SLOW HEALING: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN UNBOWED: A MEMOIR

Authors : Hediye Özkan

Pages : 124-143

Doi:10.33171/dtcfjournal.2024.64.1.6

View : 98 | Download : 58

Publication Date : 2024-06-25

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :In her autobiography Unbowed: A Memoir (2006), Wangari Maathai, a political activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, depicts environmental and political struggle against the legacies of colonialism. The personal narrative chronicles the ways in which the socio-cultural and ecological exploitation is perpetuated due to (neo)colonialism, capitalism, the centralization of power, and modernity under the myth of progress. In 1977, Maathai’s individual environmental efforts evolved into a collective struggle, The Green Belt Movement, which has trained rural women in Kenya to plant trees, generate income, and relentlessly fight against deforestation and soil erosion by planting millions of trees in Africa. This study examines Maathai’s personal narrative, which overtly highlights the interconnectedness of environmental and social justice by suggesting that without ecological justice, social justice is not possible. Drawing on the concept of “slow violence” to examine the resignifications of ecological damage in Africa and analyzing life writing a site of resistance, negotiation and agency, this study discusses the politics of decoloniality generated by indigenous knowledge systems to understand the interrelatedness of human and nature and reinstate basic human rights, damaged environment, and the perception of nature.
Keywords : Wangari Maathai, Yavaş Şiddet İyileşme, Postkolonyal Ekoeleştiri Kuramı, Anı Türü

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