked with peace.
People ask “What does the tree planting have to do with peace?” she said. “We are used to thinking in compartments. We cannot enjoy peace if we do not enjoy resources sustainably.”
Still, for all she’s accomplished, Maathai said she wakes up feeling small, like a hummingbird dropping beads of water on a large fire.
“I wake up in the morning and say, “I’ll be a hummingbird. I’ll do whatever I can.”
Stephanie Hayes can be reached at 813 269-5303 or shayes@sptimes.com
“It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference,” Maathai said. “My little thing is planting trees.”
Maathai spoke to 1,000 people at the University of South Florida’s Special Events Center on Thursday night. She recounted her life story and offered advice on how to foster peace and help the environment.
“We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment,” Maathai said to resounding applause.
Maathai, who founded Kenya’s Green Belt movement to restore Africa’s forests, was elected to the Kenyan Parliament in 2002. She endured beatings, went to jail and received death threats while fighting for democracy in Kenya, but refused to be silenced. Maathai said her fascination with the environment started more than 60 years ago when she was a young child in Kenya. She would play by a river, pretending frog eggs were beads for a necklace. The eggs would break, and tadpoles would swim free.
“I would be on my knees looking at them and admiring them, trying to have them on my neck, until my mother would call and wonder what . . . I was doing in the river,” Maathai told the laughing crowd.
Maathai came to America in the 1960s to study as a Kennedy Scholar. Upon returning to Africa, she noticed the toll that deforestation had taken on the environment. Companies had mowed forests and paid farmers to grow salable crops, such as coffee, tea and sugar cane.
She set out to educate women about forestry and economics. She helped them plant trees, and paid them for their work. The Green Belt Movement was born. And the dictatorship ruling Kenya at the time took notice, seeing something subversive about this small step toward restoring the African landscape.
“The government said, “You don’t only plant trees, you give people ideas,’ ” Maathai said. “That was wonderful, because I knew they understood.”
In 2004, Maathai became the first African to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She said she did not expect the prize, since the environment is not usually linked with peace.
People ask “What does the tree planting have to do with peace?” she said. “We are used to thinking in compartments. We cannot enjoy peace if we do not enjoy resources sustainably.”
Still, for all she’s accomplished, Maathai said she wakes up feeling small, like a hummingbird dropping beads of water on a large fire.
“I wake up in the morning and say, “I’ll be a hummingbird. I’ll do whatever I can.”
Stephanie Hayes can be reached at 813 269-5303 or shayes@sptimes.com