In these initial attempts, no distinct ideological orientation or program of action could distinguish her from other politicians in the country. << /Pages 45 0 R /Type /Catalog >> The contending social forces of the colonial period persisted in postcolonial Kenya, impinging on the concept of modern marriage and incipient African womanhood. These factors, together with the limited number of schools in colonial Kenya, meant that the young Maathai was very fortunate. Other influential circumstances include an encounter on a settlers farm in the Nakuru region of Kenya, engagements with women in tree-planting ventures, and intense protracted struggles for the democratization of Kenya. 41. Later Years and Death. She had a job offer in the Department of Zoology at University College, Nairobi, only to discover the shocking news that the job had meanwhile been given to another person who was not even in the country. Her life was a series of firsts: the first woman to gain a Ph.D. in East and Central Africa; the first female chair of a department at the University of Nairobi; and the first African woman and the first environmentalist to receive the . As an alternative, she chose to further her education, which led to a doctorate in the field of veterinary science from the University of Giessen, a first for an eastern African woman, for which she was widely recognized. A decision to send Maathai to school was made by her mother at the instigation of Nderitu, an elder brother. The Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai: Key Speeches and Articles, November 11, 2020. 26 0 obj Maathai had the unique opportunity of going to school when girls in her age group were typically not given the opportunity of doing so. Wangari Maathai, environmental activist and politician, born 1 April 1940; died 25 . It is important to acknowledge that those relationships gave her work legitimacy, visibility, and recognition, and thereby ensured funding for the GBM and provided Maathai a measure of personal protection from the authoritarian regime. Maathais academic studies at Mount St. Scholastica College prepared her for entry into graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh in 1964, where she completed a masters degree in biology before returning to Kenya early1966. In some circles, her move in the direction of elective politics was seen as opportunistic.40 Fortunately, this did not ruin the GBM, a tragedy that often befalls institutions from which prominent leaders emerge. The interplay of these dynamics served in critical ways to shape the life work of Prof. Wangari Maathai which was recognized and awarded in 2004 with the Nobel Peace Prize. Most people think of Ms. Maathai as an environmentalist, planting trees. Wangari Muta married Mwangi Mathai in 1969. Maathai interacted on a daily basis with women who were decision-makers and leaders. The life of Wangari Muta Maathai (19402011) was strongly shaped by her rural environment, missionary education, and exposure to university education in the United States and Germany. With Wairimu Nderitu, Mukami Kimathi: Mau Freedom Fighter (Nairobi, Kenya: Mdahalo Bridging Divides, 2017); and Caroline Elkins, Britains Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya (London: The Bodley Head, 2014), 237238. Maathais election to parliament was almost an anticlimax. Then she was confronted with the fact that she had no job nor house to live inhard realities. Justin Chang reviews Showing Up.Groban first auditioned to . Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. Hence the proliferation of NGOs with concerns such as the environment, the development of microfinance, peace building, human rights, and the empowerment of women.55 This was accompanied by increased funding for civil society organizations due to increased concerns about the accountability of governments which were also perceived as authoritarian and corrupt. I was learning on the job, she later admitted.58 Her approach to issues was not a fundamental threat to underlying religious, gender, cultural, or other ideological orders, though interests of elites and actors in the authoritarian state took offense. Although seen by some as an ill-advised move, in retrospect it proved a boon for the development of the GBM and the career of Maathai in environmental advocacy. Wangari's Trees of Peace is based on the true story of Wangari Maathai, an environmentalist in Kenya and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Maathai, Unbowed, 7. 48. With Maathais guidance, the program went from a series of local womens activities into a national and international phenomenon. To see her customs denigrated at this stage of her personal development was devastating.12 Despite that negative experience, Maathai remained proud of her culture and valued indigenous knowledge and related stories. She saw how missionaries perpetuated false dichotomies between Christian values and aspects of African cultures.21 This revelation was to shape and indeed strengthen Maathais appreciation of her Gikuyu cultural background and heritage, enabling her to interact and learn from ordinary people in her advocacy for sustainable environmental practices and the empowerment of women. She had a bucolic childhood spent in the rural Kenyan countryside and was sent to St. Cecilia Intermediary, a mission school, for her primary education. 50. Maathai shared her amazing life story with the world in the 2006 memoir Unbowed. 13. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. The relevant conferences included: Environment and Development (Stockholm, Sweden, 1972), Hunger and World Food Problems (Rome, Italy, 1974), Population Growth and Development (Cairo, Egypt, 1974), Human Settlements (Vancouver, Canada, 1976), Science and Technology for Development (Vienna, Austria, 1979), and Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979). She was presented by Professor Ole Danbolt Mjs, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 1638 >> As a national school, Loreto High School provided Maathai with the opportunity to interact with girls from other ethnic groups in Kenya. Duncan Ndegwa, Congratulatory Letter, December 2, 2004, in Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, 595. Maendeleo ya Wanawake, an organization for the progress of women, started during the colonial period, was dedicated to support the welfare of African women, but in the postcolonial period became a vehicle for the participation of women in development. That the GBM withstood and survived harassment from the government of Kenya and its security apparatuses was a testimony to the strength and capacity of these networks. The separation between the NCWK and the GBM that occurred in 1987 as a result of political pressure from the Moi regime, proved another milestone in the development of the identity and stature of Maathai as an environmental activist. 30. 54. Further information about these conferences can be found in the Links to Digital Materials section. She could then be addressed as Miss Muta. An interview with Ms. Lillian W. Mwaura, former chairperson of NCWK, 1987 to 1996, November 15, 2018. 49. Dr. Samuel Kobia, Annetta Miller, Harold Miller, Ms. Lillian W. Mwaura, Mr. Joshua S. Muiru, Ms. Njeri Muhoro, Prof. Gideon Cyrus Mutiso, and Mr. Titus K. Muya. Fresh Air Weekend Fresh Air Weekend: NPR host Mary Louise Kelly; Josh Groban. ed. Updates? Christian missionaries, in corollary fashion, established mission stations for evangelism and offered limited basic education to the indigenous people.2 In the community where Maathai was raised there was limited interaction with other Kenyan ethnic communities, although sporadic interaction with Maasai herders in their quest for grazing areas was common. AfDB, Eminent Speakers Program, Wangari Maathai Underscores Importance of Good Governance in Poverty Reduction Efforts, October 27, 2010. Mathaai was named Wangari at birth after her fathers mother, as was Gikuyu tradition. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 7. 25. The early Gikuyu patterns of rural settlements are described by Jomo Kenyatta, Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu (New York: Vintage Books, 1965); Duncan Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles: My Story, 2nd ed. Wangari's Words to Live By . This conspicuous trajectory rendered her quite visible and a target of concern by the authoritarian state and political system.32, Upon Maathai being elected chairperson in 1980, the largest member organization in the council, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, withdrew its membership. Your recognition as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate has without doubt now confirmed your extraordinary identity in Tetu, Nyeri, Kenya, East Africa, Africa and the World.60. These forms of marginalization of women were common in Kenya. Bruce Currie-Alder, Ravi Kanbur, David Malone, and Rohinton Medhora (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), chapter 52. 5. 36. Wangari Muta Maathai dedicated her life to solving some of these key issues in Kenya and the world. The University of Nairobi, which had denied her a job in 1982, honored her with an honorary doctorate in 2005 and hosts the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies (WMI), which promotes research on land use, peace, and sustainable development. Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, African History. Instead the state officials preferred to create divisions among the GBM leadership rather than banish it. Accounts from friends indicate that both parents were devoted to the well-being and education of their children. Leaders of the Green Belt Movement established the Pan African Green Belt Network in 1986 in order to educate world leaders about conservation and environmental improvement. 60. This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Wangari Maathai, and supports the standard of individuals' achievements and contributions to environmental preservation. In this regard, Nyeri was the epicenter of the freedom struggle. Henry Okullu, The Quest for Justice: An Autobiography of Bishop John Henry Okullu (Kisumu, Kenya: Shalom Publishers and Computer Training Centre, 1997); and Kabiru Kinyanjui, The Christian Churches and Civil Society in Kenya, in Local Ownership, Global Change: Will Civil Society Save the World? When she was growing up, her father, a truck driver, made sure she was brought into family discussions and valued her opinions. Then she assumed the position of full-time coordinator of the GBM.36. This was a joint program between the University of Giessen and University College, Nairobi. Maathai was an elected member of the Parliament of Kenya and between January 2003 and November 2005 served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki. endobj In 1979, when she vied for the position of chairperson, she encountered ethnic and political intrigues, and personal innuendos, citing her as a divorced and educated woman. The Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded in 1977, had by the early 21st century planted some 30 million trees. She creatively defied this by changing her last name to Maathai, by adding an a to her ex-husbands surname. In many instances she learned by imitating what her mother and other village women were doing. The continued existence of the Karura Forest in the outskirts of Nairobi city is another hallmark of her courage. The GBM is thus credited with developing a culture of planting trees during important family, community, and national events. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it. These events were critical to the formation of Maathai, who became an environmental champion, an engaged intellectual, a Nobel laureate, and an icon of grassroots activism. Wangari Maathai went to college in the United States, earning degrees from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas (1964) and the University of Pittsburgh (1966). Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Kenya, Bridging Ethnic Divides: A Commissioners Experience on Cohesion and Integration (Nairobi, Kenya: Mdahalo Bridging Divides, 2018). Tutu described how it emerged and was contextualized in the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); see Desmond Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness: A Personal Overview of South Africas Truth and Reconciliation Commission (New York: Doubleday, 1999), 3032 and 165167. She appealed to environmental and peace constituencies in the global development establishment and was heartily recognized. Located between the Aberdares Mountains and Mount Kenya, the Nyeri District was well known as the epicenter of Gikuyu resistance to colonialism and the imposition of colonial taxation. She was also the first female scholar from East and Central Africa to take a doctorate (in biology), and the first female professor ever in her home country of Kenya. She was given a scholarship for PhD studies and research in Kenya and Germany. The socioeconomic impact of policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on the environment and poverty in Africa should be noted at a time when the thinking within UN circles was questioning the prevailing development orthodoxy. Characteristically, Maathai turned this misfortune into an opportunity which in the final analysis worked for the good of the GBM and her work with the NCWK. Wangari Maathai. The degree was conferred by the President of Kenya, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, then Chancellor of University College, Nairobi. But years later She also became a keen and influential player in the spectrum of international conferences.51, Maathais life was intricately related to the predicament of women. Dr. Wangar Muta Maathai. The drift toward authoritarianism had emerged in the late 60s and 70s under Kenyas first President, Jomo Kenyatta, and was consolidated in the 80s with the ascendancy of the Moi regime.47 One party rule was legalized, and dissent was punished by arbitrary arrests, torture, and detention without trial.48 Maathai took up the leadership of the NCWK and subsequently as a coordinator of the GBM as state control and surveillance was intensified. Omissions? The document argued that by creating a class of privileged rural farmers, the radicalization of peasants would be minimized, thus denying support for Mau Mau and other radical political elements. Elsewhere, especially in the Rift Valley, where people were embroiled in state-sponsored ethnic conflicts since the early 1990s, Maathai joined with the churches, democratic activists, civil society organizations, international and local press to highlight atrocities committed against nonKalenjin ethnic communities in various parts of the Rift Valley. 44. During the period when Maathai was acquiring her education in Kenya and the United States (19521966), the respective colonial and independent governments were undertaking far-reaching agricultural reforms in central Kenya. The Ndegwa Report of 1971 legitimized such practices.46 These practices tended to concentrate wealth and power among few elites, predominantly from one ethnic group. 50, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, 1987; and Njuguna, Ngethe and Karuti, Kanyinga, The Politics of Development Space: The State and NGOs in the Delivery of Basic Services in Kenya, Working Paper, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, 1992. The concept of Ubuntu has been widely discussed in South Africa, but here it refers to Desmond Tutus rendering of it in his book, God Is Not a Christian: Speaking Truth in Times of Crisis (London: Rider, 2013), 2124. 1. Interviews held on various dates in 2018 and 2019 with Prof. Wanjiku Kabira, Rev. There was an aspect of independence in the women Maathai associated with. 34. Her concerns resonated with the needs and pains of ordinary mothers. In her final years, she battled ovarian cancer. In the midst of her demanding career as an environmental and political activist, Maathai enjoyed motherhood and was very protective of her children. Timothy Njoya, We the People: Thinking Heavenly Acting Kenyan (Nairobi, Kenya: WordAlive Publishers, 2017). The most important dates and events in the current school year can be found in our calendar. I'm very conscious of the fact that you can't do it alone. Maathai had been successful in building a grassroots movement, but she fell into the trap of competitive politics as the best way forward. The couple had similar family backgrounds. 56. The couple had their upbringing and initial education in colonial Kenya before going to the United States for university education. These changes started with the alienation of large tracts of land for white settlement at the onset of British colonialism. (Nairobi, Kenya: Leadership Institute, 2011); and Wangari Maathai, Unbowed: One Womans Story (London: Arrow Books, 2006). When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope. Her husband insisted on her adopting his surname. Thirdly, the prevailing circumstances, both personal and organizational, called for the strengthening of the NCWK and the GBM by building networks and partnerships to facilitate funding and support. Wangari Maathai came from a family of Athomi (Maathai, Unbowed, 1112). Commission of Inquiry (Public Service Structure and Remuneration Commission), Kenya, Report of the Commission of Inquiry (Public Service Structure and Remuneration Commission) 19701971: D. N. Ndegwa (Nairobi, Kenya: [The Commission], 1971); and Michael Cowen and Kabiru Kinyanjui, Some Problems of Capital and Class in Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya: Institute for Development Studies, 1977). Primary Sources. In his memoir, Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir (Nairobi, Kenya: Kenway Publications, 2010), 110, Ngugi Wa Thiongo narrates similar experiences in regard to speaking Gikuyu in school. She was allocated a mini garden by her mother to cultivate and to learn practically how to care for plants. of the University of Nairobi, March 11, 2005. Both families migrated from the Nyeri District to the Rift Valley province in search of employment and land to cultivate. Upon entry into St. Cecilias Intermediate Primary School, she embraced Roman Catholic teachings, especially the Legion of Mary. Her family had established the precedent of educating girls, just as an older uncle had done.6 Together with her mother, Maathai left a settlers farm in Nakuru, where her father was working, to return to Ihithe village in the Nyeri districtone of the rural areas designated for Africans, termed native reserves,so that she could attend school. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. While undertaking her studies, Maathai learned how Christianity practiced in American, European, and African societies blended well with their dominant cultures. This was a political maneuver intended to weaken the chairperson role and a calculated strategy to undermine umbrella organizations by the withdrawal of members. They energized governments, development agencies, civil society organizations and, in particular, womens movements and environmental activists all over the world. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Wangari Maathai, in full Wangari Muta Maathai, (born April 1, 1940, Nyeri, Kenyadied September 25, 2011, Nairobi), Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, becoming the first Black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. An interview with Joshua S. Muiru, November 2019. However, they were still straddling the line between their traditional culture and Western values.27 Their wedding was solemnized according to Gikuyu traditions and Western Christian trappings. Corrections? In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya confident and with high hopes for making a contribution to the newly independent country. After completing her high school education in 1959, at Loreto School, Maathai embarked on another educational journey, this time to the United States. Once again finding her options limited, she went on to pursue a doctorate from the University of Giessen in Germany. Thus she became Wangari Muta Maathai, asserting her African identity and freedom to be known and called by the names she wanted (Maathai, Unbowed, 147). By mobilizing women to plant and care for trees, Maathai changed the thinking and practices of conserving the environment at a time when dominant global thinking on the environment and womens role in society was grappling for transformation. By the time that the GBM had spread out to other African countries, acquiring a pan-African perspective and reputation, it had already taken deep roots in rural Kenya. 62. 31. She is the recipient of 15 honorary degrees in science, law, humane letters, and public service, and 50+ awards and recognitions . In the forests of Aberdares and Mount Kenya, guerilla warfare was intense. Another volume, The Challenge for Africa (2009), criticized Africas leadership as ineffectual and urged Africans to try to solve their problems without Western assistance. The resulting dislocation and labor migration initiated an environmental transformation that was accelerated in subsequent decades. Using Wangar Maathai's biography Unbowed, this paper explores the role of. 26. Environmental Leader, Political Activist. This may have shaped her strong ecumenical stance evident in later years. In 1971 she received a Ph.D. at the University of Nairobi, effectively becoming the first woman in either East or Central Africa to earn a doctorate. She straddled academic activities and civic engagement as a member of the NCWK and as a board member of the Environment Liaison Centre.45 As a highly educated woman, she gained visibility and much appreciation. This, she did at high personal risk to her and to her friends. The GBM established strong footholds in the districts where land consolidation and settlements had taken place and where modern farming methods and marketing were adopted. 51. xcbdg`b`8 $1{0@@"$Q$x;A,u me`b H5 dw Consequently, Professor Maathais ingenuity and persistence were widely recognized and honored, and earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She was baptized Miriam at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Ihithe, to become Miriam Wangari. Among these were the rapid transformation that took place in the countryside, especially in central Kenya where Maathai grew up, and the impact this transformation had on the environment, which in turn shaped the concerns that the GBM raised. The influence of the nuns began in this school and continued all the way to university. She was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in veterinary sciences and the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Published March 28, 2023. Perchance they helped Maathai consolidate her thinking and understanding of environmental issues in Kenya and helped her to identify follow up actions that needed to be taken. Wangari Maathai is a young woman who saw deforestation turn the lush lands of Kenya into a barren desert. She became Wangari Mathai. It was evident that there were no clear ideas on how to bring about change to authoritarian leadership and poor governance in Kenya.38 There was no major political plank that distinguished her from the other Kenyan elites vying to wrestle power from Moi.39 She displayed an emerging Kenyan practice whereby a leader who is successful in one specialized field of activity identifies the next challenge as a venture into elective politics. 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