I dream of a just world; where human rights are respected, where no one sleeps hungry or lacks healthy food, and where people live in peace and harmony in the spirit of Ubuntu – I am because we are. I grew up in Kiambu, a beautiful, serene, rural county that neighbors Nairobi. We undertook subsistence farming primarily to feed ourselves. We shared food with those around us, guided by biblical principles of love, benevolence, and peace. That was my introduction to the values of Ubuntu and social justice. I started considering a career in promoting justice as a child. In the last two decades, working with the African Population and Health Research Center, I have conducted extensive research among the urban poor in Nairobi. I have been exposed to different vulnerabilities of the urban poor. I have met many hungry people. I have seen malnourished children – Did you know that 80% of households in Nairobi informal settlements are food insecure, and 50% of children below 5 years are stunted?
My childhood thoughts regarding promoting justice have been awakened, and today include the promotion of human rights. It is 2020 and our world has really changed. Nairobi, once named a place of cool waters by its indigenous inhabitants, the Maasai people, does not live to its name anymore, owing to rapid urbanization amidst poor urban planning, Nairobi is now an environmentally degraded urban space. Majority of residents live in informal settlements characterized by high population density, poverty, personal insecurity, and food insecurity and malnutrition. This is despite the fact that there is a lot of food loss in farms, markets, and households. The green spaces that once gave Nairobi the tagline Green City in the Sun, have generally been replaced by a concrete jungle that is already encroaching into the neighboring counties like Kiambu that feed it.
Capitalism has diluted our values. It has driven the commodification of food where food must cost money, and many poor people without money are hungry. The spirit of Ubuntu has since faded. Food is no longer something that we generally share. The need to maximize on the commodity has pushed many farmers to unsafe use of agricultural chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides). Our food is now processed into an often unhealthy commodity. Many farmers, who feed the world, are themselves hungry; they cannot afford the commodity they produce. There is no food justice anymore. We are in the middle of a global pandemic, the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed many economies the world over. Many families are facing hunger. Mothers cooking stones for their children is not a tale, sadly, it is a documented reality in Kenya. The pandemic has worsened the broken food system in our world.
But all is not lost! now we get to draw the future we want, guided by the past and driven by a sense of justice for humanity.
I have a dream! I am persuaded by the words of the late Nelson Mandela, that “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living”. I dream of a green, beautiful, food-secure Nairobi! A place of cool waters, where people are well-nourished and healthy, and live in harmony and peace, in the spirit of Ubuntu.
For us to achieve this audacious dream, we need a paradigm shift. A shift from sheer capitalism to social justice, to promote equity and justice for all. We need to re-conceptualize food – to return food to its value. The world needs to see food as food – a basic human need; a basic, universal human right, that should be accessed by all. We need to DEcomoDIFY food. We need to re-commoNIFY food so that all can have access to it.
I imagine a city where everyone across the social-economic divide has a kitchen garden: in the backyard, on the balcony, on the rooftop; with organically grown safe and healthy food, enough for themselves and for sharing in their neighborhood. I imagine a city where fruit trees form part of the city landscaping canopies of mangoes, avocados, and guavas. As the late Nobel Prize winner, Wangari Maathai once said, “When we plant trees, we plant seeds of peace and seeds of hope”.
Food loss will be a thing of the past because in the dream lies a sustainable circular food economy. Food rescue centers in and around the city will ensure excess food in farms, households, and markets is efficiently redistributed to where it is needed to promote equity and reduce food waste.
I dream of an equitable Nairobi where everyone is economically empowered. Agribusiness in the food system will contribute to job creation for women and youth.
In 10 short years, we should have achieved the sustainable development goal of zero hunger, and in 30 years returned Nairobi to a place of cool waters. Encouraged by the belief by the famous Kenyan Marathoner Eliud Kipchoge that “No human is limited”, we forge on with determination.
I want to live to see this dream become a reality and be counted as one of the leaders that actualized it! I will tell of the dream that transformed our society to include and preserve the human values of Ubuntu, social justice, equity, and respect for human rights; the dream that regenerated the ecosystems to mitigate climate change and restore peace and harmony in Nairobi.
Beyond the foreseeable lifetime of my dream, future generations will enjoy the fruits of the dream! “Beyond Nairobi, cities world over will replicate and live the dream!”
In 2020, I was a top Visionary in the Rockefeller Foundation 2050 Vision Prize. My vision is to restore Nairobi to a place of cool waters that is food secure, healthy, and environmentally friendly; through a regenerative, transformative and human-centered food system.
Within the next 10 years, as we match towards zero hunger by 2030, we will green Nairobi with food and fruit trees through agroecological urban farming; we will put in place a food rescue system in Nairobi to ensure no one is hungry; we will equitably create jobs for women and youth in urban poor settings in Nairobi through agribusiness; and create a right to food social movement to promote the vision.
I started a kitchen garden, as a demonstration to others.
With my team we are currently setting up a capacity-building hub, to facilitate implementation of the vision strategies.
We are looking out for partners, to help us actualize the vision, acknowledging that we cannot do this alone.
My call is to all of you: the people, the policymakers, the civil society, the media, the researchers, and the donors … ALL… to join us in actualizing this Vision!
~Wangari Maathai~