Wangari Maathai

4/5

Biography

Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1984, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.In June 2009, Maathai was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes.Until her death, Maathai served on the Eminent Advisory Board of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA).Maathai died on 25 September 2011 in Nairobi while receiving ovarian cancer treatment. She was 71.Selected publicationsThe Green Belt Movement: sharing the approach and the experience (1985)The bottom is heavy too: even with the Green Belt Movement : the Fifth Edinburgh Medal Address (1994)Bottle-necks of development in Africa (1995)The Canopy of Hope: My Life Campaigning for Africa, Women, and the Environment (2002)Unbowed: A Memoir (2006)Reclaiming rights and resources women, poverty and environment (2007)Rainwater Harvesting (2008)State of the world's minorities 2008: events of 2007 (2008)The Challenge for Africa (2009)Replenishing the Earth (2010) ISBN 978030759114more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangari_...

  • Primary profession
  • Actress
  • Country
  • Kenya
  • Nationality
  • Kenyan
  • Gender
  • Female
  • Birth date
  • 01 April 1940
  • Place of birth
  • Nyeri
  • Death date
  • 2011-09-25
  • Death age
  • 71
  • Place of death
  • Nairobi
  • Residence
  • Kenya
  • Children
  • Wanjira Mathai
  • Education
  • Benedictine College·University of Nairobi·University of Giessen·Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich·Loreto High School· Limuru
  • Knows language
  • Swahili language·English language·Kikuyu language
  • Member of
  • Alpha Kappa Alpha·Nobel Women's Initiative·Mazingira Green Party of Kenya

Movies

Books

Awards

Trivia

Received the Nobel peace prize in 2004. Received the Right Livelihood Award in 1984.

Mother of Wanjira Mathai.

Quotes

A tree has roots in the soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded and that no matter how high we go it is from our roots that we draw sustenance. It is a reminder to all of us who have had success that we cannot forget where we came from. It signifies that no matter how powerful we become in government or how many awards we receive, our power and strength and our ability to reach our goals depend on the people, those whose work remain unseen, who are the soil out of which we grow, the shoulders on which we stand,Throughout my life, I have never stopped to strategize about my next steps. I often just keep walking along, through whichever door opens. I have been on a journey and this journey has never stopped. When the journey is acknowledged and sustained by those I work with, they are a source of inspiration, energy and encouragement. They are the reasons I kept walking, and will keep walking, as long as my knees hold out.

Finally I was able to see that if I had a contribution I wanted to make, I must do it, despite what others said. That I was OK the way I was. That it was all right to be strong.

No matter how dark the cloud, there is always a thin, silver lining, and that is what we must look for. The silver lining will come, if not to us then to next generation or the generation after that. And maybe with that generation the lining will no longer be thin.

The generation that destroys the environment is not the generation that pays the price. That is the problem.

Human rights are not things that are put on the table for people to enjoy. These are things you fight for and then you protect.

I think what the Nobel committee is doing is going beyond war and looking at what humanity can do to prevent war. Sustainable management of our natural resources will promote peace.

In Kenya women are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the ones who walk for hours looking for water, who fetch firewood, who provide food for their families.

It would be good for us Africans to accept ourselves as we are and recapture some of the positive aspects of our culture.

You cannot blame the mismanagement of the economy or the fact that we have not invested adequately in education in order to give our people the knowledge, the skills and the technology that they need in order to be able to use the resources that Africa has to gain wealth.

When resources are degraded, we start competing for them, whether it is at the local level in Kenya, where we had tribal clashes over land and water, or at the global level, where we are fighting over water, oil, and minerals. So one way to promote peace is to promote sustainable management and equitable distribution of resources.

In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace. .

Comments