xZF}W907s!d!c%:U]mT{/$uo_N>Br4@~{O[O^}ovp]n |~VJ[GOPZWer9_\RN.gz}z4bot#'t:U1m1bU.h]Y HRkC`X:w63u4_Hg~4R~0)(Jc)& AV{-1j$sNDD~OnyL>Re,LF*!j' M{1e%-lh O:0q|V6M1+a|k>>H.p`T@v5{b-. Consequently, Professor Maathais ingenuity and persistence were widely recognized and honored, and earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. She appealed to environmental and peace constituencies in the global development establishment and was heartily recognized. Later in life, as she became more engaged with various communities, her respect and appreciation of Gikuyu language, culture, and indigenous knowledge deepened and widened.17. Funding was crucial, giving Maathai a salaried job and access to resources to assist rural women to launch and maintain tree nurseries. 3. She was presented by Professor Ole Danbolt Mjs, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Political activist and environmentalist Wangari Maathai was trained to be a leader. Mwangi, on the other hand, was working for a private corporation and was a business entrepreneur with political ambitions. Primary Sources Overview . Maathai interacted on a daily basis with women who were decision-makers and leaders. 39. (Nairobi, Kenya: Leadership Institute, 2011); and Wangari Maathai, Unbowed: One Womans Story (London: Arrow Books, 2006). 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). Despite the complexities and diversions that characterized her career, Wangari Maathai did succeed in the promotion and execution of important ideas and projects whose time had come.41 Eventually in 2002, on her third attempt, she was elected as a member of the Kenyan parliament and as a member of the National Rainbow Coalition which emerged out of the ashes of the dying authoritarian rule of Moi and KANU. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wangari-Maathai, The Nobel Prize - Biography of Wangari Maathai, Wangari Muta Maathai - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Wangari Maathai - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). The overall objective was to control the politics of womens empowerment.33 The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) was also a victim of a similar tactic when it became a fierce critic of the authoritarian tendencies of the Moi regime. The Third Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture, Johannesburg, South Africa, July 19, 2005; Sustained Development, Democracy, and Peace in Africa, Gwangju, South Korea, June 16, 2006; and the Keynote Address at the Second World Congress of Agroforestry, Nairobi, Kenya, August 24, 2009. Upon entry into St. Cecilias Intermediate Primary School, she embraced Roman Catholic teachings, especially the Legion of Mary. Forest cover was also decimated as large-scale farms were subdivided and select forest reserves were hived off for settlement purposes. It is here that the GBM mobilized women, self-help groups, and communities into tree-planting networks.44 Its reputation soared in the context of environmental advocacy, tree planting, and the raising of awareness of poverty at grassroots levels. Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist who dedicated her life to promoting sustainable development, democracy, and human rights. 48. Children like Maathai, who were born near a missionary settlement, and whose parents allowed them to venture into the new teachings by Christian missionaries, had early access to Western education. These forms of marginalization of women were common in Kenya. Her resignation was accepted, but she was disqualified to stand as a candidate allegedly because she had not been registered as a voter. When they got married, she changed her name to Wangari Mathai, which she initially resisted, but did so on the insistence of her husband. Then she was confronted with the fact that she had no job nor house to live inhard realities. She began teaching in the Department of Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Nairobi after graduation, and in 1977 she became chair of the department. In 1960, she benefited from what in Kenya was called the Tom Mboya Airlift to the United States, for education in preparation for independence. Richard Jolly, Underestimated Influence: UN Contributions to Development Ideas, Leadership, Influence and Impact, in International Development: Ideas, Experience, and Prospects, ed. 59. Maathai seems to have been aware of these tensions as she juggled the roles of mother, politicians wife, and university teacher, as well as affirming herself as an African womanin manner of dressing, hospitality at home, and speaking local languages to meet the expectations of her husbands constituents.28 Hence her marriage might have become a theater of contestations of different perceptions of womanhood in independent Kenya. This left the NCWK in a precarious financial situation and effected the severing of relationships with many grassroots organizations. With hindsight this move was misguided and diversionary. << /Type /XRef /Length 71 /Filter /FlateDecode /DecodeParms << /Columns 4 /Predictor 12 >> /W [ 1 2 1 ] /Index [ 22 32 ] /Info 37 0 R /Root 24 0 R /Size 54 /Prev 82415 /ID [<27d5614c796589e23c265b2454e3ebce><27d5614c796589e23c265b2454e3ebce>] >> Then she assumed the position of full-time coordinator of the GBM.36. On her demise, she was accorded a state funeral by the Kenyan government. 2003), detailed the history of the organization. The GBM is thus credited with developing a culture of planting trees during important family, community, and national events. She was not deterred by personal abuse and threats, and today this open space in the center of Nairobi is a testimony of her courage, persistence, and foresight. An interview with Ms. Lillian W. Mwaura, former chairperson of NCWK, 1987 to 1996, November 15, 2018. At that time, she was working as an assistant lecturer at the University College, Nairobi. 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. Hence Maathai was shaped mainly by Gikuyu culture, colonial and postcolonial history, contacts with Catholic clergy, nuns, and grassroots women. She even gave a speech at the AfDB Groups Eminent Speakers Program in Tunis, Tunisia, on October 27, 2009.62, In Africa she made history in many respects. Yet in my various struggles I have been fortunate to receive the encouragement and support of many individuals and institutions both in Kenya and overseas, who have stood by me in difficult times. 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. Dr. Samuel Kobia, Annetta Miller, Harold Miller, Ms . 12. 25. The life of Wangari Muta Maathai (19402011) demonstrates the complex interaction of constructive historical circumstances with the development of an individual. The contending social forces of the colonial period persisted in postcolonial Kenya, impinging on the concept of modern marriage and incipient African womanhood. Her mother had a great deal of influence on her daughter as she grew up in the village. The link was not copied. This affinity with the soil became a great asset when she led tree-planting campaigns. Individual ownership of land and the introduction of cash crops drastically altered how people related to their environment.25 The indigenous trees were cut to prepare ground for planting coffee, tea, and wetlands; sacred groves and common grazing areas were subdivided, shared, and privatized.26 The consequences of these changes were observed by the young Maathai and responded to by the GBM in the 80s and 90s. %PDF-1.5 Environmental Leader, Political Activist. But after returning to Kenya, she found that her career opportunities were limited. Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Kenya, Bridging Ethnic Divides: A Commissioners Experience on Cohesion and Integration (Nairobi, Kenya: Mdahalo Bridging Divides, 2018). Historian G. Muriuki refers to this early mixing of ethnic groups in The History of the Kikuyu, 15001900 (Nairobi, Kenya: Oxford University Press, 1974). Corrections? Maathai, Unbowed, 5960; and Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, 8791. Wangari Maathai, The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (New York: Lantern Books, 2003); and Maathai, The Challenge for Africa. The Early Years and Education "It was during the mbura ya njahi - the season of long rains, in 1940 that Wangari Maathai was born. She was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in veterinary sciences and the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) was the founder of the Green Belt Movement and the Wangari Maathai Institute. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Maathai played an active part in the struggle for democracy in Kenya, and belonged to the opposition . In the 50s, for purposes of controlling insurgency in central Kenya, cash crops such as coffee and tea, and the keeping of dairy animals were introduced. 46. 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). 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. Lillian Mwaura interview, November 2018. At the same time, Maathais life was greatly influenced by the splendor and simplicity of rural Gikuyu community life, values which subsequently engaged with Western education and religion, with ethnic and gender biases, and with state power and international development thinking. As a young girl growing up in Kenya, Wangari was surrounded by trees. Wangari Maathai. Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. The diversity of funding sources was remarkable in winning international support and admirers including young people (for instance, Danish school children), celebrities, NGOs, and bilateral, private foundations and UN agencies.57 This array of support attracted international interest, recognition, and awards, and cushioned the GBM and Maathai against drastic measures that were taken at that time against other civil society organizations and individuals in the country. Wanyiri Kihoro, Never Say Die: The Chronicle of a Political Prisoner (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Education Publishers, 1998). To the school calendar. 1. endobj 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. Maathai had the unique opportunity of going to school when girls in her age group were typically not given the opportunity of doing so. in biology, 1964) and at the University of Pittsburgh (M.S., 1966). 22 0 obj 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. 15. When she tried to withdraw her resignation letter from the University of Nairobi, she was bluntly told that the position had been taken by another person! Most people think of Ms. Maathai as an environmentalist, planting trees. He eventually became a member of parliament for a constituency in Nairobi. Maathai was shaped by her rural environmentin which she lived on her mothers farmas well as her missionary education and later, by her education in the United States and Germany. 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. Maathais election to parliament was almost an anticlimax. Upon her return to Kenya in 1966, she dropped her Christian names and retained her African names, Wangari Muta. As Maathai ascended to the leadership of the NCWK and the GBM, international concerns and thinking with regard to the linkages between development and environment were evolving and shaping global discourse and the engagement of governments, international agencies, and NGOs. Wangari Maathai, environmental activist and politician, born 1 April 1940; died 25 . This may have shaped her strong ecumenical stance evident in later years. 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? Maathai is still remembered for her determined and persistent efforts to safeguard Uhuru Park and the Karura Forest for future generations, for her solidarity with mothers of political detainees, as well as her relentless efforts for peace and to end election-related violence in the Rift Valley region and in the country since 1992 when multiparty politics were allowed. Wangari Maathai obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount . The couple had similar family backgrounds. In discussing her childhood in her autobiography, Maathai paints a picture of an idyllic life set in a pristine and lush rural environment. 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. With Maathais guidance, the program went from a series of local womens activities into a national and international phenomenon. These changes started with the alienation of large tracts of land for white settlement at the onset of British colonialism. 1 Her homeland was established by the British as the East Africa Protectorate in 1895 and then became the Kenya Colony in 1920; the independent Republic of Kenya emerged in 1964 after gaining internal self-government the prior year. Agricultural cooperatives were established in rural areas to ensure that quality agricultural commodities were produced and marketed. There, Maathai changed her first baptismal name and became a staunch member of the Legion of Mary, which encouraged the values of service and volunteering. The Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai: Key Speeches and Articles, November 11, 2020. The survival of the GBM under these circumstances may be attributed to the international stature that Maathai had acquired as an environmental warrior, and the existence of supporter networks and admirers scattered all over the world. It became known as the home of renowned Mau Mau freedom fighters, outstanding postcolonial leaders, and intellectuals.4 Leaders such as the legendary freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi, former President Mwai Kibaki, and Wangari Maathai had their beginnings in the district. The Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded in 1977, had by the early 21st century planted some 30 million trees. In her final years, she battled ovarian cancer. Maathai is internationally renowned for her unrelenting efforts in advocating democracy, environmental conservation and human rights. Further information about these conferences can be found in the Links to Digital Materials section. When cash crops were introduced, again it was men who were registered in the cooperatives and received payments after deliveries of tea and coffee. [i] She was born in Nyeri, part of the rural region of Kenya on the 1st of April 1940. Higher Education Modern farming methods were introduced to small-scale farmers through the provision of extension services and credit facilities. The first attempt in 1982 was blocked; in the 1997 attempt, she failed to secure a seat. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). As a national school, Loreto High School provided Maathai with the opportunity to interact with girls from other ethnic groups in Kenya. 13. Her impact and influence had extended well beyond her constituency in Tetu, Kenya, and far beyond Africa. A meeting with Prof. Reinhold Hofmann from the University of Giessen in Germany provided an opportunity not only for employment but also for the advancement of her field of interest at the upcoming university. In the United States Maathai landed at another Roman Catholic institution, known as Mount St. Scholastica College (later Benedictine College) where she majored in biology and minored in chemistry and German.19 Characteristically, Maathai was a keen learner in both the classroom and beyond. Two years later, she shifted along with her parents to a farm near Rift Valley where her father had found work. Hannah Wangechi Kinoti, African Ethics: Gikuyu Traditional Morality (Nairobi, Kenya: Catholic University of Eastern Africa Press, 2013). In the forests of Aberdares and Mount Kenya, guerilla warfare was intense. Later Years and Death. As the first African woman to . She benefited mainly from the tide of change which was sweeping the country, not because she had articulated her own political ideas.42. 50. 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. Wangari's Words to Live By . She was allocated a mini garden by her mother to cultivate and to learn practically how to care for plants. 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. 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. 2021 marks 10 years since Prof . Future research could explore further the tensions that marriages of educated elites encountered, while still embedded in their ethnic traditions. 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. 47. stream In many instances she learned by imitating what her mother and other village women were doing. 36. M. P. K. Sorrenson, Land Reform in Kikuyu Country (London: Oxford University Press, 1967). The United Nations (UN) conferences in the 70s provided the base for global debates on environment and equality for women that dominated the rest of the 20th century and beyond. When she was globally recognized with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, she became an instant national icon.59 Duncan Ndegwa, an outstanding public servant from Nyeri County, brought out this ironic situation in his congratulatory letter to Maathai when he wrote: Lest you forget, and far away from any vestiges of dignity, we have seen you being shoved aside if not totally ignored by the government, labeled feminine chauvinist and treated like a common criminal all for being principled and living for a cause. The couple had their upbringing and initial education in colonial Kenya before going to the United States for university education. 54. Dr. Wangar Muta Maathai. Justin Chang reviews Showing Up.Groban first auditioned to . This policy was implemented from the mid-1950s and accelerated in the 60s and 70s by the independent government of Kenya. 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. Interviews held on various dates in 2018 and 2019 with Prof. Wanjiku Kabira, Rev. In addition to her conservation work, Maathai was also an advocate for human rights, AIDS prevention, and womens issues, and she frequently represented these concerns at meetings of the United Nations General Assembly. Maathais elder brother Nderitu was the first in the family to attend school, thereby creating a positive image of schooling and serving as an inspiration to his sister. To begin with, Maathai had to contest for a position in the NCWK leadership. 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). 62. The influence of the nuns began in this school and continued all the way to university. University of Nairobi Research Archive, Citation on Professor Wangari Muta Maathai on her Conferment of the Honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) There her interest in the sciences was further nurtured by the Catholic nun teachers. Wangari Maathai was born as Wangari Muta on 1 April 1940 in the village of Ihithe in the central highlands of the colony of Kenya. She could then be addressed as Miss Muta. Maathai's atypical and yet symbolic biography draws on two primary texts: Wangari Maathai's (2006), Unbowed: A Memoir . But as land consolidation and registration went on in central Kenya, it was men who were registered as owners, although it was women who cultivated the land. Thanks to a government-run exchange program, Maathai went to college in the United States, earning a masters degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh. Kelly reflects on juggling motherhood and chasing the news. The impact of changes in rural Kenya was complicated by emerging corruption among Kenyas elite. << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 1638 >> Often their phone calls, faxes, lettersor, later, e-mailsor simply their presence made the difference at a crucial moment. 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. 51. 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. Hence the dynamics of local and international forces coalesced in the work of the GBM. stream Wangari Muta Maathai dedicated her life to solving some of these key issues in Kenya and the world. She summarized her experiences at Mount St. Scholastica College in the following manner: My four years at the Mount, and experiences I had both on and off campus, nurtured in me a willingness to listen and learn, to think critically and analytically, and to ask questions. In the later stages of her life, as she worked for the restoration of the environment, she often recalled this period nostalgically as a source of inspiration and renewal.7 Field work provided hands-on experience with nature and nurtured a strong attachment to plants, animals, and rivers in the immediate environment. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. endobj This was a political maneuver intended to weaken the chairperson role and a calculated strategy to undermine umbrella organizations by the withdrawal of members. She was elected to Kenyas National Assembly in 2002 with 98 percent of the vote, and in 2003 she was appointed assistant minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife. 26 0 obj 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. While Maathai was cloistered in Catholic schools, the country was undergoing the turbulence of Mau Mau resistance against British colonialism. Discussions held with Rev. In 1947, she returned to Ihithe, for lack of educational opportunities at the farm. 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. 26. Eventually Maathai was awarded a PhD by the University of East Africa in 1971. Thus, the NCWK provided an appropriate platform to develop and experiment with innovative ideas such as the GBM. Even though some of the teaching at school undermined her cultural identity, the warmth and encouragement from the Catholic nuns and the stimulus of learning and appreciating the sciences had a lasting impact. This experience exposed her, perhaps for the first time, to ethnic discrimination practiced by a lecturer at the college, who had originally given her the job offer.22 Later on, when employed by the university, she encountered gender discrimination with regard to salary and benefits, against which she fought energetically with her women colleagues. The culture of planting trees took root everywhere in Kenya toward the end of last decade of the 20th century. Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, in recognition of her work with the Green Belt Movement, a group that organizes disadvantaged women in Africa to plant trees in order to preserve the environment and improve women' quality of life. 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. Interviews held on various dates in 2018 and 2019 with Prof. Wanjiku Kabira, Rev. It is imperative to appreciate how engagement with the GBM widened Maathais horizons and capacity to confront authoritarianism, interrogate democratic governance, gender inequality, conflicts and peace, and engage with broader concerns of sustainable development and climate change.
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