Wanjira is a board member of the Green Belt Movement, founded by her mother, the late Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai.
Everything eventually becomes about trees. Wanjira Mathai as a board member of Green Belt Movement (founded by her mother, the late Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai) has started a conversation with NIC Bank #ticker:NIC and other corporates on a tree planting movement to avert the impending wrath of mother earth.
The campaign — #ChangeTheStory — with its ambition to plant 30 million trees also plans to raise public consciousness on climate change.
When not talking (and planting) trees, Wanjira also serves as senior adviser at the World Resources Institute and for the Partnerships for Women Entrepreneurs in Renewables (wPOWER). She is also an advisory council member of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, co-chair of the Global Restoration Council, and a member of the Earth Charter International Council.
She met JACKSON BIKO at ICRAF in Gigiri.
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If you were a tree, what tree would you be?
That’s a really good question. (Pause) A Croton. You know what a Croton is?
Why?
I’m sure you would know it if you saw it, we all played with the nuts that fell off it as children. It looks different from the top and from the bottom and the legend is that when it’s about to rain this tree turns its leaves upwards to have the silvery look. It grows really fast and it’s beautiful. But I love that tree because I find my personality close to its personality. I move depending on what is needed.
What about your mum, haven’t you ever been asked?
What her funniest joke was? (Chuckles)
Let’s hear it.
My mother was hilarious and not many people knew that she had such an amazing sense of humour. Most of the times that I worked with her, we laughed a lot. She loved a good laugh and a good time and her personality was just not what people saw. Her public persona didn’t invite any fun things. She was always so serious. It was always sort of a battle, as if her life was always like that. I wouldn’t say she was misrepresented but maybe just half the story because there was more than just what you saw.
You have two brothers, with you being the middle child, what is it they say about middle children?
(Laughs) There’s a lot of bad stuff about middle children. Most of which is you’re tough because you can’t win, right? You can’t win because there’s always somebody at each end. But my father always protected me, being the only girl. He was very partial to me as if I was the only child and I felt very safe in that sense.
Your father isn’t mentioned much when someone reads up about you. Was he the kind of guy that liked to sit in the background?
My dad was in the background, but not always. I think maybe it’s a generational thing. He was a Member of Parliament for Lang’ata and so lived a very public life. He was also a businessman and so I think there are some generations who would remember that side of him. But my mother’s life burst into the public scene in a way that was a lot more public than the way my dad did. Back then you were not a celebrity for being a politician.
My memory of him is of a committed father. I’m told their divorce was very public, I don’t know. I don’t remember, I was too young. And I never had the interest to even go back to read, but it was clearly not a happy departing. But my parents have never tried to keep us away from the other one. So I grew up literally between both houses and you almost feel, and I tell this honestly, I don’t remember feeling deficient. I would either be in his house or my mom’s.
It became the new normal.
Yes. In fact, I remember my mother saying, “No no no, you have to go, you have to go and see your dad.” Because first of all, she always said, “He’s the only dad you’ll ever have.” The same thing on my dad’s side. It’s only when you get older you start to understand about relationships and then realise okay yeah, it must have been a lot of pain, a lot of stress.
How are you and your father alike?
Personality, I think I’m a decent public speaker like he was. He loved the art of speech. What I didn’t pick from him however is business acumen. I just don’t have a bone of that in me. And he was just absolutely clever, and always taking opportunities and had a lot of stamina. He’d go to India to find out about this machine that can make soap then set up a soap factory in Njoro. And then maybe that doesn’t work, or doesn’t work so well, he’d start growing wheat. He’s also a calm collected guy. A lot of people say we look alike.
Is asking a woman like you in leadership how they balance work and home diminish you or your gender as a woman?
No. I don’t think so. Because it’s a true struggle. For mothers, it is a question you’re constantly asked because of a certain time in your life you start having children and that has implications for work, right? And you have to take time off, maternity leave, and then there’s that point you feel you have to be near or as close to the child as possible. Absolutely. But I don’t think it diminishes us, it’s a reality. For me, it’s a question that I appreciate even because it allows you to reflect on something that is bigger. It is a balance and that’s why you’re not alone because sometimes you feel like I’m not the super mom, but you’re also not the super worker. It’s a huge spread.
What are you bad at? Something that you struggle with.
I’m bad at saying no. Sometimes I postpone saying no which is not such a good thing. I’m married to someone who’s very clear: yes no, he doesn’t waste any time. I’m not like that, I postpone to say no. I’m also not a very good implementer of things. I’m a good strategic thinker and a good advocate for things that I care about, but if you tell me to conceive of a thing and run it and create the monetary framework for it, I struggle.
Describe yourself when you finally celebrate your 50th birthday.
Looking awesome. I better be looking really good at 50—I’m working at it. I should be happy, feeling a sense of balance, in terms of doing really what I enjoy. I want to enjoy good health, be fit. It’s will be a good space. Isn’t 50 the new 40?
If you were to be a man for a day, what would you do?
(Pause) That’s a hard thing because I never thought I’d want to be a man for a day. (Laughs) That’s a good question. (Pause) I don’t think I’d want to be a man for a day. No.
Growing up with a strong mother, was there a point you thought, ‘my God how do I match that?’
No. Because it was tough! It wasn’t glamorous or fun. It was a struggle. I used to wonder if it’s worth it. There was a time, I think it had to be in the 90s, when I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow, she is amazing, her commitment and being willing to go for what she believes in but who will know that she is this passionate and strongly believes in these things she is fighting for?” She was brave, she lost friends. Then maybe 10 years later she gets the Nobel Peace Prize and I thought ‘great, that was a fantastic validation.’
It was a great personal cost but then I remember thinking, oh my God! All these!
What’s your biggest fear now?
Not being healthy. And I think that’s a direct function of my mother’s health. My mother was healthy all her life, she hardly saw a doctor or swallowed tablets. And then she developed perhaps the worst possible condition one could, ovarian cancer. So I’m always aware of you can look healthy but not be.
If you were to die today, at say, 6pm, what’s the one thing you’d wish you did? Had another ice cream cone. (Laughs loudly) I’d wish I had dashed to Snow Cream for some vanilla ice cream.
Have you found your purpose?
Not yet. (Pause) I think so. I think to some extent one of the things that I’m really committing and it’s becoming more and more clear is telling the Wangari Maathai story for young people. There is a generation of young people who don’t know what she did and as chair the foundation, Wangari Maathai Foundation we’re trying to use Wangari Maathai’s life to inspire these young people. That we don’t forget that it’s possible to come from very humble beginnings and do great things. And if I can be a vehicle for children see that it’s possible. We don’t want them to mention role models who are so far away when we have our own right here. So to share that story more is a purpose of mine. And the reason I say that is that I also spent almost 11 years working with my mom. Every single day. So I feel such a sense of privilege to have learnt from her.
