Promoting environmental consciousness and evaluating its impact on African government, Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai lectured to a group of about 100 invitees at the Metcalf Trustees Center Wednesday night.
In her presentation, called “Preserving the Planet, Preventing Conflict,” Maathai, a Kenyan native, addressed the importance of individuals working together to achieve change.
The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, an organization that focuses on the power that planting trees can give women in Africa.
“When I picked [the tree], I didn’t know the magic it would have,” Maathai said. “It became a very wonderful symbol of hope and empowerment.”
Maathai said the values necessary for a successful government are human rights, accountability and transparency, the same characteristics the GBM advocate. Maathai has spent her life working to improve the government as well as the rights of the common people.
“In order for their rights to be protected, they had to realize that their rights were being violated,” she said.
Maathai said the movement also advocates for the conservation of natural resources to prevent discrepancies among nations.
“In many countries, a lot of conflict we know of is over resources,” she said. “We need to make the people at the bottom realize that if it’s bad for the people at the top, it’s bad for you, too.”
Maathai was invited to speak at Boston University by African Studies Center Director Ronald Richardson. The event could be attended only by special request, which sparked the interest of students, faculty and even those not affiliated with the university.
Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said Maathai’s work is important to the BU community because “she represents our connection to the world.”
“She is a woman who speaks from her heart, and I think that is why she’s been so successful in the world,” he said. “She is a role model for all of us.”
Executive Assistant to the Provost Randy Rubinstein said there had been a lot of excitement generated in anticipation for Maathai’s lecture.
“Having heard her speak tonight about empowering one individual to get together with the community to change things is amazing,” Rubinstein said.
Students, after the lecture, said they admired Maathai.
School of Education graduate student Adam Cutler said he is studying Maathai in one of his classes.
“My biggest question was, ‘How can one person go from one village to the next village convincing people?'” the international education development student said. “Listening to her speak, it’s pretty obvious how she did it. She is a very charismatic person.”
College of Arts and Sciences senior Cara Franson said she was drawn to the event because she is researching Maathai for her ecology class.
“[I am] hoping to take what she said back to the classroom to tell other students,” she said.
SED graduate Allison Kangas said one thing all politicians should aspire to is to maintain connections with their roots and heritage like Maathai has done.
“As the fourth largest private university in the nation, BU has a strong voice,” she said. “Being influenced by someone as powerful as Dr. Maathai can clarify our stand in how we want our local environmental policies to develop and change.”
