A LITERATURE SEARCH FOR THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN WANGARI MAATHAI’S ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY IN KENYA, EAST AFRICA

Abstract

This study attempted a literature search of the environmental advocacy of 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, Wangari Maathai, to identify possible gaps and with the hope that fresh theoretical perspectives to further push scholarly boundaries may be found. The search established the nature of rhetoric and its function of distributing power, discovering facts, shaping knowledge and building comments.

Gender role in rhetoric was identified with emphasis on the binary role of feminists who were colonized and that of feminists from the country of the colonizers. The review also identified advocacy as communication strategy and as a means of speeding up progress towards the achievement of goals. It also explained the nature of environmental advocacy especially in raising awareness for environmental issues for the purposes of influencing policies, systems and also for effecting change and ensuring development.

From the literature reviewed for this study, only a few studies have been found that problematized the connections among rhetoric, feminism and environmental advocacy especially in Africa. Most especially, no study on Wangari Maathai has been found to explore how her rhetoric can contribute to communicating her environmental advocacy in Kenya or how her brand of rhetoric can illuminate discourse on her environmental advocacy.