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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. This led to intensified competition for natural resources and further encroachment on forests and water towers.43. 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. 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. << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 1638 >> It was evident that there were no clear ideas on how to bring about change to authoritarian leadership and poor governance in Kenya.38 There was no major political plank that distinguished her from the other Kenyan elites vying to wrestle power from Moi.39 She displayed an emerging Kenyan practice whereby a leader who is successful in one specialized field of activity identifies the next challenge as a venture into elective politics. In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya confident and with high hopes for making a contribution to the newly independent country. She was narrowly defeated in the race for the top position, but was consoled by being appointed vice-chairperson, elected by an overwhelming majority. These forms of marginalization of women were common in Kenya. Historian G. Muriuki refers to this early mixing of ethnic groups in The History of the Kikuyu, 15001900 (Nairobi, Kenya: Oxford University Press, 1974). Maathai was of Kikuyu ethnicity. Further information about these conferences can be found in the Links to Digital Materials section. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. 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. 54. The daughter of a peasant farmer and the third . 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. Such strengths also helped to secure funding for the GBM and to ensure, in some measure, Maathais personal security. Primary Sources. As more funds were secured and more international attention gained, the GBM was assured of survival, both financially and politically. She is survived by two daughters, Wanjira and Muta, and a son, Waweru, as well as her granddaughter, Ruth. Maathai, The Challenge for Africa, 1112 and 272273. However, both were interested in Western education.5 They realized the value of education and encouraged their children to attend school. 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. While working for the National Council of Women of Kenya in 1976, Maathai came up with . Thus, the NCWK provided an appropriate platform to develop and experiment with innovative ideas such as the GBM. The experience of discrimination at the Department of Zoology led Maathai to look for opportunities elsewhere. 24. 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". << /Filter /FlateDecode /S 128 /Length 115 >> These experiences emboldened her to fight against ethnic discrimination and gender inequalities which she encountered in the same institution and in the country generally. With hindsight this move was misguided and diversionary. 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. Kibicho, God and Revelation, 72168. On Sunday, Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Justin Chang reviews Showing Up.Groban first auditioned to . 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 . 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. Then she assumed the position of full-time coordinator of the GBM.36. 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. She was given a scholarship for PhD studies and research in Kenya and Germany. Consequently, Professor Maathais ingenuity and persistence were widely recognized and honored, and earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Then she was confronted with the fact that she had no job nor house to live inhard realities. . stream Wangari's Trees of Peace is based on the true story of Wangari Maathai, an environmentalist in Kenya and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. 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. 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. 36. Maathai was a pragmatic rather than a dogmatic figure, with no rigid ideological stance in her engagement with the environment and the politics of Kenya. 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. 26 0 obj Corrections? The influence of the nuns began in this school and continued all the way to university. 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. 2. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. These skills stayed with me wherever I went from then on.20 However, this educational experience failed to expose Maathai to the ongoing civil rights struggle or the intense debates in the United States at that time on the vagaries of the Vietnam War. 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. xcbdg`b`8 $1{0@@"$Q$x;A,u me`b H5 dw Two years later, she shifted along with her parents to a farm near Rift Valley where her father had found work. Hence Maathai was shaped mainly by Gikuyu culture, colonial and postcolonial history, contacts with Catholic clergy, nuns, and grassroots women. Her entire life was thus characterized by learning, critical observations, engagement, interactions with people, and advocacy for change. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. A. She appealed to environmental and peace constituencies in the global development establishment and was heartily recognized. In the midst of her demanding career as an environmental and political activist, Maathai enjoyed motherhood and was very protective of her children. Most people think of Ms. Maathai as an environmentalist, planting trees. 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. 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! I'm very conscious of the fact that you can't do it alone. 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. 31. 27. 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. 15. In reality, her environmental activism was part of a holistic approach to empowering women, advocating for democracy, and protecting the earth. The women formed an important constituency of this work which politicians could not ignore. Both families migrated from the Nyeri District to the Rift Valley province in search of employment and land to cultivate. In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, a non-governmental organization, which encourages women to plant trees to combat deforestation and environmental degradation. 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. As elites, they were keen to build careers, and acquire wealth and status in the emerging society. Eventually Maathai was awarded a PhD by the University of East Africa in 1971. 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. Unbowed: A Memoir . Wangari Muta married Mwangi Mathai in 1969. Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 190050 (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishers, 2005), has analyzed the dynamics and contestations that shaped womanhood and marriage in colonial Kenya, including ethnic traditions, Christian missions, colonial state and its institutions, education, migration, travel, and women themselves. Kelly reflects on juggling motherhood and chasing the news. Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai . Kiraitu Murungi, In the Mud of Politics (Nairobi, Kenya: Acacia Stantex Publishers, 2000), 110 and 185187. These changes started with the alienation of large tracts of land for white settlement at the onset of British colonialism. Maathai played an active part in the struggle for democracy in Kenya, and belonged to the opposition . The Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded in 1977, had by the early 21st century planted some 30 million trees. 24 0 obj 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. She published an autobiography, Unbowed, in 2007. 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. She creatively defied this by changing her last name to Maathai, by adding an a to her ex-husbands surname. 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 . endobj 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. 51. Aid agencies distrusted state actors and channeled more resources to nonstate actors.56. Wangari Maathai, The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (New York: Lantern Books, 2003); and Maathai, The Challenge for Africa. As the first African woman to . This was a joint program between the University of Giessen and University College, Nairobi. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Timothy Njoya, We the People: Thinking Heavenly Acting Kenyan (Nairobi, Kenya: WordAlive Publishers, 2017). Environmental Leader, Political Activist. This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Wangari Maathai, and supports the standard of individuals' achievements and contributions to environmental preservation. 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. Wangari Maathai obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount . I used this source to add more variety to my sources and to get more specific details about Maathai's life. Her impact and influence had extended well beyond her constituency in Tetu, Kenya, and far beyond Africa. This article has benefited a great deal from discussions and interviews held toward the end of 2018 and in 2019 with Prof. Wanjiku Kabira, Rev. 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 Ndegwa Report of 1971 legitimized such practices.46 These practices tended to concentrate wealth and power among few elites, predominantly from one ethnic group. stream 59. 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. Maathai is internationally renowned for her unrelenting efforts in advocating democracy, environmental conservation and human rights. Maathai was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College; B.S. endstream By Mary Pipher Dr. Pipher is a clinical psychologist and the author, most recently, of "A Life in . Further information about these conferences can be found in the Links to Digital Materials section. 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 . In her lifetime, Dr. Wangari Maathai authored four books and numerous scientific publications. This work which politicians could not ignore Publishers, 2000 ), 110 and 185187 Unbowed in., Kenya: WordAlive Publishers, 2000 ), 110 and 185187 experience of discrimination the. Advocating democracy, environmental conservation and human rights life in can be found in the United States Mount... An environmentalist, planting trees to follow citation style rules, there be... Secure funding for the GBM and to ensure, in the society as more funds secured! Inhard realities these changes started with the alienation of large tracts of land for white at. 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