Marie Christina Kolo wasn’t trying to be Wonder Woman when it came to the secret she kept for many years. But in her work as a climate activist, she wanted to be strong for her community. It wasn’t until she became a Mandela Washington Fellow that Marie Christine found the courage to get vulnerable, which allowed her to make a deeper impact.

Marie Christina Kolo:

Hi. I'm Marie Christina Kolo from Madagascar. I'm an ExchangeAlumni.

So, first of all, if I have to describe myself, I say that I'm actually an ecofeminist in Madagascar. I'm a climate activist. I do mostly work about mobilizing youth on climate change issues. Madagascar is one of the most vulnerable countries regarding climate change impact. And thanks to this fight, let's say that, thanks to this fight, I got many recognition at the national and international levels. I was able to represent Madagascar at different international organizations. I was able to interact with the UN General Secretary, but, as I often say, I live in a very patriarchal society.


I am a rape survivor, and it really, it truly affected me in many ways. I tried to be ... I won't say that I tried to be a Wonder Woman or a superhero, but I… I wanted to be strong and to prove to other people that I wasn't only a victim, that I was able to build, to bring a positive impact in my community. And I keep this secret for so many years, but, after the fellowship, few months after I came back to Madagascar, I decided that, even if people know me for my activism -- activist for climate, that I had to do something more. I had to feel complete. I think, as a leader, it's okay to be vulnerable. It's okay to not be seen like this superhero  person.

And so, yeah, I think it was six, seven months after my Fellowship, I decided on a public speaking event. I was invited to share about my personal story, share about how it affected me and, little by little, I start building a movement fighting against rape culture. And I think that it - actually, it was the first time that someone known in the civil society shared publicly about this taboo in Madagascar. And then I got support from other alumni, and together, we decide to apply for this Alumni Innovation Fund, Engagement Fund, and fortunately, we won.

It was the beginning of a new leadership journey for me because it started at the beginning of the pandemic and a period where the violence against women were even increasing. And yes, it was very important personally for me, this. When people ask me, "What is your greatest achievement?" people would think that, oh, maybe it's because you had the chance to meet the UN General Secretary twice, or I don't know. But for me, it's actually the fact that I was able to break this silence, to be more myself, and to help other rape survivors, to support them, to fight against this rape culture.


It is still not easy when I say that we are fighting for abortion. Actually, I'm among the national...I'm a member of the national coalition fighting to get access for abortion, for therapeutic abortion, at least for rape victims, because today we do not have the choice. When I was raped, this happened when I was six until 12. I had my period that time. I could have been pregnant. So, yes, today, I, with our movement, we are trying to promote sisterhood. We are trying to promote also this ... We don't want a rape victim to be ashamed anymore of what happened to them, even if, in this society, where everyone looked down on them. And I got so many comments about what I'm doing.

Many people do not understand what I do, why I do this. They think that I should be ashamed of sharing my personal story, but now I'm quite proud because I'm able to share about it without crying. Usually I cry, but no, no, no, it's okay. And I also, and thanks to the Mandela Washington Fellowship, I also learned that it was okay to cry, to accept your emotions, and this is really an experience. This was really an experience that changed me. I'm also glad that other fellows in my cohort, not only Madagascar, but those who were with me at University of Maine, they're supporting what I'm doing. They're sharing about what I'm doing. And yeah, that's it.

It's still not perfect, but I'd say that, today, one of the specificity of our movement is that many of our volunteers are actually rape survivors themselves. And so, that was also something important for me to bring most of them into this fight, into this battle, supporting each other. And another thing is that, with the movement, we try to mobilize artistic tools in order to sensitize on rape culture, against rape culture. And so, we are using videos, comics, drawings, poetry, theater, many tools actually, to advocate, to sensitize the population, and also to help rape survivors to, yeah, to feel better.

So, for me, I'm an ecofeminist because I think I started my environmentalist activism when I was eight. It was very early, I know, but later I didn't know how it started actually. And, but then later I realized that this domination that we have, this patriarchy, and the capitalism that exists today in our society, they are above the causes of the domination on women and on nature and on natural resources. I do not say that nature and women are the same. We are not the same, but we do face exactly the ... We are both victims of this patriarchal society and the capitalism society that are exploiting the nature and women. And that's why, for me, when we talk about women's rights, it's also a question of environmental rights of climate change.

We need to fight both of them, and I started being a climate activist. I started by being an ecologist, but then I realized that I cannot talk about environment and climate without considering women's rights and the fact that we, as women, we are the first victims of climate change impact. We are victims of different prejudices from [the] society, and that's why, today, I define myself as an ecofeminist. And another image that can also illustrate why I'm an ecofeminist is, we have this ... It's a picture. We have this picture of the planet being raped when we just ... Sorry for my broken English. I'm trying to do my best. When ... Trying to find the word because actually I have the words in French. When we just destroy all the forest, we just cut down all of the trees, and you do exactly the same violence when you destroy the body of the woman. When you rape this woman, you consider the planets, and you consider a woman body or a person from a sexual minority's body as an object, and you just want to dominate this nature, dominate this other person's body. And this culture of domination is what we want to fight as ecofeminists. 

 As I explained, I'm already known in my country as a climate activist, and I thought that I didn't need to prove anything regarding my leadership in that. In the U.S., I'd be able to just network and learn more about climate and be able to increase my knowledge, learn new things. And indeed, I learned new things, but more at a personal level. As I said, I learned more about ... I had this moment in the U.S. where I had the opportunity to think more about my leadership journey, to think more about myself, my weaknesses, and how I could feel even more complete, or I could bring even more impact.

And that's how, when I came back, and I had to think about how I could think, how I could do things better, how I could bring this more positive impact to my community, I thought about all the people I met in the U.S., all the other fellows I met in the U.S., how I learned from them, how much I learned from them, how much I felt empowered by them, because, as I said, when you're an activist, when you are considered as a leader in your country, people expect so much from you. They think that you are unbreakable, and they could rely on you on everything. And in the U.S., I was with other leaders who felt the same. And together, we were able to share about our fears, and it's okay to share about our fears, and it's okay to share about our vulnerability and how much it's important to empower each other.

We need to find this safe place where we can breathe, we can rest, we can be understood. And at least in this safe place, we are not seen as superiors. We are seen as normal person. We’ve - normal needs, you know, talking about friends, love, family, whatever, have fun together. And I think this is also something important that I learned from the fellowship, this importance of having a safe place. Yes, it's important to be a leader, to lead, to mobilize people, but it's also important to have this personal place, if you want to be more impactful, if you want to be more efficient. And this is what I learned from this exchange.

And I think that, thanks to that, I'm able to do ... I think that it's actually thanks to this fellowship that I was able to think more about, okay, think about you now. For so many years, you tried to do things on climate change, supporting vulnerable communities, and, but, now, what can make you feel, you, yourself, better? How can you heal your own wants and how we can also help other people, and yeah, that's what I did when I came back, and I don't regret it.