The World We Once Lived In

by Wangari Maathai

In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.

From the Congo Basin to the traditions of the Kikuyu people, the lucid, incisive writings in The World We Once Lived In explore the sacred power of trees, and why humans lay waste to the forests that keep us alive.

Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Environment, Africa, Ecology, Essays, Kenya

71 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1984, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.In June 2009, Maathai was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes.Until her death, Maathai served on the Eminent Advisory Board of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA).Maathai died on 25 September 2011 in Nairobi while receiving ovarian cancer treatment. She was 71.Selected publications

The Green Belt Movement: sharing the approach and the experience (1985)
The bottom is heavy too: even with the Green Belt Movement : the Fifth Edinburgh Medal Address (1994)
Bottle-necks of development in Africa (1995)
The Canopy of Hope: My Life Campaigning for Africa, Women, and the Environment (2002)
Unbowed: A Memoir (2006)
Reclaiming rights and resources women, poverty and environment (2007)
Rainwater Harvesting (2008)
State of the world's minorities 2008: events of 2007 (2008)
The Challenge for Africa (2009)
Replenishing the Earth (2010) ISBN 978030759114
more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangari_...

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating (albeit slightly dated) ode (in a unique, important voice, that of a Nobel Laureate) to trees and forests and nature, what we've lost, what we will lose, how we lost our way, and how we might recover it.

A nice (conceptual) companion to Richard Powers' Overstory. Also a nice introduction to the the Great Green Wall - https://www.greatgreenwall.org/about-... - https://www.dw.com/en/the-great-green..., which, although it has yet to achieve its aspiration and is progressing slowly, and has morphed significantly, remains inspirational.

This slender volume is installment 12 in the Penguin Green Ideas collection, which I'm finding well worth the investment ... and the minor hassle of acquiring it... Sadly, as my local independent bookstore confirmed, it is not available for sale (in the slipcase collection) in the U.S. (but it's not that difficult to order it from a UK supplier).

[Hestia Istiviani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This post would be the last book review post in 2022

Awalnya karena Naomi Klein aku jadi sadar bahwa krisis iklim dan bencana alam nggak sekadar karena "alamnya lagi bereaksi". Melainkan karena keserakahan korporasi. Buku-buku yang membahas soal iklim, cuaca, pemanasan global, problematika ekologi sudah semakin banyak. Beberapa resensi yang ada di media mengatakan kalau buku-buku itu bisa berimbas buruk pada pembaca: bikin overthinking.

Tapi, bukankah memang harusnya jadi bahan overthinking, ya?

The World We Once Lived In mungkin salah satu buku tipis dari seri Penguin Green Ideas yang bikin kepikiran malam-malam. Apa yang dituturkan oleh Wangari Maathai bukan sesuatu yang dibuat-buat. Itu yang terjadi di lingkungannya. Bahwa eksploitasi besar-besaran membuat pola hidup & pola pikir penduduk asli jadi berubah.

Kalau sempat membaca tentang ekofeminisme, sesungguhnya ada kaitannya antara alam ini dengan perempuan. Dan barangkali terjawab juga mengapa bumi dilambangkan dengan "Gaia" atau "Ibu Pertiwi." Karena sosok ibu difitrahkan untuk terus memberi.

Lah, kalau ibu memberi tapi anaknya (manusia) nggak tau diri, gimana? That's what happened now. Famine, climate injustice, banjir, & hal buruk lainnya.

Maathai pun berharap agar manusia modern mau belajar dari penduduk asli: cukup, tahu batasan. Ambil sumber daya seperlunya. Tahu kapan merasa kenyang tanpa perlu menimbun. Agar keseimbangan alam tetap terjaga. Agar sang Ibu bisa tetap memberi tanpa menciderai yang lain.

Dan memang sudah sepatutunya, manusia sadar kalau mereka bergantung dengan makhluk hidup lainnya.

[Lotte Christiaens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maathai vertelt verhalen over de verandering in voedselsystemen en tradities door kolonisering, over de wereldwijde spirituele positie van boomsoorten en over de verspreiding van een de-sacraliserende exploitatie-attitude. Ze vertelt hierover met een warmte die door merg en been gaat, voor de belichaming van een liefdevol engagement.

[SergioEavesDropping]

Inspiriiiing!!!

[Marija · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book focussed on the connection between humanity and trees, specifically those we find sacred, and what factors influence this connection. The author is the founder of the Green Belt Movement and an impeccable role model in the conservation world. The read seemed a little disconnected between chapters, perhaps because a lot of the books in this collection are just glimpses or a full body of work and not a stand-alone piece itself. There were lots of references to biblical/historical/mythological stories regarding tree connections which I found less interesting than the connections mentioned within the author's personal life and thus they lost my attention throughout the story. Overall the book was not the most intriguing read of the year but was scattered with some valuable and insightful thoughts. I think it's a good introduction to the topic of tree conservation in Africa and the Green Belt Movement, but as a read itself won't leave a huge impression on me. Side note: The toothpaste in my backpack exploded all over the novel which may have added to the distractedness I felt throughout the read haha.

[Catullus2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trees, trees, trees

[Karolina Slup · Rating 4 out of 5]

The power of trees ♥️

[Jordan Abey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love trees.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin; no more, no less. I agree with everything Maathai has to say, but I found the delivery to be a little dry

[Sandra Frans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buku kecil dari seri penguin green ideas.

“it’s this attitude toward the earth, that has unlimited capacity, and the valuing of resources for what they can buy, not what they do, that has created so many of the deep ecological wounds visible across the world”

Berisi tiga essay pendek, yang mengingatkan pembaca tentang rakusnya manusia dalam membuat luka di bumi, kekuatan pohon, dan hutan yang dulu dianggap sakral namun tidak lagi.

Di esai pertama, Maathai menceritakan pengalaman dia dalam memperjuangkan Congo Basin, kemudian tentang suku Kikuyu dalam berelasi dengan alam. Dikatakan bahwa tradisi Kikuyu yang saling membantu, menanam dan memanen seperlunya, juga hubungan dengan binatang, semuanya runtuh ketika masuk pengaruh barat juga kristen.

Tentang kekuatan pohon, Maathai mengatakan bahwa dalam sejarah, baik itu yang tertulis di Alkitab mulai perjanjian lama, sampai sejarah suku-suku, pohon itu selalu dinilai sakral. Di masa modern, manusia kemudian melihat pohon dari uang yang bisa dihasilkan dari kayu yang ditebang. Padahal, ada aspek sosial, budaya, psikologi, ekologi, bahkan ekonomi yang mengikat di sana. Terakhir, Maathau mengingatkan kembali ketika Inggris masuk dan membawa agama Kristen di Kenya serta membakar sejumlah area Sacred Groves (hutan yang dianggap memiliki nilai religius). Kejadian yang kemudian efeknya bisa banyak orang rasakan sekarang, di bumi yang semakin memanas ini.

Membicarakan mengenai bumi yang hijau saat ini, rasa-rasanya sudah seperti berbicara tentang kenangan indah di masa lampau.

[Karl Kilbo Edlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Immediately after I finished this book, I felt - why did I read it? It contains few 'hard facts' and even fewer numbers. For someone who has read and thought about environmental issues, there is hardly anything new. Then, after a little while I started to change my mind. Sure, it is a short book and as such it does not go to nearly the same depths as, for instance, the other book by Wangari Maathai I have read, A Challenge for Africa. Yet it manages to very eloquently make a strong, soft case for the universal spirituality in humankind's connection to nature in general and forests and trees in particular.

She does by no means do this in the naïve way that the title might lead one to think - the uncritical romance of the primitive human living immediately in the natural world - instead, she treads softly without privileging the old over the modern, or the modern over the old. In such a short text, Wangari Maathai draws on an huge number of religious and spiritual texts to explore how the human connection to trees has developed across time and culture, and then she reconnects it all to the efforts to keep Central Africa forested, healthy, and just, which she came to dedicate her life to. If there is any book that illustrate the notion of thinking globally but acting locally, then this must be it.

[Jon Zellweger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maathai’s excerpts focus on their deep knowledge about the importance of trees and forests to the health of the local and global living systems. I greatly enjoyed the recounting of so many examples through cultural and religious histories where trees figure large. Of course, the paradox remains that with so many reverential connections to trees throughout history, tying to religious practice, fable, ritual, political navigations, etc., why has so much of humanity doomed so much of the worlds forests to destruction? Overpopulation, desire for a better, materialistic life are, in part, drivers. But Maathai cites a few passages of religious texts that affirmed my suspicions as to how insidiously woven into our existence certain presuppositions exist. There have been reports in the last decade about how trees are able to communicate, divert resources to brethren in need, etc. This ‘pamphlet’ supports this lay-person’s hippy-dippy, woo-woo notion that trees may be the most advanced lifeform on this planet. There is declining evidence that I could be wrong.

[Raquel Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great source of information on deforestation, the Green Belt Movement, and the spiritual importance of trees.
"The timber company in the Congo forest had tractors, trucks, boats, and chain saws that could bring down great trees in a matter of minutes, trees that had sustained the Aka in the forest, perhaps for centuries."
"To the local people the forest was no longer a blessing but rather a curse. Their future generations would not be able to follow the streams, gather fruits and berries, hunt, and be sustained by the forests—that is, if we let them vanish."
"What was taken from the fields was only what was needed and not what was desired."
"Since the beginnings of human culture, the tree has been not only a source of food, medicine, and building material but a place of healing, consolation, and connection—with other human beings and with the divine. Trees are among the oldest, as well as largest, living organisms on the planet, so it's not surprising that human beings should have conceived of them in religious terms."

[John Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

But now the tree was no more because it had been judged to have greater value dead than alive.

A beautiful prose by Maathai on the sacred power of trees. She delved into interconnected themes of nature, spirituality, colonialism, conflict, education, and development in the so-called 'developing' world. The extensive discussion - and comparison - of social and religious uses of trees based on historical accounts filled me with blissful and vivid images of thriving societies at one with ecosystems instead of separate from them. The 71-page book can be seen as a call to revive humanity's forest culture and the value of age-old ecological wisdom. A reminder that we are all sages, seers, or priestesses of our own accord.

The forest - and indeed what the world calls the environment - does not exist beyond or outside the human realm. In other words, Nature is not something set apart, with or against which we react.

[Emma G · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It is possible to live within a forest and not really see it, or dwell in the countryside and not appreciate and be inspired by the nature that surround you.”

A short and sweet read that encapsulates the environmental movement perfectly, and why we should all be apart of it. To be human is to be a part of the natural world. Whilst we have grown and are growing disconnected all hope is not yet lost.

To truly spend time in nature, to see our coexistence and appreciate it outside of the economic realm, is to work to save the place we call home.

[Rizki Febriani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super thin book that you can bring anywhere -- consist of only three chapters. I was borrowing this because I'm interested to read Maathai's idea on the Green Belt Movement. She didn't explain much about Green Belt Movement here, instead she gave space to highlight various movements, religious teaching, and the shared connection between the indigenous people (i.e., Aka and Kikuyu people) and the nature. I think she through this piece she wants to encourage us to be one with the nature and imagine a world where we have trees and river without trying to monetize it.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this one up from the new collection of penguins with an eco theme. It's a good description of the importance of trees in human society and why we shouldn't treat them as *only* a commodity that can be exploited endlessly without regard to good management.
Wangari Maathai was an activist who lived out her beliefs in much the same way as the fictional Elzeard Bouffier, hero of The Man Who Planted Trees, which i finished yesterday, but actually really real not just pretend real.

[Koprophagus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a real review, just some thoughts I like to write down.
Das ist keine richtige Bewertung, nur ein paar Gedanken, die ich aufschreiben wollte.

Sehr biased, aber es geht um Bäume. Nicht nur wie wichtig Bäume sind für unsere globalen Ökosysteme, sondern auch wie wichtig sie für die spirituelle Seite der Menschen sind und es während der ganzen menschlichen Geschichte waren. Make our sacred groves sacred again.

[Klea]

Për Akat pylli - dhe në veçanti ajo që nga bota konsiderohet si “mjedisi” - nuk ekziston përtej apo jashtë sferës njerëzore. Me fjalë të tjera, Natyra nuk është një entitet i veçuar, ndaj të cilit duhet të reagojmë njëfarësoj. Nuk është një vend të cilit i druhemi se mund të na zhveshë nga njerëzorja jonë, apo përkundrazi, një vend që mund të na ofrojë perspektivë dhe të na largojë nga korrupsioni apo tradhtia e gjykatave apo qyteteve. Përkundrazi është diçka që mbështjell çdo qenie njerëzore.

[Aaren Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maathai is like the Lorax: she speaks for the trees

Really good, easy read. Loved when she spoke of sacred groves and the power of trees throughout virtually all spiritualities. Rebuilding the Kenyan and Congo ecosystems literally one tree at a time. My favorite line: “the soldiers were quick to understand that the encroaching desert under their feet is as dangerous as a foreigner wielding a weapon who claims a part of Kenya”

[bermudianabroad]

A brief collection of essays on the importance of trees both ecologically and spiritually. Maathai writes about her work, the emotional toll of seeing trees wasted as a resource and what needs to be done to ensure a greener future. This isn't a romantically written, poetic treatise. It's tone is more matter of fact, and starker.

[Sara Kircher · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Perhaps this is why, as I watched that two-hundred-year-old sapele fall to the ground that day in the Congo, it felt to me as though something extraordinarily weighty and consequential had been brought low. In its collapse was an echo of the trees and whole forests disappearing all over the world."

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is optimistic energy flowing from Maathaí's pen always, making her passionate writing about why forests matter always feel like a balm. There isn't much in this short volume which isn't already in her longer autobiography, but it is a distilled collection focused on traditional forestry practices and how they might be restored.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiny snippets of stories that belong to wider, larger and more understood narratives, Maathai, a steward of the trees and natural worlds, examines and explores and humanises how we can act, own and make purpose from the world's we inhabit. All we need is to listen and respond from our heart.

[Tamsin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: this is a very short and small book. Basically it mainly compiles various sacred uses of trees and laments their loss of treasured status. Wangari Maathai is well-worth looking up if you're unfamiliar with her activism, though.

[Cerys · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a spiritual person, but it’s not hard to see why we must save the trees. Most of this is from years ago yet we still face the same problems today, she really did amazing things and we must continue them.

[Lola Sherwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[Anki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and important about trees and the environment.

[Phillip · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first of 3 parts of the book. The 2nd section was all about tree symbology in ancient religions and cultures, and it

[Sonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a certain sadness and anxiety that comes from reading about how we've destroyed the earth. And this books made me feel it.