wangari maathai primary sourceswangari maathai primary sources

25 0 obj 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! Both families migrated from the Nyeri District to the Rift Valley province in search of employment and land to cultivate. When they got married, she changed her name to Wangari Mathai, which she initially resisted, but did so on the insistence of her husband. During this period the GBM thrived, leading to the recognition of Maathai. 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. 2021 marks 10 years since Prof . When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. 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. She was allocated a mini garden by her mother to cultivate and to learn practically how to care for plants. As more funds were secured and more international attention gained, the GBM was assured of survival, both financially and politically. Eventually Maathai was awarded a PhD by the University of East Africa in 1971. 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. Aid agencies distrusted state actors and channeled more resources to nonstate actors.56. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. 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. ed. This formal education opened unparalleled opportunities in colonial and postcolonial Kenya. These changes started with the alienation of large tracts of land for white settlement at the onset of British colonialism. However, both were interested in Western education.5 They realized the value of education and encouraged their children to attend school. 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. Our school calendar. Wangari Maathai, The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (New York: Lantern Books, 2003); and Maathai, The Challenge for Africa. of the University of Nairobi, March 11, 2005. Discussions held with Rev. In the last three decades it has become the cosmopolitan and partially urbanized County of Nyeri. The influence of the nuns began in this school and continued all the way to university. 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. This left the NCWK in a precarious financial situation and effected the severing of relationships with many grassroots organizations. 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. Updates? 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. She became Wangari Mathai. With Maathais guidance, the program went from a series of local womens activities into a national and international phenomenon. 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). 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. 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. The experience of discrimination at the Department of Zoology led Maathai to look for opportunities elsewhere. Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Kenya, Bridging Ethnic Divides: A Commissioners Experience on Cohesion and Integration (Nairobi, Kenya: Mdahalo Bridging Divides, 2018). 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. endobj Wangari Maathai (1940-2011), the first woman to obtain a PhD in East and Central Africa, was a scholar, and an environmental and human rights activist. Maathai, Unbowed, 5960; and Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, 8791. Wangari Muta Maathai Anchor was a prominent Kenyan environmental and political activist. Maathai was born in a small rural village known as Ihithe in the Tetu division in what was then the Nyeri District. 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). 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. She published an autobiography, Unbowed, in 2007. Early Life The impact of changes in rural Kenya was complicated by emerging corruption among Kenyas elite. stream Some of her most important speeches can be found on the GBM website, including: Bottlenecks to Development in Africa, Fourth UN World Womens Conference in Beijing, China, August 30, 1995; Speak Truth to Power, May 4, 2000; Noble Lecture during the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2004; Rise Up and Walk! 17. When cash crops were introduced, again it was men who were registered in the cooperatives and received payments after deliveries of tea and coffee. Maathai and other writers have described at length the methodologies and approaches utilized by the GBM to reach out to rural women, building awareness regarding the needs of the environment and the adoption of relevant innovations.31 Such were the modalities and characteristics of the movement, resulting in a culture of tree planting that was nurtured widely among Kenyans. These changes were advocated by the R. J. M. Swynnerton Plan of 1954. in biology, 1964) and at the University of Pittsburgh (M.S., 1966). 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. This source is a well-written and detailed autobiography from the topic, Wangari Maathai. 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. 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. The continued existence of the Karura Forest in the outskirts of Nairobi city is another hallmark of her courage. Describing her experience at St. Cecilias Intermediate Primary School, Maathai writes: I really enjoyed learning and had a knack for being an attentive listener and very focused in the classroom, while being extremely playful outside of it.10 However, colonial education also exposed her to contradictions and challenges with regard to African cultures and in particular with regard to her mother tongue.11 In her school, speaking in her mother tongue was a punishable offense. ed. Wangari Maathai was able to achieve a large degree of educational and professional successes despite her rural beginnings in a fiercely patriarchal society and within a male . Kibicho, God and Revelation, 72168. Maathai was of Kikuyu ethnicity. % 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. Wangari's Words to Live By . They returned to Kenya soon after independence. The daughter of a peasant farmer and the third . 26 0 obj While colonial and Western education at times alienated her from her mother tongue, culture, and home environment, it paved the way for her to achieve the highest academic distinction and many honors. 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. Wangari Maathai. 27. xcbdg`b`8 $1{0@@"$Q$x;A,u me`b H5 dw These factors, together with the limited number of schools in colonial Kenya, meant that the young Maathai was very fortunate. Forest cover was also decimated as large-scale farms were subdivided and select forest reserves were hived off for settlement purposes. Hence the dynamics of local and international forces coalesced in the work of the GBM. 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. 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. The first attempt in 1982 was blocked; in the 1997 attempt, she failed to secure a seat. 21. When she won the Nobel Prize in 2004, the committee commended her holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights, and womens rights in particular. Her first book, The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (1988; rev. She was presented by Professor Ole Danbolt Mjs, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. She was narrowly defeated in the race for the top position, but was consoled by being appointed vice-chairperson, elected by an overwhelming majority. 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. << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 1638 >> Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. Her adage that when we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope remains an inspiration. Her venture into politics plunged her into new controversies and, ironically, resulted in more publicity for the GBM. 29. By becoming a full-time paid coordinator, Maathai brought much needed energy and courage into the movement at a critical time of its development. 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. Her husband insisted on her adopting his surname. 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 . Dr. Wangar Muta Maathai. She challenged this in court, but her petition was dismissed. She had already won many awards and was eventually awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. 55. stream In 1960, she benefited from what in Kenya was called the Tom Mboya Airlift to the United States, for education in preparation for independence. 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. Ecologist Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her years of work with women to reverse African deforestation. She benefited mainly from the tide of change which was sweeping the country, not because she had articulated her own political ideas.42. 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. 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 exposure to other Kenyan ethnic communities broadened when she moved onto a settlers farm in the Nakuru area where her father was employed. Researching ticks at the University of Nairobi also exposed Maathai to the environmental degradation taking place in rural Kenya and its impact on the livelihoods of rural women. 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. A number of factors and circumstances seem to have contributed to the emergence, rise, and success of the GBM as a development actor. 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). I'm very conscious of the fact that you can't do it alone. Wangari Maathai obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount . It diverted her critical energies from the issues that were dear to the GBM. 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. 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. << /Linearized 1 /L 82815 /H [ 810 195 ] /O 26 /E 63939 /N 11 /T 82414 >> AfDB, Eminent Speakers Program, Wangari Maathai Underscores Importance of Good Governance in Poverty Reduction Efforts, October 27, 2010. Another volume, The Challenge for Africa (2009), criticized Africas leadership as ineffectual and urged Africans to try to solve their problems without Western assistance. Two years into their marriage, she attained her PhD, which accelerated her career in academia. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. All the girls in the school came from the same community, but were prohibited from speaking their language. The genius of Maathai and other women leaders was to turn this elite organization into a vehicle for the empowerment of rural women. She had become a global figure. The encounter with expatriate Germans opened a unique opportunity for Maathai. He also discusses the place of indigenous languages in liberation from cultural enslavement in Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (Nairobi, Kenya: Heinemann Educational, 1986). In 1997 and 2002, Maathai ventured into electoral politics once more. endobj In 1947, she returned to Ihithe, for lack of educational opportunities at the farm. 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. Later Years and Death. Hannah Wangechi Kinoti, African Ethics: Gikuyu Traditional Morality (Nairobi, Kenya: Catholic University of Eastern Africa Press, 2013). Most studies have focused on the societal importance of marriage and the negative effects of divorce on families. 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. endobj 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. Use these quotes in discussing Wangari Maathai's life and how her views and activities changed over the course of her lifetime. Maathais campaigns to empower women may have been rooted in these experiences of gender inequalities and marginalization.53, In the 80s most African countries underwent structural adjustment policies leading to economic and social reforms, the privatization of state enterprises, and the limitation of the role of the state in development activities.54 These externally initiated reforms impacted negatively on the provision of health, education, and other social services. I used this source to add more variety to my sources and to get more specific details about Maathai's life. In discussing her childhood in her autobiography, Maathai paints a picture of an idyllic life set in a pristine and lush rural environment. 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. 1. 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. Hence Maathai was shaped mainly by Gikuyu culture, colonial and postcolonial history, contacts with Catholic clergy, nuns, and grassroots women. A. While working for the National Council of Women of Kenya in 1976, Maathai came up with . There was an aspect of independence in the women Maathai associated with. 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. It's teamwork. 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. Maathai had been successful in building a grassroots movement, but she fell into the trap of competitive politics as the best way forward. She died on September 25, 2011, at the age . Suffice it to say, she mobilized local and international communities to save Uhuru Park from being turned into a concrete jungle. When Maathai decided to vie for an elected position, she underestimated the determination of the state to frustrate and contain her ambitions. 59. 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. 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. 18. Her work was often considered both unwelcome and subversive in her own country, where her outspokenness constituted stepping far outside traditional gender roles. 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. Maathai's atypical and yet symbolic biography draws on two primary texts: Wangari Maathai's (2006), Unbowed: A Memoir . 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. 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. 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. Maathai played an active part in the struggle for democracy in Kenya, and belonged to the opposition . 11. Modern farming methods were introduced to small-scale farmers through the provision of extension services and credit facilities. Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist who dedicated her life to promoting sustainable development, democracy, and human rights. In 2007, the region would explode into postelection violence, something which she had foreseen and tried hard to mitigate by cultivating a culture of peace for almost two decades. Wangari Maathai, environmental activist and politician, born 1 April 1940; died 25 . While undertaking her studies, Maathai learned how Christianity practiced in American, European, and African societies blended well with their dominant cultures. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Her impact and influence had extended well beyond her constituency in Tetu, Kenya, and far beyond Africa. An interview with Joshua S. Muiru, November 2019. 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. 60. 26. 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. 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. Her books and speeches were often enriched by illustrations from her cultural background despite the onslaught it had undergone during the exposure to missionary education and religion. University of Nairobi Research Archive, Citation on Professor Wangari Muta Maathai on her Conferment of the Honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) Roland Hoksbergen and Lowell M. Ewert (Monrovia, CA: World Vision International, 2002). Agricultural cooperatives were established in rural areas to ensure that quality agricultural commodities were produced and marketed. 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. As elites, they were keen to build careers, and acquire wealth and status in the emerging society. Wangari Maathai: storyteller This was a rare occurrence in her male-dominated society. 54. The Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai: Key Speeches and Articles, November 11, 2020. Her entire life was thus characterized by learning, critical observations, engagement, interactions with people, and advocacy for change. Anyone can read what you share. Her time in academia gave her opportunities to engage in voluntary community activities that were not strictly academic, although regarded as part of university community service. It also gave her increased international exposure which provided some degree of political protection and a platform to highlight issues related to the environment. Her concerns resonated with the needs and pains of ordinary mothers. Maathai shared her amazing life story with the world in the 2006 memoir Unbowed. Professor Wangari Muta Maathai was born to Muta Njugi and his wife Wanjiru Muta in Nyeri, Kenya on 1st April 1940. Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, African History. 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. . 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. In reality, her environmental activism was part of a holistic approach to empowering women, advocating for democracy, and protecting the earth. Wangar Maathai was a Kenyan social, political and environmental activist who was a leading figure in the environmentalist movement in Africa and across the world. Maathai is internationally renowned for her unrelenting efforts in advocating democracy, environmental conservation and human rights. In these initial attempts, no distinct ideological orientation or program of action could distinguish her from other politicians in the country. After completing her high school education in 1959, at Loreto School, Maathai embarked on another educational journey, this time to the United States. 7. Initially, the NCWK was an organization led by urban elite women and intended to give a voice to womens organizations. 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. 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. 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 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. 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