27 0 obj This led to intensified competition for natural resources and further encroachment on forests and water towers.43. Maathai was of Kikuyu ethnicity. She was baptized Miriam at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Ihithe, to become Miriam Wangari. Maathai, Unbowed, 7. These forms of marginalization of women were common in Kenya. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. These experiences emboldened her to fight against ethnic discrimination and gender inequalities which she encountered in the same institution and in the country generally. Consequently, Professor Maathais ingenuity and persistence were widely recognized and honored, and earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. During this period the GBM thrived, leading to the recognition of Maathai. 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. 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. In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya confident and with high hopes for making a contribution to the newly independent country. 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. First, it is necessary to interrogate and appreciate the less than ideal circumstances under which the GBM rose and flourished. 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). stream Kabiru Kinyanjui, ed., Non-Government Organizations (NGOs): Contributions to Development, Occasional Paper, no. 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! 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. Interviews held on various dates in 2018 and 2019 with Prof. Wanjiku Kabira, Rev. 42. 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. endstream 22 0 obj 21. When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope. With Maathais guidance, the program went from a series of local womens activities into a national and international phenomenon. Then she was confronted with the fact that she had no job nor house to live inhard realities. 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). The couple had their upbringing and initial education in colonial Kenya before going to the United States for university education. The couple had similar family backgrounds. 54. This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Wangari Maathai, and supports the standard of individuals' achievements and contributions to environmental preservation. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. She resigned from her comfortable position at the University of Nairobi to contest a by-election in a rural constituency. . The contending social forces of the colonial period persisted in postcolonial Kenya, impinging on the concept of modern marriage and incipient African womanhood. All the girls in the school came from the same community, but were prohibited from speaking their language. The resulting dislocation and labor migration initiated an environmental transformation that was accelerated in subsequent decades. Upon her divorce, her ex-husband insisted that she drop his surname. Among them were the activists and the brokers of power. 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. ed. 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. % 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. 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. 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. 18. Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. The experience of discrimination at the Department of Zoology led Maathai to look for opportunities elsewhere. 46. This affinity with the soil became a great asset when she led tree-planting campaigns. Kiraitu Murungi, In the Mud of Politics (Nairobi, Kenya: Acacia Stantex Publishers, 2000), 110 and 185187. 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 was tasked with domestic chores as was expected of young girls in traditional society. She was an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council. Maendeleo ya Wanawake, an organization for the progress of women, started during the colonial period, was dedicated to support the welfare of African women, but in the postcolonial period became a vehicle for the participation of women in development. Updates? They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. 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. 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. Primary Sources Overview . While her father was formally educated, her mother was not. Maathai, Unbowed, 5960; and Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, 8791. 13. The Early Years and Education "It was during the mbura ya njahi - the season of long rains, in 1940 that Wangari Maathai was born. 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. It was bolstered by the introduction of cash crops such as coffee, tea, pyrethrum, and the introduction of exotic dairy cows. 25. 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 . Kibicho, God and Revelation, 72168. 36. An interview with Ms. Lillian W. Mwaura, former chairperson of NCWK, 1987 to 1996, November 15, 2018. The Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded in 1977, had by the early 21st century planted some 30 million trees. endobj The intention was to pacify central Kenya and create a favorable apolitical climate for consolidating the interests of settlers and the colonial administration. She sat for the Kenya Primary Examination in 1951 and scored Grade One. The list of supporterswomen, men, and institutions in Kenya and elsewherewould be long. These factors, together with the limited number of schools in colonial Kenya, meant that the young Maathai was very fortunate. 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. It diverted her critical energies from the issues that were dear to the GBM. This policy was implemented from the mid-1950s and accelerated in the 60s and 70s by the independent government of Kenya. 24 0 obj When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it. 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. He eventually became a member of parliament for a constituency in Nairobi. Omissions? While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Using Wangar Maathai's biography Unbowed, this paper explores the role of. Mwangi, on the other hand, was working for a private corporation and was a business entrepreneur with political ambitions. 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. Unbowed: A Memoir . 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. xc```b``b`a``f`0$2,~6#\31f3F0f``//^^$bZdQ#n(f`dbg`cX76lb> U) 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 . Maathais marriage produced three children, Waweru, Wanjira, and Muta, two boys and a girl. 41. In the forests of Aberdares and Mount Kenya, guerilla warfare was intense. 29. 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. 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. At college in the United States, she found it confusing to be referred as Miss Wangari. Wangari Muta Maathai dedicated her life to solving some of these key issues in Kenya and the world. Wangari Maathai is a young woman who saw deforestation turn the lush lands of Kenya into a barren desert. 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. 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. I stand before you and the world humbled by this recognition and uplifted by the honour of being the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate. By Mary Pipher Dr. Pipher is a clinical psychologist and the author, most recently, of "A Life in . 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. Maathai, Unbowed, 112, 144, 151155. 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. 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! By becoming a full-time paid coordinator, Maathai brought much needed energy and courage into the movement at a critical time of its development. 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. 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. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, Wangari Maathai spent her life fighting for and promoting democracy and peace, sustainable development, and the empowerment of women. A decision to send Maathai to school was made by her mother at the instigation of Nderitu, an elder brother. The Ndegwa Report of 1971 legitimized such practices.46 These practices tended to concentrate wealth and power among few elites, predominantly from one ethnic group. Her mother had a great deal of influence on her daughter as she grew up in the village. 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. In this regard, Nyeri was the epicenter of the freedom struggle. 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. 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. 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. 26 0 obj Historian G. Muriuki refers to this early mixing of ethnic groups in The History of the Kikuyu, 15001900 (Nairobi, Kenya: Oxford University Press, 1974). Initially, the NCWK was an organization led by urban elite women and intended to give a voice to womens organizations. 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. Our school calendar. The separation between the NCWK and the GBM that occurred in 1987 as a result of political pressure from the Moi regime, proved another milestone in the development of the identity and stature of Maathai as an environmental activist. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Early States and State Formation in Africa, Historical Preservation and Cultural Heritage, Formal Education in Kenya and the United States, The Place of Wangari Maathai in Kenya, Africa, and the World, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.480, United Nations Conference on Human Environment, World Conference of the International Womens Year, United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development, Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, United Nations Conference on Environmental Development (UNCED), Earth Summit, World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace, World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), Wangari Maathai: Key Speeches and Articles, Women, Gender, and Sexuality in East Africa. 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