Role models and true stories of courage
From 16Guidelines
Wangari Maathai: Courage
As a child, Wangari Maathai was always a strong personality. She grew up in a traditional Kikuyu homestead in the Kenyan highlands, and tells of her many adventures working in the fields, collecting firewood and going to market. She started off walking barefoot to school yet became the first woman in East and Central Africa to receive a doctorate. She was persecuted during the regime of Daniel Arap Moi but subsequently became a member of the Kenyan government. The Greenbelt Movement which she started in the 1970s has now planted over thirty million trees across Kenya, and takes as its goal the entire re-greening of Africa.
Concern and compassion for the well-being of others is the driving force of Professor Maathai’s life. Having tasted the suffering of her family and community, when they lost their livelihood and their land became deforested, she has devoted her life to addressing these problems on a wider scale. Her initial concern with the environment then led her to become active in areas such as women’s rights, tribal reconciliation and democratic reform. One thing led to another. “Throughout my life I have never stopped to strategize about my next steps. I often just keep walking along, through whichever door opens. I have been on a journey and this journey never stops.”
Wangari Maathai’s life has not lacked heartbreak and adversity. Her husband divorced her, saying she was too strong-minded. She has been frequently attacked in the newspapers and imprisoned. She has often been in physical danger. “What people see as fearlessness is really persistence. Because I am focused on the situation, I don’t see danger. Because I don’t see danger, I don’t allow my mind to imagine what might happen to me, which is my definition of fear.” Instead, she emphasises the need to be patient and determined. “None of us can control every situation we find ourselves in. What we can control is how we react when things turn against us. I have always seen failure as a challenge to pull myself up and keep going.”
Wangari Maathai stresses that her achievements, and her Nobel Peace Prize, are not hers alone. Typically, she does this through an analogy with nature: “A great river always begins somewhere...but for the stream to grow into a river, it must meet other tributaries and join them as it heads for a lake or a sea.” Her courage seems to be rooted in this capacity to be grounded and humble. “No matter how powerful we become in government or how many awards we receive, our power and strength and our ability to reach our goals depend on the people, those whose work remains unseen, who are the soil out of which we grow, the shoulders on which we stand.”
Vedran Smailovic: Courage
Vedran Smailovic was one of the hundreds of thousands of Bosnians who lived through the bombings, sniper fire and shortages of the siege of Sarajevo. In 1992, after 22 people had been killed while queuing for bread, he decided to offer “a musical prayer for peace.” Ignoring the gunfire that threatened his life, he played his cello for 22 days in the bomb crater where they had died. Smailovic also became famous for playing for free at funerals, even though these were often targeted by Serb forces. His ‘Music for Peace’ initiative became an inspiration for civil resistance in Bosnia, and the place where he first played has become a roadside shrine to the power of the human spirit.
