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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. However, some people who had early contact with colonialists and missionaries lost valuable land and were displaced, while others were relegated to migrant labor. 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. Hence Maathai was shaped mainly by Gikuyu culture, colonial and postcolonial history, contacts with Catholic clergy, nuns, and grassroots women. 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. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Agricultural cooperatives were established in rural areas to ensure that quality agricultural commodities were produced and marketed. 26 0 obj Wanyiri Kihoro, Never Say Die: The Chronicle of a Political Prisoner (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Education Publishers, 1998). 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. 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. Maathai is internationally renowned for her unrelenting efforts in advocating democracy, environmental conservation and human rights. At times she utilized these international alliances and networks to expose the atrocities and injustices that people had suffered under the auspices of their own government. Her achievements were appealing to all ideological shades. 47. 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 experience of discrimination at the Department of Zoology led Maathai to look for opportunities elsewhere. endstream 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. Lillian Mwaura interview, November 2018. As a national school, Loreto High School provided Maathai with the opportunity to interact with girls from other ethnic groups in Kenya. She was tasked with domestic chores as was expected of young girls in traditional society. These experiences emboldened her to fight against ethnic discrimination and gender inequalities which she encountered in the same institution and in the country generally. 17. The document argued that by creating a class of privileged rural farmers, the radicalization of peasants would be minimized, thus denying support for Mau Mau and other radical political elements. On her demise, she was accorded a state funeral by the Kenyan government. She is survived by two daughters, Wanjira and Muta, and a son, Waweru, as well as her granddaughter, Ruth. The resulting dislocation and labor migration initiated an environmental transformation that was accelerated in subsequent decades. Environmental Leader, Political Activist. 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. Other influential circumstances include an encounter on a settlers farm in the Nakuru region of Kenya, engagements with women in tree-planting ventures, and intense protracted struggles for the democratization of Kenya. The women formed an important constituency of this work which politicians could not ignore. In her lifetime, Dr. Wangari Maathai authored four books and numerous scientific publications. In many areas of Kenya, the tree cover was restored. Her family was of Kikuyu origin, and her father was polygamous. However, no healing of the scars inflicted on you, I am convinced, can equal the soothing of the Nobel Peace Prize you have now won. 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. She also had close relationships with other African regional institutionsfor instance, the African Development Bank (AfDB). Member organizations were usually part of a countrywide network that resonated with concerns of grassroots women. She was an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council. This was a rare occurrence in her male-dominated society. 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. The couple had similar family backgrounds. 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. Kelly reflects on juggling motherhood and chasing the news. 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. Instead the state officials preferred to create divisions among the GBM leadership rather than banish it. 11. 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. %PDF-1.5 . Upon her divorce, her ex-husband insisted that she drop his surname. She published an autobiography, Unbowed, in 2007. 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. 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. 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). She appealed to environmental and peace constituencies in the global development establishment and was heartily recognized. Historian G. Muriuki refers to this early mixing of ethnic groups in The History of the Kikuyu, 15001900 (Nairobi, Kenya: Oxford University Press, 1974). These changes were advocated by the R. J. M. Swynnerton Plan of 1954. 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. Updates? The drift toward authoritarianism had emerged in the late 60s and 70s under Kenyas first President, Jomo Kenyatta, and was consolidated in the 80s with the ascendancy of the Moi regime.47 One party rule was legalized, and dissent was punished by arbitrary arrests, torture, and detention without trial.48 Maathai took up the leadership of the NCWK and subsequently as a coordinator of the GBM as state control and surveillance was intensified. 32. They are, however, not responsible for the views expressed herein or the interpretations given in the article. Her resignation was accepted, but she was disqualified to stand as a candidate allegedly because she had not been registered as a voter. of the University of Nairobi, March 11, 2005. 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. 51. By then she had acquired world fame which transcended her position as a member of parliament and as an assistant minister of the environment and natural resourcesa position she was appointed to in January 2003. In the midst of enormous challenges and obstacles, she created a formidable Green Belt Movement (GBM) to empower grassroots women. 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. 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. In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya confident and with high hopes for making a contribution to the newly independent country. It focused on the value of tree-planting programs, as well as dealing with environmental deterioration in rural areas resulting from the intensified cultivation of cash crops and population growth. 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. 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. 41. stream He eventually became a member of parliament for a constituency in Nairobi. Forest cover was also decimated as large-scale farms were subdivided and select forest reserves were hived off for settlement purposes. 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. Further information about these conferences can be found in the Links to Digital Materials section. 42. 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. Thus, the NCWK provided an appropriate platform to develop and experiment with innovative ideas such as the GBM. Primary Sources. 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. Maathai, The Challenge for Africa, 1112 and 272273. That she accompanied mothers of political detainees at the Freedom Corner to fight for the release of their incarcerated children is indicative of how she identified with the struggles of ordinary Kenyans in confronting an authoritarian regime. Events around this election occasioned unsolicited media publicity for Maathai. Often their phone calls, faxes, lettersor, later, e-mailsor simply their presence made the difference at a crucial moment. The culture of planting trees took root everywhere in Kenya toward the end of last decade of the 20th century. She could then be addressed as Miss Muta. . Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. It also diffused opportunities for deepening an understanding of environment challenges in the country. 30. 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. These agrarian reforms were adopted and intensified by the postcolonial government, leading to the increased degradation of rural areas. Under the auspices of the NCWK, the GBM, with limited donor funding, gradually evolved into a platform to educate and empower rural communities and Kenyans in general. Maathai, Unbowed, 5960; and Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, 8791. The link was not copied. 1. Her concerns resonated with the needs and pains of ordinary mothers. In many instances she learned by imitating what her mother and other village women were doing. In these initial attempts, no distinct ideological orientation or program of action could distinguish her from other politicians in the country. Maathais parents were among the first people to interact with and gain some education from the missionaries (athomi or asomi). Maathais marriage produced three children, Waweru, Wanjira, and Muta, two boys and a girl. But years later 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. An interview with Joshua S. Muiru, November 2019. 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. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Higher Education Leaders of the Green Belt Movement established the Pan African Green Belt Network in 1986 in order to educate world leaders about conservation and environmental improvement. 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. Later Years and Death. Most people think of Ms. Maathai as an environmentalist, planting trees. Wangari Maathai Lesson Plan: Write and Deliver a Persuasive Speech Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8 In this lesson plan, adaptable for grades 3-12, students explore BrainPOP resources to learn about Wangari Maathai, a global leader for women's rights and conservation. endobj 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. 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. Africentrism. Local experiences also infused global thinking and appreciation of struggles for democratic governance, peace, and sustainable development. ed. These factors, together with the limited number of schools in colonial Kenya, meant that the young Maathai was very fortunate. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Wangari Maathai is a young woman who saw deforestation turn the lush lands of Kenya into a barren desert. Then she was confronted with the fact that she had no job nor house to live inhard realities. 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. 24. 59. By becoming a full-time paid coordinator, Maathai brought much needed energy and courage into the movement at a critical time of its development. With Maathais guidance, the program went from a series of local womens activities into a national and international phenomenon. In 1977, Wangari Maathai started a campaign that came to be known as the Green Belt Movement in her home country of Kenya. While working for the National Council of Women of Kenya in 1976, Maathai came up with . 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). 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. This source is a well-written and detailed autobiography from the topic, Wangari Maathai. 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. Each of these fields of her engagement merit detailed analysis as was done with the GBM. Maathai's atypical and yet symbolic biography draws on two primary texts: Wangari Maathai's (2006), Unbowed: A Memoir . 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. Accounts from friends indicate that both parents were devoted to the well-being and education of their children. The intention was to pacify central Kenya and create a favorable apolitical climate for consolidating the interests of settlers and the colonial administration. Maathai had the unique opportunity of going to school when girls in her age group were typically not given the opportunity of doing so. It also gave her increased international exposure which provided some degree of political protection and a platform to highlight issues related to the environment. Maathai, Unbowed, 7. In reality, her environmental activism was part of a holistic approach to empowering women, advocating for democracy, and protecting the earth. 62. Maathai, Unbowed, 112, 144, 151155. 2021 marks 10 years since Prof . A. 26. 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. 2. When she was growing up, her father, a truck driver, made sure she was brought into family discussions and valued her opinions. After completing her high school education in 1959, at Loreto School, Maathai embarked on another educational journey, this time to the United States. 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. 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. 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. 34. 55. All the girls in the school came from the same community, but were prohibited from speaking their language. 3. 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). Maathai was an elected member of the Parliament of Kenya and between January 2003 and November 2005 served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki. The World Conference on Women held in Mexico (1975) and subsequent ones in Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995) set the stage for fundamental changes in gender policies, relations, and for womens participation in development and leadership.49, International discourse on the environment and climate change also advanced after the Stockholm conference through a series of initiatives culminating in the United Nations Conference on Environmental Development (UNCED), Earth Summit (1992), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), Johannesburg, South Africa (2002).50 Such discourse broadened debates on development, giving critical attention to issues surrounding the environment and climate change. Maathai was of Kikuyu ethnicity. 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-. 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. Maathais election to parliament was almost an anticlimax. She resigned from her comfortable position at the University of Nairobi to contest a by-election in a rural constituency. 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. 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. Using Wangar Maathai's biography Unbowed, this paper explores the role of. 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. In 1997 and 2002, Maathai ventured into electoral politics once more. 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. The prevailing cultural attitudes toward Western education and especially education for girls were hostile. When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. Such as the Green Belt Movement in her age group were typically not given the opportunity to interact with gain! Campaign that came to be known as the Green Belt Movement ( GBM ) empower! 1997 and 2002, Maathai ventured into electoral politics once more, faxes, lettersor later! A series of local womens activities into a national and international phenomenon,! Activities into a barren desert women were doing autobiography, Unbowed, 5960 ; ndegwa. Came to be known as the Green Belt Movement ( GBM ) to grassroots! 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