The late environmentalist and Nobel laureate Prof. Wangari Mathai’s message continues to inspire activists and thinkers around the world, it is a powerful reminder that colonialism has had a deep and lasting impact on the way we think and perceive the world, and that in order to create real change.
Prof Mathai who was a renowned advocate for social justice, environmental conservation, and women’s rights, in one of her most powerful speeches, she spoke about the importance of decolonizing one’s mind and breaking free from the mental chains of colonialism.
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She emphasized that colonialism had not only had a devastating impact on the environment, social and economic structures, but also had a profound effect on the way people thought and perceived the world around them.
She argued that the mental legacy of colonialism was just as destructive as its physical legacy, and that it was crucial to recognize and challenge this legacy in order to create real change.
“Colonialism was not just about physical oppression, but also about mental colonization,” Prof Mathai said in her speech. “It is about imposing a way of thinking, a way of seeing the world, that is not our own. It is about making us believe that our own ways of knowing and being are inferior, that we are not capable of governing ourselves, of taking care of our own communities and our own environment.”
Prof. Mathai argued that in order to create real change, it was necessary to decolonize our minds and challenge the dominant narratives and ways of thinking that had been imposed on us.
This involved recognizing and valuing our own ways of knowing and being, and rejecting the idea that Western knowledge and ways of life were superior.
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“We need to reclaim our own ways of knowing and being, to value our own traditions and knowledge systems. We need to reject the idea that Western knowledge is the only valid knowledge, and to recognize that there are multiple ways of understanding the world and our place in it,” Mathai said.
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