(Nairobi, Kenya: Leadership Institute, 2011); and Wangari Maathai, Unbowed: One Womans Story (London: Arrow Books, 2006). 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". Maathai shared her amazing life story with the world in the 2006 memoir Unbowed. The GBM is thus credited with developing a culture of planting trees during important family, community, and national events. The influence of the nuns began in this school and continued all the way to university. Dr. Samuel Kobia, the former general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), November 2018, indicate Wangari participated in the early debates at the WCCs Conference on Faith, Science, and the Future at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1979); and in the Church and Society Committee of the WCC. Wangari's Words to Live By . 51. Her adage that when we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope remains an inspiration. Agricultural cooperatives were established in rural areas to ensure that quality agricultural commodities were produced and marketed. However, both were interested in Western education.5 They realized the value of education and encouraged their children to attend school. Fresh Air Weekend Fresh Air Weekend: NPR host Mary Louise Kelly; Josh Groban. 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. << /Contents 27 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 612 792 ] /Parent 43 0 R /Resources << /ExtGState << /G3 38 0 R >> /Font << /F4 39 0 R /F5 40 0 R /F6 41 0 R /F7 42 0 R >> /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text /ImageB /ImageC /ImageI ] >> /StructParents 0 /Type /Page >> 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. 48. Through interaction with the nuns, Maathai gained the Christian values of respect for the dignity of all human beings.14 Most of these blended well with the Gikuyu values of hard work, respect for fellow humans, and an appreciation for the dignity and wisdom derived from being a member of a community, referred to elsewhere as ubuntu.15 In many respects she became ecumenical, embracing religious ideas and values from other world faiths, especially as they related to the protection of the environment.16 Although she was one of the educated girls, she never lost touch with her rural roots and the common people. Two years later, she shifted along with her parents to a farm near Rift Valley where her father had found work. 36. Updates? << /Pages 45 0 R /Type /Catalog >> Maathai was of Kikuyu ethnicity. I'm very conscious of the fact that you can't do it alone. As a young girl growing up in Kenya, Wangari was surrounded by trees. Maathai, Wangari. Murungi, In the Mud of Politics, 196199. An interview with Prof. Cyrus Mutiso indicated that Prof. Mathaai built the GBM on existing self-improvement womens groups such as the Nyakinyua Mabati womens groups located in the Nyeri and Muranga Counties. Among them were the activists and the brokers of power. Under colonialism, indigenous Kenyan cultures were besieged. 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. Corrections? 49. Duncan Ndegwa, Congratulatory Letter, December 2, 2004, in Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, 595. 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. It also diffused opportunities for deepening an understanding of environment challenges in the country. 55. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. 15. ed. Maathai was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College; B.S. Maathai, The Challenge for Africa, 1112 and 272273. 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. 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. The experience of discrimination at the Department of Zoology led Maathai to look for opportunities elsewhere. She also had close relationships with other African regional institutionsfor instance, the African Development Bank (AfDB). The resulting dislocation and labor migration initiated an environmental transformation that was accelerated in subsequent decades. M. P. K. Sorrenson, Land Reform in Kikuyu Country (London: Oxford University Press, 1967). Funding was crucial, giving Maathai a salaried job and access to resources to assist rural women to launch and maintain tree nurseries. When conflict engulfed central Kenya and some men went into the forest to fight and others detained, it was women who took care of their families: providing food, building houses, and in some cases educating children.52 When Maathai came home during the school holidays, this was the reality that confronted her. She resigned from her comfortable position at the University of Nairobi to contest a by-election in a rural constituency. Future research could explore further the tensions that marriages of educated elites encountered, while still embedded in their ethnic traditions. 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. Events around this election occasioned unsolicited media publicity for Maathai. Forest cover was also decimated as large-scale farms were subdivided and select forest reserves were hived off for settlement purposes. As a national school, Loreto High School provided Maathai with the opportunity to interact with girls from other ethnic groups in Kenya. Wangari Muta Maathai Anchor was a prominent Kenyan environmental and political activist. A church allied to President Moi withdrew from the NCCK in similar circumstances.34 Thereafter Maendeleo ya Wanawake was integrated within the ruling party, the Kenya African National Union (KANU), until the overwhelming defeat of the party in the general elections of 2002.35, Secondly, in 1982 for the first time, Maathai ventured into electoral politics. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. 50. There was an aspect of independence in the women Maathai associated with. 5. Interviews held on various dates in 2018 and 2019 with Prof. Wanjiku Kabira, Rev. Hence, she decided to correct the confusion by adopting her full name, Mary Josephine Wangari Muta. She was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in veterinary sciences and the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. 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. But years later She was tasked with domestic chores as was expected of young girls in traditional society. [i] She was born in Nyeri, part of the rural region of Kenya on the 1st of April 1940. 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. Wangari Maathai. 47. Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist who dedicated her life to promoting sustainable development, democracy, and human rights. In the forests of Aberdares and Mount Kenya, guerilla warfare was intense. 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. This, she did at high personal risk to her and to her friends. 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. Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Kenya, Bridging Ethnic Divides: A Commissioners Experience on Cohesion and Integration (Nairobi, Kenya: Mdahalo Bridging Divides, 2018). Maendeleo ya Wanawake was such a grassroots organization established during the colonial period and after independence had developed a countrywide network of grassroots affiliates.30. 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. 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. Accounts from friends indicate that both parents were devoted to the well-being and education of their children. Maathais knowledge of the German language (which was a minor subject during study for her first degree) became useful as it enabled her to interact with the German lecturers who were assisting with the establishment of a school of veterinary medicine. Though such encounters in colonial Kenya were often limited, Maathai strived to base these relationships on equality, freedom, dignity, learning, and mobilization in common pursuit of sustainable development. Kenyan politician and environmental activist Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2004 for her involvement in "sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights, and women's rights in particular." She became the first Black African woman to achieve such an honor. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. These groups played critical roles in shaping the values and politics that she espoused for social justice, sustainable development, and climate change. in biology, 1964) and at the University of Pittsburgh (M.S., 1966). 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. Women were in control and were making the vital decisions at home, in the village, and at school. Her family was of Kikuyu origin, and her father was polygamous. To begin with, Maathai had to contest for a position in the NCWK leadership. 25. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya confident and with high hopes for making a contribution to the newly independent country. They returned to Kenya soon after independence. Within this paradigm, racism is viewed as the primary impact factor, or in the language of Wangari Maathai, racism is a "root cause." The study draws on the African philosophical framework of Maat as a lens through which to view Maathai's philosophy, and which provides conceptual grounding for understanding that philosophy. 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. Suffice it to say, she mobilized local and international communities to save Uhuru Park from being turned into a concrete jungle. These changes were advocated by the R. J. M. Swynnerton Plan of 1954. They energized governments, development agencies, civil society organizations and, in particular, womens movements and environmental activists all over the world. The plan recommended land consolidation and registration of individual ownership to create a landed class which would form a buffer between the radical Gikuyu members and the colonial government, thereby minimizing support for the Mau Mau rebellion. Maathais parents were among the first people to interact with and gain some education from the missionaries (athomi or asomi). At that time, she was working as an assistant lecturer at the University College, Nairobi. In 1977, Maathai founded a grassroots organization, the Green Belt Movement, focused on reforestation to promote sustainability and establish financial income for women in the region. These agrarian reforms were adopted and intensified by the postcolonial government, leading to the increased degradation of rural areas. The contending social forces of the colonial period persisted in postcolonial Kenya, impinging on the concept of modern marriage and incipient African womanhood. Hence Maathai was shaped mainly by Gikuyu culture, colonial and postcolonial history, contacts with Catholic clergy, nuns, and grassroots women. Wangari recognised rural women's primary interest and role in maintaining a productive landscape, for assuring food needs as well as making daily household necessities - water and fuel - easier to collect. Alan Fowler, Striking a Balance: Guide to Enhancing the Effectiveness of Non-Governmental Organizations in International Development (London: Earthscan Publications, 1997). In 1955, people were moved to concentration villages to pacify the region and to sever access to vital supply lines and community support that had supported the resistance fighters.18 It was in the context of the Mau Mau freedom struggle that Maathai received her education at St. Cecilia Intermediate Primary School and later Loreto High School, Limuru. During this period the GBM thrived, leading to the recognition of Maathai. 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. The life of Wangari Muta Maathai (1940-2011) was strongly shaped by her rural environment, missionary education, and exposure to university education in the United States and Germany. She had already won many awards and was eventually awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. These changes started with the alienation of large tracts of land for white settlement at the onset of British colonialism. In the last three decades it has become the cosmopolitan and partially urbanized County of Nyeri. 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). As the first African woman to . She is survived by two daughters, Wanjira and Muta, and a son, Waweru, as well as her granddaughter, Ruth. 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). She observed: Working for justice and freedom is often a lonely and dispirited business. In honor and admiration of the mother and father of Jesus, she took the forenames Mary Josephine, and became popularly known among her colleagues in high school and college as Mary Jo. of the University of Nairobi, March 11, 2005. He eventually became a member of parliament for a constituency in Nairobi. 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. In the following year, despite political and ethnic maneuvers, she was elected to the position of chairperson and re-elected repeatedly until 1987, when she retired from the position. 39. % She was narrowly defeated in the race for the top position, but was consoled by being appointed vice-chairperson, elected by an overwhelming majority. Lillian Mwaura interview, November 2018. She became Wangari Mathai. . Working for the GBM widened her horizons and provided a canvas upon which Maathai painted her broad vision for sustainable development, peace, democracy, gender equality, and grassroots empowerment in Kenya and Africa. Our school calendar. The continued existence of the Karura Forest in the outskirts of Nairobi city is another hallmark of her courage. 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. When cash crops were introduced, again it was men who were registered in the cooperatives and received payments after deliveries of tea and coffee. 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. Wangari Maathai came from a family of Athomi (Maathai, Unbowed, 1112). 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