“It's More Than Planting Trees, It's Planting Ideas”: Ecofeminist Praxis in the Green Belt Movement

Abstract

Led by Wangari Maathai, the Green Belt Movement emerged as a response to environmental degradation in postcolonial Kenya. This essay examines three Green Belt Movement campaigns that operated as praxis to resist environmental and political oppression, empowering rural women to enact a political consciousness toward democracy and environmental justice. The ecofeminist conception of power-toward drives an analysis of the ways participants were empowered to materially rearticulate an environmentally stable and democratic Kenya. As a case study of environmental justice in the Global South, this essay demonstrates the applicability of an ecofeminist framework in critical rhetorical analysis by exploring the dynamics of social change.

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Notes

Matthai included the story of the hummingbird in several public addresses and documentaries. After her death in 2011, the Green Belt Movement created the “I am a Hummingbird” Campaign and features a video clip of Matthai telling this story (http://wangari.greenbeltmovement.org/hummingbird/).

The Web page created in tribute to Wangari Maathai can be found at http://wangari.greenbeltmovement.org.

Warren (1994) introduces the power typology in an early essay; the construct is more fully developed in her book (2000) entitled, Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters. Warren self-reflectively explains her reasoning for a Western perspective in that it represents, “a particular vision of ecofeminist philosophy, one that is grounded in [her] own Western historical experience and academic feminist perspective” (p. xiii).

In 1960, Wangari Maathai received a scholarship through the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation, studying biology, chemistry, and German. In 1964, she entered the University of Pittsburgh to study biological sciences, graduating in 1966. She returned to Kenya in 1966 to take a position at University of Nairobi. She graduated with a PhD from the University of Gieesen in 1969.