Wangari Maathai (April 1, 1940-September 25, 2011)
Wangari Muta Maathai is a prime example of determination, positive thinking and continued efforts for peace, democracy and sustainable development. She was born in the Nyeri District of Kenya, April 1, 1940. In 1960 she was selected as one of 230 students from seven countries to study in the United States, under a program developed by the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and prominent Kenyan politician Tom Mboya. Maathai used this rare opportunity to earn a Bachelors degree in Biology and a Masters degree in Biological Sciences.
In 1971, Maathai became the first East African woman to receive a Ph.D. when she was granted a Doctorate of Anatomy. She soon became the first female chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and first female associate professor in Nairobi. She used these positions to campaign for equal rights and benefits for women staff.
“The privilege of a higher education, especially outside Africa, broadened my original horizon and encouraged me to focus on the environment, women and development in order to improve the quality of life of people in my country in particular and in the African region in general.” Wangari Maathai
A tireless activist for progress, Maathai became involved in many environmental and political movements. Most famously, she founded the Greenbelt Movement as a movement to fight quick buck development and the deforestation that reached back to colonial times, as well as a method to combat rural unemployment and low self-esteem by providing jobs with reforestation and voter registration.
Maathai was no stranger to opposition. Her husband divorced her because she was too strong-minded and he was unable to control her. Her efforts for voter registration were strongly opposed by the new single-party “democracy” who use their political clout to challenge her efforts, keep her from employment at the University, and spin the media to accuse her and her followers of being crazy, ignorant and of having “insects in their heads.” Because of her efforts to reform the government, and fight electoral fraud, Maathai was publically labeled as a “mad woman” who is “a threat to the order and security of the country.”
“African women in general need to know that it’s OK for them to be the way they are – to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence.”
“You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself. That values itself. That understands itself.”
Like many heroes in our past, Maathai spent countless times in jail and prison as a political prisoner, most of which ended with an eventual release due to a lack of charges. A practitioner of non-violent methods, Maathai used hunger strikes and protests in attempts to bring Kenya back to a true democracy and to limit the ruling party’s practices of giving public land to their supporters. Her peaceful efforts were often met with violent attacks often at the hands of the police.
During the first multi-party elections of Kenya in 1992, Maathai organized efforts to plant trees of peace in order to unite the fractured and fighting tribes. Maathai’s friends and colleagues were listed on assassination lists, beaten and even kidnapped. Maathai was forced to barricade herself in her home for three days as the police surrounded her house and attempted to break in and arrest her for treason, sedition, and malicious rumors. International pressure, including eight U.S. senators, forced the government of Kenya to substantiate the charges. Unable to do so, they released her a few months later.
In 2002, after many years of efforts and attempts, Maathai finally won a seat in the Kenyan parliament with an overwhelming 98% of the vote. Later in 2005, she was elected the first president of Africa Union’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council. She became the first African woman and first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai continued her heroic efforts to promote sustainable development and democracy until September 25th, 2011 when she died after a reoccurring battle with ovarian cancer.
