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Quote by Wangari Maathai

“It was easy to persecute me without people feeling ashamed. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman' and as a highly educated elitist who was trying to show innocent African women ways of doing things that were not acceptable to African men.”

Quote by Wangari Maathai

Author

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan political activist and environmentalist who became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Born on April 1, 1940, and passing away on September 25, 2011, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization dedicated to environmental conservation and women's rights. more

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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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“We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all.”

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“It is important to nurture any new ideas and initiatives which can make a difference for Africa.”

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“It would be good for us Africans to accept ourselves as we are and recapture some of the positive aspects of our culture.”

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“Women are responsible for their children, they cannot sit back, waste time and see them starve.”

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“When you think of all the conflicts we have - whether those conflicts are local, whether they are regional or global - these conflicts are often over the management, the distribution of resources. If these resources are very valuable, if these resources are scarce, if these resources are degraded, there is going to be competition.”

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“We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment.”

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“If I go to a restaurant, other people stare. The meal is ruined.”

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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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“When resources are degraded, we start competing for them, whether it is at the local level in Kenya, where we had tribal clashes over land and water, or at the global level, where we are fighting over water, oil, and minerals. So one way to promote peace is to promote sustainable management and equitable distribution of resources.”

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