Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do.
Wangari MaathaiRead
Disempowerment - whether defined in terms of a lack of self-confidence , apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one's own life - is perhaps the most unrecognised problem in Africa today.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Disempowerment in individuals often stems from self-doubt and fear, creating a pervasive issue in society.
Wangari Maathai highlights the significant and often overlooked problem of disempowerment in Africa, which manifests as a lack of self-confidence, a sense of apathy, and fear. This disempowerment prevents individuals from taking control of their lives and contributing positively to their communities, making it a critical issue that requires acknowledgment and action for meaningful change.
Themes
DisempowermentSelf-ConfidenceFearChangeAfrica
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in community workshops aimed at empowering individuals to regain control of their lives.
More from Wangari Maathai
All quotes →It was easy to persecute me without people feeling ashamed. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman' and as a highly educated elitist who was trying to show innocent African women ways of doing things that were not acceptable to African men.
Wangari MaathaiRead
I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.
Wangari MaathaiRead
We’re constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get completely overwhelmed. [But] we should always feel like a hummingbird. I may feel insignificant, but I don’t want to be like the other animals watching the planet go down the drain. I’ll be a hummingbird, I’ll do the best I can.
Wangari MaathaiRead
As long as there is no trust and confidence that there will be justice and fairness in resource distribution, political positioning will remain more important than service
Wangari MaathaiRead
It gradually became clear that the Green Belt Movement's work with communities to repair the degraded environment could not be done effectively without participants embracing a set of core spiritual values.
Wangari MaathaiRead
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