Unbowed Colonization Has Left a Lingering Legacy Essay

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Unbowed

Colonization has left a lingering legacy on all affected nations. In Unbowed, Wangari Maathai Muta describes the direct and indirect impact of colonization, via her life experiences in colonial and post-colonial Kenya. The Nobel Peace Prize recipient was ultimately able to use some of the tools left by the British, such as the British court and parliamentary system, in order to dismantle some of the most destructive remnants of the colonial enterprise. Maathai Muta's life and legacy embodies the central irony of the post-colonial era: that the evils of colonization can be counterbalanced by colonialisms' own political, economic, and social institutions. Maathai Muta's story focuses on the environmental impact of colonization: an economic and political model based on the exploitation of both labor and land. It is this type of multifaceted exploitation that characterizes the worst of colonization. Yet it was because of colonization that Kenya and other African nations developed links to Europe, the Americas, and other parts of the world. The development of industrial infrastructures has perhaps had a net-neutral effect on Kenya. Similarly, the European-style political and economic institutions enable participation in the global marketplace. Participation in the global marketplace is critical for the creation of social and ecological justice, as Wangari Maathai Muta's memoirs show.

One of the primary impacts of colonization on the colonized is the imposition of cultural norms and values, which is partly achieved via the education system.

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Acculturation, and the assertion of a dominant culture on the perceived subordinate, can take place equally as much in churches as in schools. In fact, Wangari Maathai Muta's memoirs show how religion and education converged in many African nations. Wangar Maathai Muta had access to Western-style education because the colonial infrastructure was in place and because of the missionary activities that were essential for the colonial enterprise. Missionary schools helped to indoctrinate the local populace into believing its own inferiority vis-a-vis the British hegemon. This negative force was, however, neatly counterbalanced by the positive impact that education had on the lives of Kenyans like Wangari Maathai Muta. Had Maathai Muta not had access to the European-style school system, in which she learned English as well as the foundations of academic knowledge, she would not have qualified for the student assistance programs developed by President Kennedy. Maathai Muta would not have earned a scholarship to an Americna school, or have been able to achieve both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in science. It was Maathai Muta's foundational education that led her to teach science and to later awaken to the possible political applications of her academic scientific knowledge. The Green Belt Movement might not have been possible at all had it….....

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