“Knowledge Born in the Struggle”: Activism, Decolonial Ecology, and Sustainability in Wangari Maathai’s Unbowed: A Memoir

Abstract

Wangari Muta Maathai’s autobiographical account Unbowed: A Memoir (2006) is a captivating depiction of Maathai’s strenuous efforts in environmental activism. The memoir begins with Maathai’s recollection of her childhood years as a Kikuyu tribe member in Kenya, her exposure to Western education, and eventually her establishment of the Green Belt Movement, among several other philanthropic endeavours. This article examines the cultural and epistemological significance of Maathai’s memoir. We focus on Maathai’s portrayals of the pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial phases in Africa and her depiction of how Indigenous communities have experienced political, cultural, and epistemological exclusion under the Western-oriented neocolonial authorities. We contend that in Maathai’s narrative, ecological violence in Africa is inescapably related to and resonates with the epistemic violence that Western powers have perpetrated. Maathai’s ideological stance and her memoir testify to the alternative decolonial epistemology that legitimises the worldview, perceptions, and experiences of the masses of the Global South, endorsing the restoration of voices that colonial powers have nullified. In so doing, the article argues that Maathai’s memoir exemplifies what Bouventura de Sousa Santos and Maria Paula Meneses term “knowledge born in the struggle” of the Global South—which disrupts the epistemic hegemony of the West and valorises pluriversal and multifaceted epistemologies necessary for a sustainable and equitable future.