xc```b``b`a``f`0$2,~6#\31f3F0f``//^^$bZdQ#n(f`dbg`cX76lb> U) In 1977, Wangari Maathai started a campaign that came to be known as the Green Belt Movement in her home country of Kenya. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In her final years, she battled ovarian cancer. Such was the world into which Maathai was born in 1940 and subsequently raised. The experience of discrimination at the Department of Zoology led Maathai to look for opportunities elsewhere. Maathai was a frequent contributor to international publications such as the Los Angeles Times and the Guardian. A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari MaathaibyWritten by Nicola RijsdijkIllustrated by Maya MarshakIn a village on the slopes of Mount Kenya, a little girl work. 18. There was an aspect of independence in the women Maathai associated with. 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. 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. Murungi, In the Mud of Politics, 196199. 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. Her work was often considered both unwelcome and subversive in her own country, where her outspokenness constituted stepping far outside traditional gender roles. 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. Environmental Leader, Political Activist. When Maathai decided to vie for an elected position, she underestimated the determination of the state to frustrate and contain her ambitions. 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 . 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. Their approach is wonderfully illustrated in a documentary Taking Roots: The vision of Wangari Maathai. Maathai's atypical and yet symbolic biography draws on two primary texts: Wangari Maathai's (2006), Unbowed: A Memoir . 2003), detailed the history of the organization. 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. It also diffused opportunities for deepening an understanding of environment challenges in the country. The daughter of a peasant farmer and the third . 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. Maathais parents were among the first people to interact with and gain some education from the missionaries (athomi or asomi). 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. endobj Roland Hoksbergen and Lowell M. Ewert (Monrovia, CA: World Vision International, 2002). While working with the National Council of Women of Kenya, Maathai developed the idea that village women could improve the environment by planting trees to provide a fuel source and to slow the processes of deforestation and desertification. 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. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) was the founder of the Green Belt Movement and the Wangari Maathai Institute. She could then be addressed as Miss Muta. The GBM was launched under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK), an umbrella organization which brought grassroots womens organizations together for the advancement of women. 61. When they got married, she changed her name to Wangari Mathai, which she initially resisted, but did so on the insistence of her husband. It thus became a critical constituency for experimenting with new ideas. << /Pages 45 0 R /Type /Catalog >> Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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. 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 list of supporterswomen, men, and institutions in Kenya and elsewherewould be long. Timothy Njoya, We the People: Thinking Heavenly Acting Kenyan (Nairobi, Kenya: WordAlive Publishers, 2017). << /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>] >> One of Maathais remarkable gifts and indeed a notable strength was her ability to build alliances between local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international NGOs, with environmental celebrities, activists, and the press, thereby raising local and global awareness of grassroots environmental issues. Further information about these conferences can be found in the Links to Digital Materials section. Hence the dynamics of local and international forces coalesced in the work of the GBM. Instead the state officials preferred to create divisions among the GBM leadership rather than banish it. In 2004, Prof. Maathai became the first African woman to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace". 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. Her husband insisted on her adopting his surname. She creatively defied this by changing her last name to Maathai, by adding an a to her ex-husbands surname. While Maathai was cloistered in Catholic schools, the country was undergoing the turbulence of Mau Mau resistance against British colonialism. This formal education opened unparalleled opportunities in colonial and postcolonial Kenya. Her venture into politics plunged her into new controversies and, ironically, resulted in more publicity for the GBM. 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. She was recognized at once for doing no harm and for not upsetting the status quo. Kibicho, God and Revelation, 72168. 29. 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. Her concerns resonated with the needs and pains of ordinary mothers. 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 Muta Maathai o o tshotsweng ka kgwedi ya Moranang e tlhola gangwe ka ngwaga wa 1940, mme a tlhokafala ka kgwedi ya Lwetse e le malatsi a le masome le botlhano ka ngwaga wa 2011, e ne e le molwela ditshwanelo tsa selegae, tikologo le polotiki wa ko lefatsheng la Kenya, o o simolodisitseng mokgatlho wa Green Belt Movement, o e leng mokgatlho o o ikemetseng ka nosi o o itebagantseng le go . 51. An interview with Ms. Lillian W. Mwaura, former chairperson of NCWK, 1987 to 1996, November 15, 2018. She had become a global figure. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 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. 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. 21. 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). 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. Accounts from friends indicate that both parents were devoted to the well-being and education of their children. In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, a non-governmental organization, which encourages women to plant trees to combat deforestation and environmental degradation. She also had close relationships with other African regional institutionsfor instance, the African Development Bank (AfDB). As a national school, Loreto High School provided Maathai with the opportunity to interact with girls from other ethnic groups in Kenya. 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. 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. 31. But after returning to Kenya, she found that her career opportunities were limited. This was a rare occurrence in her male-dominated society. 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. Maathai was of Kikuyu ethnicity. Hannah Wangechi Kinoti, African Ethics: Gikuyu Traditional Morality (Nairobi, Kenya: Catholic University of Eastern Africa Press, 2013). Wangari Maathai Lesson Plan: Individual's Contributions Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8 *Click to open and customize your own copy of the Wangari Maathai Lesson Plan . 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! Corrections? Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 190050 (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishers, 2005), has analyzed the dynamics and contestations that shaped womanhood and marriage in colonial Kenya, including ethnic traditions, Christian missions, colonial state and its institutions, education, migration, travel, and women themselves. 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. As more funds were secured and more international attention gained, the GBM was assured of survival, both financially and politically. Her impact and influence had extended well beyond her constituency in Tetu, Kenya, and far beyond Africa. Funding was crucial, giving Maathai a salaried job and access to resources to assist rural women to launch and maintain tree nurseries. In Gikuyu, they were known as Athomi. Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, 6264, refers to the divisions this category of people brought into in the society. This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Wangari Maathai, and supports the standard of individuals' achievements and contributions to environmental preservation. 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. Further information about these conferences can be found in the Links to Digital Materials section. On Sunday, Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died. In 1947, she returned to Ihithe, for lack of educational opportunities at the farm. The accompanying population explosion also meant more people needed to be fed, educated, and their various needs provided for. Maathai, Unbowed, 112, 144, 151155. Often their phone calls, faxes, lettersor, later, e-mailsor simply their presence made the difference at a crucial moment. Then she was confronted with the fact that she had no job nor house to live inhard realities. Wangari Maathai is a young woman who saw deforestation turn the lush lands of Kenya into a barren desert. They energized governments, development agencies, civil society organizations and, in particular, womens movements and environmental activists all over the world. << /Linearized 1 /L 82815 /H [ 810 195 ] /O 26 /E 63939 /N 11 /T 82414 >> This policy was implemented from the mid-1950s and accelerated in the 60s and 70s by the independent government of Kenya. In many instances she learned by imitating what her mother and other village women were doing. She affirmed earth and water, air and the waning fire of the sun combine to form the essential elements of life and reveal to me my kinship with the soil.63. Lawrence M. Njoroge, A Century of Catholic Endeavour: Holy Ghost and Consolata Missions in Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya: Pauline Publications Africa, 2000); Samuel G. Kibicho, God and Revelation in an African Context (Nairobi, Kenya: Action Publishers, 2006); and David P. Sandgren, Mau Maus Children: The Making of Kenyas Postcolonial Elite (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012). Two years later, she shifted along with her parents to a farm near Rift Valley where her father had found work. It was an area populated by the Gikuyu people who lived in scattered homesteads around which they cultivated food crops and kept livestock.1 British settlers engaged in large-scale farming within the district, while colonial administrators entrenched colonial rule. On this farm she interacted with ordinary people from other ethnic communities as well as foreigners. In the forests of Aberdares and Mount Kenya, guerilla warfare was intense. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Kiraitu Murungi, In the Mud of Politics (Nairobi, Kenya: Acacia Stantex Publishers, 2000), 110 and 185187. 46. The couple had similar family backgrounds. 30. She was given a scholarship for PhD studies and research in Kenya and Germany. She died on September 25, 2011, at the age . To all of them, I am eternally grateful, as I am to the powerful who were willing to use their positions to protect me.37. endobj The most important dates and events in the current school year can be found in our calendar. [i] She was born in Nyeri, part of the rural region of Kenya on the 1st of April 1940. The subsequent handling of the divorce proceedings by the judiciary and the press seem to point out the quandary of how marriages of educated women were then perceived. By Mary Pipher Dr. Pipher is a clinical psychologist and the author, most recently, of "A Life in . Maathai had been successful in building a grassroots movement, but she fell into the trap of competitive politics as the best way forward. The Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded in 1977, had by the early 21st century planted some 30 million trees. It was bolstered by the introduction of cash crops such as coffee, tea, pyrethrum, and the introduction of exotic dairy cows. In 1997 and 2002, Maathai ventured into electoral politics once more. Wangari Maathai, Noble Lecture, during the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2004; Maathai, Unbowed; and Maathai, Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World (New York: Doubleday, 2010). 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. 48. 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. 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. This was characterized by land grabbing, destruction of forests and wildlife, and by exploiting the complex dynamics between public service and engagement in private business. They are, however, not responsible for the views expressed herein or the interpretations given in the article. Nevertheless, it was not easy balancing bringing up three children, earning a living, carving her identity, as well as navigating through turbulent political waters.29. Wangari Muta Maathai dedicated her life to solving some of these key issues in Kenya and the world. Maathais marriage produced three children, Waweru, Wanjira, and Muta, two boys and a girl. He offered Maathai the job of a research assistant on the basis of skills acquired during her studies and work exposure in the United States.23. Updates? When cash crops were introduced, again it was men who were registered in the cooperatives and received payments after deliveries of tea and coffee. 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. In 2005 ten heads of state of countries bordering Congo Basin recognized her by giving her the title of goodwill ambassador for the Congo Basin rainforest ecosystema responsibility which she cherished.61 I remember once visiting her office to find her immersed in the study of French so as to discharge the responsibilities of the new position. The intention was to pacify central Kenya and create a favorable apolitical climate for consolidating the interests of settlers and the colonial administration. . 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. But as painful as it was, it seems to have given Maathai a measure of latitude to pursue her interests and achieve success as an activist. I used this source to add more variety to my sources and to get more specific details about Maathai's life. 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. 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. 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. These groups played critical roles in shaping the values and politics that she espoused for social justice, sustainable development, and climate change. endobj These factors, together with the limited number of schools in colonial Kenya, meant that the young Maathai was very fortunate. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Hence Maathai was shaped mainly by Gikuyu culture, colonial and postcolonial history, contacts with Catholic clergy, nuns, and grassroots women. 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. The attendant inequalities in the country were analyzed and flagged by the International Labour Organization Report of 1972. Accordingly, she adopted new Christian names, to later abandon them in favor of her African names, a saga repeated upon marriage and divorce.13, In 1956, Maathai took another important step in her education journey by joining Loreto High School, Limuru. This was a political maneuver intended to weaken the chairperson role and a calculated strategy to undermine umbrella organizations by the withdrawal of members. 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. At the insistence of her mother and her brother Nderitu, Maathai was enrolled at a Presbyterian church Primary School, Ihitheand there began her exposure to Western education.8 This experience ignited a passion for education, which Maathai captured in later writings: How I longed to be able to write something and rub it out. Wangari Maathai. Born in the midst of a world war and growing up among the conflicts and ambiguities of colonial domination, thereafter she cultivated, mobilized, and networked for a world of democratic and peaceful governance and sustainable development. The first attempt in 1982 was blocked; in the 1997 attempt, she failed to secure a seat. He eventually became a member of parliament for a constituency in Nairobi. 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. Her position at the university also opened opportunities to venture into other fields of service and leadership for which she was to become well known in addition to her academic pursuits. Early Life Wangari Maathai held her Nobel Lecture December 10, 2004, in the Oslo City Hall, Norway. 27 0 obj 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. 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