On the evening of February 9th, excited students, faculty, and various members of the Goucher community alike packed into the Kraashaur Auditorium to hear the latest Jane and Robert Meyerhoff Visiting, Professor Dr.Wangari Muta Maathai. She is the latest in a series of remarkable speakers that the Meyerhoff family's Visiting Professorship Lecture Series has brought to Goucher. Recognized for her work in sustainable crop development and for her courage and outspoken opposition in the face of Kenya's dictatorial regime under former President Daniel Arap Moi, Dr.Wangari was the Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She was invited to share her story and to speak about the importance of everyone doing their part to preserve the environment, and her lecture attracted a max-capacity crowd. The audience was buzzing as Dr. Maathai walked out to deliver her lecture, titled "Environment, Democracy, and Peace: A Critical Link" about the coming environmental challenges our generation will face. She was welcomed to the stage by a raucous applause. Dressed in traditional Kenyan attire, and possessing with a thick accent, she spoke with a casual ease, and she had an impressive presence about her. After briefly discussing her interesting experience coming from her native Kenya to study at Benedictine College in Kansas, Dr. Maathai spoke about her work to fight deforestation, a huge problem in Africa. She discussed how after being dismissed by the foresters who told her that there could be no trees, she taught women from rural villages how to plant trees, and she mobilized the local village women to help her plant trees. As these women who didn't know anything about the trees started to learn how to replant the trees and take ownership of this project, Dr. Maathai also saw how this gave them more confidence. This experience inspired Dr. Maathai to create the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, founded in 1977, which to date has trained over 100,000 women in various fields of environmental development and planted over 40 million trees all over Kenya. She has continued to draw much praise for her outspoken criticism of the Arap Moi Government, and has been jailed and beaten several times over the years for her rather candid remarks. In 1997, after a marred election, Dr. Maathai ran for the presidency in defiance of the incumbent regime. She has also served in Parliament and as the Assistant Minister of environment, natural resources and wildlife from 2003 till 2005. In 2004, her contributions as a political activist, women's rights advocate, and environmentalist led her to become the first African woman to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Many found her resiliency to be inspirational. Elyse Morris '10 said she found her to be "daring and selfless, and I was also impressed at how she naturally just did what she knew to be right, despite the resistance she encountered." Fior Alba '12 said Dr. Maathai was "Inspiring, definitely. She makes you want to go out and be involved." The crowd was very receptive to her and she stayed to take questions from the audience after the lecture. However, the tone of the lecture wasn't always positive. She warned of the coming global environmental challenges that our generation will face, and the importance of preserving the current ecosystems. The several negative trends such as global warming and deforestation are causes for concern for Dr. Maathai, and she urged the audience to take heed. Her final message was that we just do what we can, and not to let the task at hand overwhelm us.
Nobel Prize winner Dr. Maathai inspires at Kraushaar
Published: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Updated: Monday, August 9, 2010 20:08
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