Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai on Friday received the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo, becoming the first African woman and first environmentalist to receive the prestigious award.
Maathai — dressed in a bright orange bubu dress with a matching headband — accepted the traditional gold medal and diploma that accompanies the 10-million kronor ($1,1-million) prize from the chairperson of the Nobel Committee, Ole Mjoes, at a formal ceremony in Oslo’s City Hall for her campaign to save Africa’s forests and for being a “leading spokeswoman for democracy and human rights, and especially women’s rights”.
The 64-year-old Kenyan said protecting the environment is vital to promote peace and democracy.
“There can be no peace without equitable development and there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space. This shift is an idea whose time has come,” said Maathai.
“Industry and global institutions must appreciate that ensuring economic justice, equity and ecological integrity are of greater value than profits at any cost,” she added in her acceptance speech.
Maathai, who is the first African woman to receive the prize and the 12th woman since it was first awarded in 1901, said she will use it to encourage more environmental protection, adding that the relationship between a safe environment and peace is and remains forever linked.
Maathai’s selection by the secretive five-member Nobel Committee for the Peace Prize raised eyebrows because of her environmental ties and also because of controversy over statements she reportedly made asserting that Aids is a laboratory-created ailment.
But she said her comments about Aids being created to destroy Africans were misquoted and taken out of context.
“I have not said what I’m quoted as saying,” she said of claims that Aids was created by scientists and let loose upon Africa by the West.
She reaffirmed her stand in a statement released by the Nobel Committee that said: “It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive.”
Maathai was selected for her role in founding the Green Belt Movement, which has sought to empower women, improve the environment and fight corruption in Africa for nearly 30 years.
A Deputy Environment Minister in the Kenyan government, Maathai also won acclaim for her campaign to fight deforestation by planting 30-million trees in Africa.
Her Nobel prize is the first to acknowledge environmentalism as a means of building peace.
When the award was announced in October, Mjoes said the committee “added a new dimension to peace” by choosing Maathai, but critics contended that it dilutes the nature of the prize.
Maathai said the five-member committee is looking at new ways to promote peace.
“This shift the Nobel Committee has made is an extremely important shift for us, because it puts the environment right at the top of the agenda,” she said.
Maathai said protecting the environment is a vital part of building both a democratic and peaceful society.
The Nobel prizes are always presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of their creator, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.
The peace prize is presented in Oslo, while the other Nobel prizes are awarded in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Last year, the peace prize was given to Iranian human-rights activist Shirin Ebadi. Former United States President Jimmy Carter received it in 2002. — Sapa-AP, Sapa-AFP
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