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Because I was a woman, I was vulnerable. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman.'
Wangari Maathai
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Wangari Maathai
Age: 71 †
Born: 1940
Born: April 1
Died: 2011
Died: September 25
Biologist
Environmentalist
Political Activist
Politician
Teacher
Veterinarian
Wangari Maathaï
Maathai
Wangari Maathai
Elitist
Easy
African
Good
Project
Vulnerable
Following
Tradition
Projects
Vilify
Woman
More quotes by Wangari Maathai
First of all, farmers should work with universities and research institutions in the country, and hopefully with the government.
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For me, one of the major reasons to move beyond just the planting of trees was that I have tendency to look at the causes of a problem. We often preoccupy ourselves with the symptoms, whereas if we went to the root cause of the problems, we would be able to overcome the problems once and for all.
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Once people see that you improve you life if you are educated, then education becomes a valuable tool and people want it.
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I’m very conscious of the fact that you can’t do it alone. It’s teamwork. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it.
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That's the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. And so I got an indigenous tree, called Nandi flame, it has this beautiful red flowers. When it is in flower it is like it is in flame.
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We tend to put the environment last because we think the first thing we have to do is eliminate poverty and send children to school and provide health.
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Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking.
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Why do we have to have people come from afar to come and grow food for us, or to grow food to sell to us? It is partly because we are almost becoming used to people doing things for us. Like somebody else is going to solve that problem for us. And that to me is very disempowering system.
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Culture is coded wisdom
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Education of course is a very empowering experience, so many people who went to school also managed to improve their quality of life much faster because they could get a job, they could get money, and with money you could buy things that you cannot buy if you don't have money.
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In Kenya women are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the ones who walk for hours looking for water, who fetch firewood, who provide food for their families.
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For us who are now in power, we need to be challenged to serve the people and ignore our own egos and personal interests so that we can really demonstrate to other African states that it is possible to share power without going to war.
Wangari Maathai
People are dynamic. They change, and soon as there are enough of you, things change [for a whole society].
Wangari Maathai
It was easy for me to be ridiculed and for both men and women to perceive that maybe I'm a bit crazy because I'm educated in the West and I have lost some of my basic decency as an African woman.
Wangari Maathai
Resources on the planet are limited, and limited resources can come to an end. But there are also a lot of resources that are renewable. A lot of land, for example, can be reclaimed from the encroaching deserts.
Wangari Maathai
You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself. That values itself. That understands itself.
Wangari Maathai
That's the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree.
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We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible.
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It gradually became clear that the Green Belt Movement's work with communities to repair the degraded environment could not be done effectively without participants embracing a set of core spiritual values.
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The developed world should be willing to help [Africa] and support her and make this energy affordable.
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