As Maathai explained to Michelle Martin of Catholic New World, "It occurred to me that some of the problems women talked about were connected to the land. Currents noted that Moi was so outraged that he called Matthai “a mad woman who is a threat to the order and security of the country,” and went on to urge the public “to stamp out trouble-makers.” But when it appeared as if no one else cared, Maathai received support from the Kenyan National Museum and the Association of Architects; both opposed the erection of the government building. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Throughout the 1990s Maathai was arrested, imprisoned, and intimidated time and again for speaking out against the Moi administration. be persuaded as they might see this as an intrusion into their culture. "A long way to Oslo for the Mother of Trees," Mail& Guardian,http://www.mg.co.za (April 20, 2005). As authors Anne and Frances Lapp explained in Mother Earth News, "Women discovered they were not powerless in the face of oppressive husbands and village chiefs.". Refer to each style’s convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Maathai continues to The objective is to engage guests in conservation through educational and cultural exchange programs and expose participants to the Kenyan fauna and flora. Oftentimes they treat women as personal property, especially among those who have paid exorbitant amounts of money for the bride price. Maathai and the Green Belt Movement have faced an uphill confrontation with the previous government, which have harassed her continuously and thrown her in jail. Before this award, Wangari was also the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a Biological Sciences degree. The process is very simple. 19 Mar. Maathai’s crusade began while she was doing field work, tracking down the life cycle of a tick. In April 1966, after returning to Kenya, Wangari Muta met her future husband, Mwangi Mathai, a politician. In 1989, she angered the president when she led the effort to save Nairobi’s Uhuru Park by stopping the construction of a sixty-story office tower by Moi’s business associate. She was the 2004 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. "Wangari Maathai: Saving the Earth, Tree by Tree," State of the World Forum, http://www.simulconference.com/clients/sowf/dispatches/dispatch27.html (March 18, 2005). "Africa Prize Laureates, Professor Wangari Muta Maathai, " The Hunger Project,www.thp.org/thp/prize/maathai/maathai.htm. We need to look at the way we manage and share our resources. She received the Edinburgh Medal in 1993, and in 1997, she was elected by Earth Times as one of 100 persons in the world who have made a difference in the field of environmentalism. As a result Maathai became a particular target of Moi's terrorist tactics. Attending college in the United States, she went on to earn a B.S. Since the 2002 elections, the political climate in Kenya took a turn for the better, with government leaders listening more intently to issues affecting women, and in turn allowing women to have more participation in policy decisions. In 2001, the Green Belt Movement filed suit to prevent a forest clearance project by the Kenya government that included a plan to clear 69,000 hectares of woodland to house homeless squatters. She got a late start in the process and did not announce her intentions until a month before the election. "We need to rethink our concept of peace and security. Maathai's future plans include another worthy cause: she hopes to establish a center to house battered women and children. They did not need a skyscraper to house the ruling party and a 24-hr. Maathai succeeded academically at a young age while attending St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School and Loreto High School in Kenya. Since taking office, Maathai has worked to enact laws to protect not only the environment but also women's rights and human rights. In defiance of the judge, she changed the spelling, adding an “a” and becoming Wangari Maathai. "Kenyan environmentalist to teach as McCluskey fellow," Yale University, http://www.yale.edu/opa/v30.n17/story19.html (March 18, 2005). Sponsored in part by Comic Relief United Kingdom (a group that provides funding for nonprofit organizations through comedy concerts), the goal of the program is to give women, especially young girls, a new sense of empowerment through education. Contemporary Black Biography. At Milestone Documents, we believe that engaging with history’s original voices is exciting for students and liberating for instructors. Born Wangari Muta Maathai, April 1, 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya; married (divorced, c. 1984); children: three. Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s foremost environmentalist and women’s rights advocate, founded the Green Belt Movement on Earth Day 1977, encouraging farmers (70 percent of whom are women) to plant “greenbelts” to stop soil erosion, provide shade, and create a source of lumber and firewood. Timeline. Wangari Maathai. Wangari Maathai´s fight for reforestation. Oftentimes they treat women as personal property, especially among those who have paid exorbitant amounts of money for the bride price. In January 2007 Maathai hosted the Global Young Greens conference in Nairobi, which some have described as a meeting of the next wave of leadership of the world environment movement. Moi again emerged as the presidential victor. Watching Americans express themselves made Maathai realize that people had a right to speak out for what they believed in. These trees have had more than an aesthetic effect on Kenyan life and the impact on the environment cannot be denied. Education: Mount St. Scholastica College, Atchison, Kansas, BA, 1964; University of Pittsburgh, MA, 1965; University of Nairobi, PhD. Wangari’s family was Kikuyu, a collective ethnic group in Kenya. (March 19, 2021). Encyclopedia.com. In 2005 a primary goal of Maathai was to extend the resources of the Green Belt Movement to help other areas of the world, such as the Republic of Haiti, which has also been ravaged by deforestation. Wangari Maathai was the first woman in Central and East Africa to earn a Ph.D., but she learned the ways of the world by planting trees. Her father was considered the head of the house; her mother had very little power and performed traditional "women's tasks" such as fetching water and gathering firewood. The following year she was selected to attend Loreto Girls’ School, in Lumuru, Kenya, graduating four years later. "Women's One World, Women Who Dare: Celebrating Women's Her-story, " World Citizen News, (February/March 1997) www.worldcitizen.org/issues/febmar97/womens.html. She married a politician who unknowingly provided the basis for her future environmental activities when he ran for office in 1974 and promised to plant trees in a poor area of the district he represented. Nobel Lecture. Maathai's name became even more well-known when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first ever given to an African woman. Surprisingly, Maathai’s strong advocacy for women’s rights did not sit too well with her husband or other critics. . I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance." And people are starving, they need food, they need medicine and they need education. (April 13, 1998). In 1956, Muta entered Loreto Girl’s High School outside of Nairobi and then began college in 1960 at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, Kansas, where she received her bachelor’s degree in biology four years later. Mabunda, Doris "Maathai, Wangari 1940– The $100,000 award recognized Maathai's work on environmental issues. At one time Amnesty International sponsored a letter writing campaign to the Kenyan government and President Arap Moi to get her freed. Village livestock also suffered from not having vegetation to graze on. Disappointed, but not deterred, the National Council of Women of Kenya urged her to pursue the idea and in 1977, the Green Belt Movement was born. It was that simple, as she commented in Currents: “The earth was naked. Robinson, Simon. Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai—an activist, feminist, mother, environmentalist, and member of the Kenyan parliament—was appointed Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife in Kenya in 2003. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wangari-muta-maathai, "Wangari Muta Maathai Source: Maathai, Wangari. She credited her success with the Green Belt Movement to keeping the goal simple. Wangari Muta was born on April 1, 1940, in Ihithe, Nyeri Province, Kenya during British colonial rule. In 1989 a report by the United Nations noted that on the African continent, on average only 9 trees are planted to replace every 100 trees cut. As an example, she was thrown out of her state office in 1989 when she opposed the construction of a 62 story skyscraper in Uhuru Park in Nairobi. Wangari Maathai The Nobel Peace Prize 2004 The content is mainly a biography of Wangari Maathai and what she did to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Many Africans will have to change their mind-set and treat men who abuse women and children as lawbreakers. Maathai was imprisoned several times in the 1980s for criticizing Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi and for demanding multi-party elections in Kenya. She then earned a Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi. But the idea did not catch fire. As she explained to Michelle Martin, "I started out planting trees and found myself in the forefront of fighting for the restoration of democracy in my country." As the Green Belt Movement expanded, Maathai found herself increasingly at odds with the Kenyan government. Born Wangari Muta Maathai on April 1, 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya; divorced; children: three. © 2019 Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. But eventually the first small groups of villagers trained other groups and over the next thirty years, more than thirty million trees were planted. Addresses: Office —Old Treasury Building, Harambee Avenue, P.O. Maathai believed that people needed to help with environmental issues and should not rely upon the government. For a fee, visitors receive hands-on experience in conservation. Friends of the Green Belt Movement North America.http://www.gbmna.org/ (accessed on August 23, 2005). She was the first African politician to publicly embrace that cause. Encyclopedia of World Biography. She distributed seedlings to rural Central to her vision was a Kenyan society where people acknowledged their cultural and spiritual background as they participated in government. This is an enormous undertaking that will require a lot of support, education, and resources. In Nairobi, Maathai also opposed the deforestation of 50 acres of land outside the city limits to be used for growing roses for export. Other African nations adopted similar programs based on the Green Belt Movement model. Maathai excelled at mobilizing people for a very simple goal-reforestation-which also impacted poverty and community development in Kenya. Newsmakers 2005 Cumulation. Her bid for a Parliament seat was also defeated in the election; she came in third. They don’t understand why we are willing to be abused, willing to put ourselves in danger.”, In 1988, Matthai infuriated Arap Moi—then the president of Kenya—when she led an international campaign to prevent the government from erecting the tallest skyscraper on the entire continent. Wangarĩ Muta Maathai (/ w æ n ˈ ɡ ɑː r i m ɑː ˈ t aɪ /; 1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. O Magazine (May 12, 2005). In many interviews Maathai claimed that her years in the United States had a profound effect on her, especially since she was exposed to the many demonstrations against the Vietnam War (1954–75; a controversial war in which the United States aided South Vietnam in its fight against a takeover by Communist North Vietnam). Inter Press Service English News Wire, December 10, 1997. Our flexible, affordable, entirely digital readers help you focus your classroom on primary sources. BlackPast.org is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. For Maathai there was an important link between the environment and peace. In 2007, Maathai was defeated in the Party of National Unity’s primary elections for its parliamentary candidates. She was enrolled at Itithe Primary School, where she did very well. “Guerilla of the Week: Wangari Maathai,” Guerilla News Network, www.guerrillanews.com/human%5Frights/doc949.html (January 21, 2004). In 2001, the Green Belt Movement filed suit to prevent a forest clearance project by the Kenya government that included a plan to clear 69,000 hectares of woodland to house homeless squatters. This was initiated through a broad cross-Africa environmental grass roots campaign. completion of high school. "People often ask me what drives me," Maathai revealed. Maathai also wrote four books, including The Greenbelt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience. On September 25, 2011, Wangari Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer treatment at a Nairobi hospital. As if her life was not complicated enough, Maathai decided to challenge the system once more by running for the Kenyan presidency. At first, government officials laughed at the program, claiming that only professional foresters knew how to plant trees. Maathai and the mothers, most of whom were between 60 and 82 years old, camped and began a hunger strike. For my secondary sources read articles online from Encyclopedia Britannica, the Green Belt Movement website, the Nobel Peace Prize website, New York Times, and The Guardian. For my other primary resources I used interviews of Wangari Maathai and the speech that she made when she received the Nobel Peace Prize. She also began an appointment as the fifth McCluskey Visiting Fellow in Conservation at Yale University's prestigious Global Institute for Sustainable Forestry, where she co-taught a course titled "Environment and Livelihoods: Governance, Donors, and Debt.". Planet Ark.com reported that she commented, "It's a matter of life and death for this country, we are extremely worried. Peace trees promote conflict resolution between communities with the goal of turning what would have been major disputes into peaceful negotiated cooperation. The group started small, with only a handful of villagers gathering seeds and planting them. In 1992, Maathai ran for President of Kenya on a platform urging environmental protections. This article is more than 13 years old ... Africans rely on primary resources, especially agrarian land, rivers and forests. In an Africa Society profile, Maathai explained, “We already have a debt crisis owing billions to foreign banks. In 1998 Maathai got involved in another worthy cause, chairing the Jubilee Africa Campaign in Kenya, which sought cancellation of foreign debt by poor countries of Africa by year 2000. Maathai is a qualified professor of veterinary medicine, and today she is internationally recognized as the founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. The money, she claimed, could be better spent addressing serious poverty, hunger and education needs in the country. The program provided a ready answer for those who asked, "What can I do?" ." The Greenbelt Movement.www.greenbeltmovement.org (accessed on August 23, 2005). . . "Wangari Maathai: Why Green Matters." She gives these women hope and courage that they can break free, that … She traveled to the United States to attend Mount St. Scholastica College, in Atchison, Kansas, earning a BA in 1964; the following year she earned a MA from the University of Pittsburgh. On some occasions law enforcement officers have simply looked the other way. Wangari Muta Maathai was born on 1st April 1940. Yet she defends the environment and women’s rights tirelessly and passionately. Biography relies on The Green Belt Movement as a primary source. Maathai clashed with the Kenyan government, often at risk to her own life, when she opposed destructive governmental initiatives and when she forayed into politics personally. A few days prior to the December 1997 election, the LPK leaders withdrew Maathai's candidacy without notifying her. The marriage produced three children. Planting trees, in this case, was the simple solution. As an example, she was thrown out of her state office in 1989 The seedlings are then sold to the movement, and the income generated enables the women to pay for their children’s school fees or buy books and clothes. April 13, 1998). On Earth Day in 1977 Maathai put her plan into action by planting seven trees to honor Kenyan women environmental leaders. Now as she serves as a lawmaker, she is in a good position to support or enact laws that will protect women's rights as human rights. "Maathai, Wangari Women reported that streams were drying up, food supplies were dwindling, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood. One of the first public confrontations came in 1989 when Maathai openly protested the building of a $200 million, sixty-story skyscraper in Nairobi's Uhuru Park that was slated to be used for government offices. The efforts of Maathai and the movement have contributed to improving their living conditions as well as boosting their self esteem. Her family was of Kikuyu origin, and her father was polygamous. be recognized worldwide for her achievements, although she is denounced as a traitor and a rebel in her home country. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. She declined, preferring to try and unite the fractured opposition parties against President Moi. In Currents Magazine she reflects that “Despite continuing and constant opposition, the movement grows and expands. She denounced the current corruption in the government, and urged that the time had come to restore Kenyan people's dignity, self respect, and human rights. She helped found the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy, a group that was opposed to the leadership of then-president Daniel arap Moi. Maathai maintained that it was particularly important for African women to know that they could be strong, and to liberate themselves from fear and silence. Many Africans will have to change their mind-set and treat men who abuse women and children as law-breakers. Australia and the Netherlands are the only governments that have provided needed financial support. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/maathai-wangari-1940, Mabunda, Doris "Maathai, Wangari 1940– Sometimes I marvel at the work we’ve done, despite the fact that maybe half of our time is spent just trying to survive. Successful programs in Europe and the United States include components for counseling both the victims and the perpetrators. Wangari Maathai: Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech (2004) ... Primary Source Readers. Wangari Maathai,” Africa Society Profile, www.ualberta.ca/~afso/documents/maathai.pdf (January 21, 2004). In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. "Wangari Muta Maathai Wangari Maathai founded the global Green Belt Movement, which has contributed today to the planting of over 52 million trees. She remained undaunted, however, and even made several attempts to run for public office. Maathai soon began speaking out against the general corruption that ran wild throughout the administration of then-president Daniel arap Moi (1924–). As a top rated student, in September 1960, she was selected along with 300 Kenyans to study in the United States … I knew that a major culprit of environmental destruction was the government." In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement to further her purpose, and by the early 21st century the … Maathai claimed that the building, which was to house government offices and a 24-hour TV station, would cost $200 million. Encyclopedia.com. She continued to be admired world-wide, however, for her visionary work in the environmental arena. Following her win Maathai traveled around the world speaking to groups who were charmed by her dazzling smile and classy-but-friendly attitude. "The Genius of Wangari Maathai." In order to generate income and be able to meet the organization’s expenses, Green Belt Safaris were introduced, offering field trips and home-stays for visitors and supporters. Law, William's College, Massachusetts, 1990; Goldman Environmental Foundation Award, San Francisco, CA, 1991; laureate, Africa Prize for Leadership, the United Nations, 1991; Hunger Project Prize (with others), 1991; Honorary Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, 1992; Edinburgh Medal, 1993; Jane Adams Conference Leadership Award, 1993; Golden Ark Award, 1994; Utne Reader's Top 100 Visionaries Award, 1995; listed in the United Nation's Environment Program Global 500 Hall of Fame, 1997; Honorary Doctor of Agriculture, University of Norway, 1997; named one of 100 persons in the world who have made a difference in the environmental arena, Earth Times, 1997; Time magazine's "Hero of the Planet" Award, 1998; Excellence Award, Kenyan Community Abroad, 2001; Outstanding Vision and Commitment Award, 2002; WANGO Environment Award, 2003; Sophie Prize, 2004; Petra Kelly Prize for Environment, 2004; J. Catholic New World (July 17, 2005). The Nineteenth Century Maathai had strong beliefs about how she carried out environmental activism. Within the “Cite this article” tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Wangari Maathai, The Canopy of Hope: My Life Campaigning for Africa, Women and the Environment (Brooklyn, New York: Lantern Books, 2002); Wangari Maathai, Unbowed (New York:  Alfred A. Knopf, 2006); Anita Price Davis and Marla J. Selvidge, Women Nobel Peace Prize Winners (London:  McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006). Contemporary Black Biography. UXL Newsmakers. “Saving the World Tree by Tree,” State of the World Forum, www.simulconference.com/clients/sowf/dispatches/dispatch27.html (January 21, 2004). (Earth Day is an annual day set aside to honor and celebrate the environment.) "Kenyan Nobel Winner Finds Lessons in Creation." Such commitment has earned Maathai many accolades and acclaim. Activism, she felt, was most effective when done in groups rather than alone. Maathai countered such fears by claiming that her leadership would focus not only on the environment (which was, in her mind, tied to other issues like hunger), but on infrastructure issues, poverty, disease, and the empowerment of the oppressed. Primary Sources. Four years later she was accepted at St. Cecilia’s School, where she remained until 1955. In Kenya women have historically been treated as property by their husbands, and no laws existed to protect women who were mistreated by their spouses. Retrieved March 19, 2021 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/general/culture-magazines/maathai-wangari. ." Maathai also lost her bid for a seat in the National Assembly, coming in third. In her acceptance speech at the 1991 laureate of the Africa Prize Leadership Maathai asked, “Why are the hungry masses forced to repay loans they never received and debts they never incurred? Maathai continued to oppose modernization that collided with her environmental beliefs; this often put her at odds with the government. Maathai's home life was very much like other Kenyans in other ways as well. The Movement grew into a program run by women with the goal of reforesting Africa and preventing the poverty that deforestation caused. Women in the Kenyan villages were the people who first implemented Maathai's Green Belt Movement. Such commitment has earned Maathai many accolades and acclaim. (March 19, 2021). Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone! This campaign was so successful and the idea spread so fast that the Green Belt Movement (GBM) was born.
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