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. Addressing enormously complex challenges of deforestation and global climate change, the movement partnered with poor rural women who were encouraged, and paid a small stipend, to plant millions of trees to slow . Events around this election occasioned unsolicited media publicity for Maathai. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Thirdly, the prevailing circumstances, both personal and organizational, called for the strengthening of the NCWK and the GBM by building networks and partnerships to facilitate funding and support. of the University of Nairobi, March 11, 2005. 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. Maathai is still remembered for her determined and persistent efforts to safeguard Uhuru Park and the Karura Forest for future generations, for her solidarity with mothers of political detainees, as well as her relentless efforts for peace and to end election-related violence in the Rift Valley region and in the country since 1992 when multiparty politics were allowed. The most important dates and events in the current school year can be found in our calendar. It also diffused opportunities for deepening an understanding of environment challenges in the country. Born on April 1, 1940 Wangari Maathai grew up in Nyeri County, located in the central highlands of Kenya. In the last three decades it has become the cosmopolitan and partially urbanized County of Nyeri. 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. Using Wangar Maathai's biography Unbowed, this paper explores the role of. In her writings, Maathai refers to Maasai influence on her mothers side.3. ed. When Maathai decided to vie for an elected position, she underestimated the determination of the state to frustrate and contain her ambitions. While undertaking her studies, Maathai learned how Christianity practiced in American, European, and African societies blended well with their dominant cultures. Wangari Maathai: storyteller %PDF-1.5 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. Aid agencies distrusted state actors and channeled more resources to nonstate actors.56. Both families migrated from the Nyeri District to the Rift Valley province in search of employment and land to cultivate. 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. 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. When they got married, she changed her name to Wangari Mathai, which she initially resisted, but did so on the insistence of her husband. 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. Dr. Wangar Muta Maathai. The first indigenous woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, Professor Maathai started school in 1948 at Ihithe Primary School. She was tasked with domestic chores as was expected of young girls in traditional society. 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. She was given a scholarship for PhD studies and research in Kenya and Germany. (Nairobi, Kenya: Leadership Institute, 2011); and Wangari Maathai, Unbowed: One Womans Story (London: Arrow Books, 2006). Use these quotes in discussing Wangari Maathai's life and how her views and activities changed over the course of her lifetime. Most studies have focused on the societal importance of marriage and the negative effects of divorce on families. On Sunday, Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died. Their divorce was highly publicized. 49. 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. Christian missionaries, in corollary fashion, established mission stations for evangelism and offered limited basic education to the indigenous people.2 In the community where Maathai was raised there was limited interaction with other Kenyan ethnic communities, although sporadic interaction with Maasai herders in their quest for grazing areas was common. Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, in recognition of her work with the Green Belt Movement, a group that organizes disadvantaged women in Africa to plant trees in order to preserve the environment and improve women' quality of life. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it. 18. . Her adage that when we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope remains an inspiration. The influence of the nuns began in this school and continued all the way to university. Then she assumed the position of full-time coordinator of the GBM.36. Wangari Muta Maathai Anchor was a prominent Kenyan environmental and political activist. 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. In this regard, Nyeri was the epicenter of the freedom struggle. These changes were advocated by the R. J. M. Swynnerton Plan of 1954. 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. The impact of changes in rural Kenya was complicated by emerging corruption among Kenyas elite. She is the recipient of 15 honorary degrees in science, law, humane letters, and public service, and 50+ awards and recognitions . 2. Her mother had a great deal of influence on her daughter as she grew up in the village. 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. 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. 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. 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. She also had close relationships with other African regional institutionsfor instance, the African Development Bank (AfDB). Kelly reflects on juggling motherhood and chasing the news. Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai . 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. 23 0 obj She became the first woman in East and Central Africa to acquire such an academic degree.24 With her academic career assured in the new University of Nairobi, she became the chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy in 1976, and thereafter an associate professorthe first indigenous woman to acquire the rank. These groups played critical roles in shaping the values and politics that she espoused for social justice, sustainable development, and climate change. In many instances she learned by imitating what her mother and other village women were doing. During this period the GBM thrived, leading to the recognition of Maathai. Her resignation was accepted, but she was disqualified to stand as a candidate allegedly because she had not been registered as a voter. 50. The impact of these policies was felt mostly in the 60s and 70s as landless poor were settled, necessitating the cutting of trees on small-scale farms and reducing forest cover in districts like Nakuru, Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia, Nyandarua, Laikipia, and Kirinyaga. 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. Each of these fields of her engagement merit detailed analysis as was done with the GBM. She was allocated a mini garden by her mother to cultivate and to learn practically how to care for plants. 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. 21. Wangari Maathai held her Nobel Lecture December 10, 2004, in the Oslo City Hall, Norway. The genius of Maathai and other women leaders was to turn this elite organization into a vehicle for the empowerment of rural women. 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 source greatly helped my understanding of the Accounts from friends indicate that both parents were devoted to the well-being and education of their children. Under colonialism, indigenous Kenyan cultures were besieged. Maathais mother, her brother Nderitu, and another member of the family made this critical decision, which would open the doors for Maathai to quality education in Kenya and eventually in the United States, thus introducing her to international networks which were to shape her future. In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya confident and with high hopes for making a contribution to the newly independent country. Wangari Muta married Mwangi Mathai in 1969. Primary Sources. 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. The prevailing cultural attitudes toward Western education and especially education for girls were hostile. Omissions? Cyrus G. Mutiso, Kenya: Politics Policy and Society (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Literature Bureau, 1975), 145, described the concept Asomi as Africans who early on acquired missionary education and differentiated themselves from those who had no Western education. Wangari Maathai, environmental activist and politician, born 1 April 1940; died 25 . The Early Years and Education "It was during the mbura ya njahi - the season of long rains, in 1940 that Wangari Maathai was born. The culture of planting trees took root everywhere in Kenya toward the end of last decade of the 20th century. Maathai was a frequent contributor to international publications such as the Los Angeles Times and the Guardian. The Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded in 1977, had by the early 21st century planted some 30 million trees. 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. 62. The Swynnerton Plan and subsequent government policies informed land settlement schemes which were funded by the British government to buy out white settler farmers, and to appease released Mau Mau detainees and landless people displaced as result of land consolidation in native reserves. These land reforms changed the social, economic, political, and ecological landscape of central Kenya, and affected village life and the environment where Maathai grew up. 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. Dr. Samuel Kobia, Annetta Miller, Harold Miller, Ms . Forest cover was also decimated as large-scale farms were subdivided and select forest reserves were hived off for settlement purposes. She is survived by two daughters, Wanjira and Muta, and a son, Waweru, as well as her granddaughter, Ruth. Kiraitu Murungi, In the Mud of Politics (Nairobi, Kenya: Acacia Stantex Publishers, 2000), 110 and 185187. Timothy Njoya, We the People: Thinking Heavenly Acting Kenyan (Nairobi, Kenya: WordAlive Publishers, 2017). 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. She had already won many awards and was eventually awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. 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. 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. 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