Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Environmentalist and human rights campaigner, first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and founder of the Green Belt Movement which trained women to pl
On the island
Eight records
I had when I was a child. It was very interesting for me that this very young artist, still in his uh thirties, I think, recaptured that song and in listening to it made me go back to my childhood. I I love it.
Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)Favourite
The second song is from a favorite artist, Harry Berrafonte. Now we go to America, we leave Kenya, we go to America. And I said earlier that I spent some wonderful time in America, and this was the time when Harry Barrafonte was singing his Caribbean Calypso songs and the feeling of the freedom, feel free and happy of the Caribbean region.
Malaika is a Kiswahili word for angels. And what it is is is a very popular song, it's a romantic song. It's a a young man who who laments that he has this girl that he loves, but unfortunately he's a poor boy and he is not able to pay the dowry. And so he says, If only I had the wealth that is required, I would love to marry you, my angel.
I love her because she brings in into my life the world of the music that sounds like soul music. And I loved soul music when I was in the United States. This is where I feel the African in the black Americans, how they are able to dig deep into their soul and bring out a certain heritage that they brought with them from Africa.
Now the the next record is very significant for me because this is the song that was being sung by Martin Luther King and his colleagues during the civil strife in America in the sixties. And it was everywhere we would hear it, we would sing it. And in singing this song, We Shall Overcome, there are many more things to sing about, not just color, not just discrimination, but also the way we deal with our environment.
Miriam Makiba, as you know, is a South African artist who, especially during the apartheid years, was singing freedom songs and encouraging us in Africa to continue struggling. She left her homeland and did a lot of campaign against apartheid, but through her songs. And this is one of those songs where she tells us, keep your eyes on tomorrow, don't give up.
Anyone who has ever been outside when the moon is standing there almost like it is standing still, and you wonder. What happens there? What will happen in the future? And for me, moments like that, I remember this song. it brings tears to my eyes because in many ways it is romantic, but also in other ways it takes you into this huge vacuum of the possibilities, and you realize how small you are, how insignificant you are. in this cosmos.
The last record is um Ave Maria, and it is really beautiful sometimes to just uh listen to music that is spiritual, that is elevating, because in the final analysis, no matter how much material things we we accumulate, no matter how much we worry, in the final analysis we are spiritual human beings, at least that's the way I perceive myself, that in the end all will come to To an end, and then we shall be part of the spirit, part of the energy out there.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:57How did you hear about [winning] the Nobel Peace Prize?
Well, that was very, very surprising to many people because the Nobel Committee was actually making a very historic decision to include the concept of sustainable management of resources and to link it with the need for the respect for the rule of law and human rights and respect for the diversity that is within our societies wherever we are. … Now, when I was called to be informed that I had won, I had no idea whatsoever what was coming. And I must tell you, you almost don't believe it, actually. It is impossible to understand the impact it would have on your life.
Presenter asks
6:45How did [your father's polygamous family] work?
Well, in the beginning it was uh strange because uh my community believed in polygamy. But when the Christians came, then they demanded that there has to be monogamy. But the first Christians actually were allowed to to stay with all their wives. It was mostly the second generation that was required to be absolutely monogamous.
Presenter asks
14:35How now do you view that quid pro quo of giving up the essence of your identity in return for an education? Has there been a journey of reclaiming the essence of who you are?
The keepsakes
The book
I think the Quran would be a good book so that I can see what they say about the environment.
The luxury
Yes, indeed, there has been in a journey. And one of the journeys that I personally took was to redefine my name. And because I had changed my name so many times, the women who attended my mother called me Wangari, and that's my name. And so all the other names that I was given to become first a Protestant Christian, and then I was given another name to become a Catholic, I eventually decided that you know what, I am who I was when I first came into this world. Everything else is an adjective, I tell people, my name is Wangari.
Presenter asks
17:33Did you experience any of that [segregation], any sort of racial prejudice [in America]?
Yeah, I I think that I was uh in a in a very protected area, but it is very, very important to say that segregation was full swing in America in the sixties. And we have one experience where we were trying to get a drink and we were told we could drink outside but not in the cafe. So segregation in America was in full swing, and I know some of my colleagues who had very nasty experiences because they were black.
Presenter asks
24:14How did [the Green Belt movement] begin?
Well, that is definitely like a a fourth child. Discussion with the country women is what triggered me because they were d describing a situation that was completely different from what I had experienced as a child. And so I could see and I could experience from their descriptions that something very drastic was going wrong with our environment. … These descriptions gave me the inspiration where I told the women, let us plant trees.
Presenter asks
26:04What were you actually arrested and found guilty of [under the Moi regime]?
Let me say that I was always conscious of the fact that whatever I do I must not break the law. But when you have a dictatorship You'll be arrested anyway, no matter what you do, even within the law, because dictators are the law. One time we were trying to stop the acquisition or the privatization of the Uhuru Park, the open space in Nairobi. … So you get arrested for picketing almost. The minute you raise your voices, you'd get arrested.
“that image of pristine environment must have been instilled in my mind so that later on when I saw the degrading environment, I was able to see it where many other people could not see it.”
“I eventually decided that you know what, I am who I was when I first came into this world. Everything else is an adjective, I tell people, my name is Wangari.”
“It is an experience that only people who have been marginalized and hum humiliated can understand. But at a personal level, you feel very bad. It makes you wonder what's wrong with you.”
“Sometimes what we women are required to do, it's just a miracle that we survive. If anything happens in that family, it's you, the woman. It's you who is not accommodating. It's you who is too ambitious. It's you who is trying to be too much [of a] white woman in black skin.”