Maathai, Wangari (1940–)

Wangari maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya. She was trained in biological sciences and pursued doctoral studies in Germany and Nairobi, becoming the first Kenyan woman to receive a Ph.D. In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement. This initiative responded to the needs of local women for firewood, clean drinking water, balanced diets, shelter, and income, which they had been unable to meet due to continuous environmental degradation, replacement of household crops by commercial farming, and declining income due to distorted world market prices for Kenyan commodities. The program began with the planting of nine trees in Maathai's own backyard and resulted in a citizen education program that led to the planting of more than 30 million trees that survived all over Kenya, and the creation of similar initiatives in many other African countries after the establishment of the Pan African Green Belt Movement.

Maathai promoted a holistic approach with a vision of “healing Africa,” and she encouraged Africans to rediscover the positive aspects of their culture to raise their sense of belonging, identity, and self-confidence, emphasizing the need for the conservation of biodiversity and cultural diversity. Understanding the causes of environmental degradation and their connection to governance, she continuously addressed the need for democracy, combining the protection of the environment with the protection of human rights, the need for good governance, and equality between women and men. She also mobilized citizens to challenge widespread abuses of power, corruption, and environmental mismanagement.

In the 1980s Maathai became the chairperson of the National Council of Women, and she also became one of the leaders of the pro-democracy movement. Her many initiatives exposed her to harassment. She was repeatedly sent to prison, but the government met with little success in its efforts to curb her. Maathai became internationally known and was elected to parliament in 2002, when the previous authoritarian Kenyan regime relinquished power. In 2003, in the broad coalition government that took over, Maathai was appointed deputy minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife with 98 percent of the vote.

Maathai won many awards for her work. She received honorary doctoral degrees from Williams College in Massachusetts (1990), Hobart and William Smith Colleges (1994), the University of Norway (1997), and Yale University (2004), where she [Page 1074]also taught as a visiting professor. Some of her other honors include the Right Livelihood Award (1984), the Woman of the World (1989), the Hunger Project's Africa Prize for Leadership (1991), and the Conservation Scientist Award (2004). Most notably, Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. By giving her this honor, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee challenged and broadened the world's common understanding of peace: that there can be no peace without equitable development; and that there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space.