Wangari Muta 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 1986, 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. Furthermore she was an Honorary Councillor of the
World Future Council. In 2011, Maathai died of complications from
ovarian cancer.
(1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011)
Early life and education 1940–1971
On 1 April 1940, Maathai was born in the village of Ihithe,
Nyeri District, in the
central highlands of the
colony of Kenya. Her family was
Kikuyu, the most populous
ethnic group in Kenya, and had lived in the area for several generations.
[1] Around 1943, Maathai's family relocated to a white-owned farm in the
Rift Valley, near the town of
Nakuru, where her father had found work.
[2]
Late in 1947, she returned to Ihithe with her mother, as two of her
brothers were attending primary school in the village, and there was no
schooling available on the farm where her father worked. Her father
remained at the farm.
[3] Shortly afterward, at the age of eight, she joined her brothers at Ihithe Primary School.
[4]
At age eleven, Maathai moved to St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School, a
boarding school at the
Mathari Catholic Mission in Nyeri.
[5] Maathai studied at St. Cecilia's for four years. During this time, she became fluent in English and converted to
Catholicism. She also was involved with the Christian society known as the
Legion of Mary, whose members attempted "to serve God by serving fellow human beings."
[6] Studying at St. Cecilia's, Maathai was sheltered from the ongoing
Mau Mau Uprising, which forced her mother to move from their homestead to an emergency village in Ihithe.
[7]
When she completed her studies there in 1956, she was rated first in
her class, and was granted admission to the only Catholic high school
for girls in Kenya,
Loreto High School Limuru in
Limuru.
[8]
After graduating from Loreto-Limuru in 1959, she planned to attend the
University of East Africa in
Kampala, Uganda. However, the end of the colonial period of East Africa was nearing, and Kenyan politicians, such as
Tom Mboya, were proposing ways to make education in
Western nations available to promising students.
John F. Kennedy, then a
United States Senator, agreed to fund such a program through the
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, initiating what became known as the
Kennedy Airlift
or Airlift Africa. Maathai became one of about three hundred Kenyans
chosen to study at American universities in September 1960.
[9]
Maathai received a scholarship to study at Mount St. Scholastica College (now
Benedictine College), in
Atchison,
Kansas. At Mount St. Scholastica, she
majored in biology, with
minors in chemistry and German.
[10] After receiving her
bachelor of science degree in 1964, she studied at the
University of Pittsburgh for a
master's degree in biology. Her graduate studies there were funded by the
Africa-America Institute,
[11] and during her time in
Pittsburgh, she first experienced
environmental restoration, as local environmentalists pushed to rid the city of
air pollution.
[12] In January 1966, Maathai was awarded her MSc in biological sciences,
[13] and was appointed to a position as
research assistant to a professor of zoology at
University College of Nairobi.
[14]
Upon her return to Kenya, Maathai dropped her
Christian name, preferring to be known by her birth name, Wangari Muta.
[15]
When she arrived at the university to start her new job, she was
informed that it had been given to someone else. Maathai believed this
was because of gender and tribal bias.
[16] After a job search lasting two months, Professor Reinhold Hofmann, from the
University of Giessen in
Germany, offered her a job as a research assistant in the
microanatomy
section of the newly established Department of Veterinary Anatomy in
the School of Veterinary Medicine at University College of Nairobi.
[17] In April 1966, she met Mwangi Mathai, another Kenyan who had studied in America, who would later become her husband.
[18]
She also rented a small shop in the city, and established a general
store, at which her sisters worked. In 1967, at the urging of Professor
Hofmann, she traveled to the
University of Giessen in Germany in pursuit of a doctorate. She studied both at Giessen and the
University of Munich.
In the spring of 1969, she returned to
Nairobi
to continue her studies at the University College of Nairobi as an
assistant lecturer. In May, she and Mwangi Mathai were married.
[19] Later that year, she became pregnant with her first child, and her husband campaigned for a seat in
Parliament,
narrowly losing. During the course of the election, Tom Mboya, who had
been instrumental in founding the program which sent her overseas, was
assassinated. This led to President Kenyatta effectually ending
multi-party democracy in Kenya. Shortly after, her first son, Waweru,
was born.
[20] In 1971, she became the first
Eastern African woman to receive a
Ph.D., when she was granted a Doctorate of
Anatomy[13] from the University College of Nairobi, which became the
University of Nairobi the following year. She completed her dissertation on the development and differentiation of gonads in bovines.
[21] Her daughter, Wanjira, was born in December 1971.
Activism and political life 1972–1977
Maathai continued to teach at Nairobi, becoming a senior lecturer in
anatomy in 1974, chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy in 1976
and associate professor in 1977. She was the first woman in Nairobi
appointed to any of these positions.
[22]
During this time, she campaigned for equal benefits for the women
working on the staff of the university, going so far as to attempt to
turn the academic staff association of the university into a union, in
order to negotiate for benefits. The courts denied this bid, but many of
her demands for equal benefits were later met.
[23]
In addition to her work at the University of Nairobi, Maathai became
involved in a number of civic organizations in the early 1970s. She was a
member of the Nairobi branch of the
Kenya Red Cross Society,
becoming its director in 1973. She was a member of the Kenya
Association of University Women. Following the establishment of the
Environment Liaison Centre in 1974, Maathai was asked to be a member of
the local board, eventually becoming the chair of the board. The
Environment Liaison Centre worked to promote the participation of
non-governmental organizations in the work of the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), whose headquarters was established in Nairobi following the
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in
Stockholm in 1972. Maathai also joined the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK).
[24]
Through her work at these various volunteer associations, it became
evident to Maathai that the root of most of Kenya's problems was
environmental degradation.
[25]
In 1974, Maathai's family expanded to include her third child, Muta.
Her husband again campaigned for a seat in Parliament, hoping to
represent the Lang'ata constituency, and won. During the course of his
campaign, he had promised to find jobs to limit the rising unemployment
in Kenya. These promises led Maathai to connect her ideas of
environmental restoration to providing jobs for the unemployed, and led
to the founding of Envirocare Ltd., a business that involved the
planting of trees to conserve the environment, involving ordinary people
in the process. This led to the planting of her first tree nursery,
collocated with a government tree nursery in
Karura Forest.
Envirocare ran into multiple problems, primarily dealing with funding.
The project failed, however, through conversations concerning Envirocare
and her work at the Environment Liaison Centre, UNEP made it possible
to send Maathai to the first
UN conference on human settlements, known as Habitat I, in June 1976.
[26]
In 1977, Maathai spoke to the NCWK concerning her attendance at
Habitat I. She proposed further tree planting, which the council
supported. On 5 June 1977, marking World Environment Day, the NCWK
marched in a procession from Kenyatta International Conference Centre in
downtown Nairobi to
Kamukunji park
on the outskirts of the city where they planted seven trees in honor of
historical community leaders. This was the first "Green Belt" which was
first known as the "Save the Land Harambee" and then became the
Green Belt Movement.
[27]
Maathai encouraged the women of Kenya to plant tree nurseries
throughout the country, searching nearby forests for seeds to grow trees
native to the area. She agreed to pay the women a small stipend for
each seedling which was later planted elsewhere.
[28]
Personal problems 1977–1979
Maathai and her husband, Mwangi Mathai, separated in 1977. After a
lengthy separation, Mwangi filed for divorce in 1979. Mwangi was said to
have believed Wangari was "too strong-minded for a woman" and that he
was "unable to control her". In addition to naming her as "cruel" in
court filings, he publicly accused her of adultery with another Member
of Parliament,
[29]
which in turn was thought to cause his high blood pressure and the
judge ruled in Mwangi's favour. Shortly after the trial, in an interview
with Viva magazine, Maathai referred to the judge as either incompetent
or corrupt.
[29]
The interview later led the judge to charge Maathai with contempt of
court. She was found guilty and sentenced to six months in jail. After
three days in Lang'ata Women's Prison in Nairobi, her lawyer formulated a
statement which the court found sufficient for her release. Shortly
after the divorce, her former husband sent a letter via his lawyer
demanding that Maathai drop his surname but she instead chose to add an
extra "a" instead.
[30][31]
The divorce had been costly, and with lawyers' fees and the loss of
her husband's income, Maathai found it difficult to provide for herself
and her children on her university wages. An opportunity arose to work
for the
Economic Commission for Africa through the
United Nations Development Programme. As this job required extended travel throughout Africa and was based primarily in
Lusaka, Zambia,
she was unable to bring her children with her. Maathai chose to send
them to her ex-husband and take the job. While she visited them
regularly, they lived with their father until 1985.
[32]
Political problems 1979–1982
In 1979, shortly after the divorce, Maathai ran for the position of chairman of the
National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK). The NCWK was an umbrella organization consisting of many different women's organizations in the country. The new
President of Kenya,
Daniel arap Moi,
was attempting to limit the amount of influence those of the Kikuyu
ethnicity held in the country, including in volunteer civic
organizations such as the NCWK. She lost this election by three votes,
but was overwhelmingly chosen to be the vice-chairman of the
organization. The following year, Maathai again ran for chairman of the
NCWK. Again she was opposed, she believes, by the government. When it
became apparent that Maathai was going to win the election,
Maendeleo Ya Wanawake,
a member organization which represented a majority of Kenya's rural
women and whose leader was close to arap Moi, withdrew from the NCWK.
Maathai was then elected chairman of the NCWK unopposed. However,
Maendeleo Ya Wanawake came to receive a majority of the financial
support for women's programs in the country, and NCWK was left virtually
bankrupt. Future funding was much more difficult to come by, but the
NCWK survived by increasing its focus on the environment and making its
presence and work known. Maathai continued to be reelected to serve as
chairman of the organization every year until she retired from the
position in 1987.
[33]
In 1982, the Parliamentary seat representing her home region of Nyeri
was open, and Maathai decided to campaign for the seat. As required by
law, she resigned her position with the University of Nairobi to
campaign for office. The courts decided that she was ineligible to run
for office because she had not re-registered to vote in the last
presidential election in 1979. Maathai believed this to be false and
illegal and brought the matter to court. The court was to meet at nine
in the morning, and if she received a favourable ruling, was required to
present her candidacy papers in Nyeri by three in the afternoon that
same day. The judge disqualified her from running on a technicality.
When she requested her job back, she was denied. She believes this was
because President Daniel arap Moi, who she deemed to be against her, was
also the Chancellor of the University of Nairobi. As she lived in
university housing and was no longer a member of staff, she was evicted
from her home.
[34]
Green Belt Movement
Maathai moved into a small home she had purchased years before, and
focused on the NCWK while she searched for employment. In the course of
her work through the NCWK, she was approached by
Wilhelm Elsrud, executive director of the
Norwegian Forestry Society.
He wished to partner with the Green Belt Movement and offered her the
position of coordinator. Employed again, Maathai poured her efforts into
the Green Belt Movement. Along with the partnership for the Norwegian
Forestry Society, the movement had also received "seed money" from the
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Women. These funds allowed for the
expansion of the movement, for hiring additional employees to oversee
the operations, and for continuing to pay a small stipend to the women
who planted seedlings throughout the country. It also allowed her to
refine the operations of the movement, paying a small stipend to the
women's husbands and sons who were literate and able to keep accurate
records of seedlings planted.
[35]
In 1985, the UN held the third global women's conference in Nairobi.
During the conference, Maathai arranged seminars and presentations to
describe the work the Green Belt Movement was doing in Kenya. She
escorted delegates to see nurseries and plant trees. She met Peggy
Snyder, the head of UNIFEM, and
Helvi Sipilä,
the first woman appointed a UN assistant secretary general. The
conference helped to expand funding for the Green Belt Movement and led
to the movement's establishing itself outside of Kenya. In 1986, with
funding from UNEP, the movement expanded throughout Africa and led to
the foundation of the Pan-African Green Belt Network. Forty-five
representatives from fifteen African countries travelled to Kenya over
the next three years to learn how to set up similar programs in their
own countries to combat desertification, deforestation, water crises,
and rural hunger. The attention the movement received in the media led
to Maathai's being honoured with numerous awards. The government of
Kenya, however, demanded that the Green Belt Movement separate from the
NCWK, believing the latter should focus solely on women's issues, not
the environment. Therefore, in 1987, Maathai stepped down as chairman of
the NCWK and focused her attention on the newly separate
non-governmental organization.
[36]
Government intervention
In the latter half of the 1980s, the Kenyan government came down
against Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. The single-party democracy
was against many of the stances the movement taught pertaining to rights
and democracy. The government invoked a colonial-era law prohibiting
groups of more than nine people from meeting without first obtaining a
government license. In 1988, the Green Belt Movement carried out
pro-democracy activities such as registering voters for the election and
pressing for constitutional reform and freedom of expression. The
government, however, was not interested in reform and carried out
electoral fraud in the elections to maintain power.
[37]
In October 1989, Maathai learned of a plan to construct the 60-story Kenya Times Media Trust Complex in
Uhuru Park.
The complex was intended to house the headquarters of KANU, the Kenya
Times newspaper, a trading centre, offices, an auditorium, galleries,
shopping malls, and parking space for two thousand cars. The plan also
included a large statue of President arap Moi. Maathai wrote many
letters in protest: the Kenya Times, the Office of the President, the
Nairobi city commission, the provincial commissioner, the minister for
environment and natural resources, the executive directors of UNEP and
the Environment Liaison Centre International, the executive director of
the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the
ministry of public works, and the permanent secretary in the department
of international security and administration all received letters. She
also wrote to Sir John Johnson, the British high commissioner in
Nairobi, urging him to intervene with Robert Maxwell, a major
shareholder in the project, equating the construction of a tower in
Uhuru Park to such construction in
Hyde Park or
Central Park and maintaining that it could not be tolerated.
[38]
When I see Uhuru Park and contemplate its meaning, I feel compelled
to fight for it so that my grandchildren may share that dream and that
joy of freedom as they one day walk there.
“
”
Wangari Muta Maathai – Unbowed p. 192.
The government refused to respond to her inquiries and protests,
instead responding through the media that Maathai was "a crazy woman";
that denying the project in Uhuru Park would take more than a small
portion of public park land; and proclaiming the project as a "fine and
magnificent work of architecture" opposed by only the "ignorant few." On
8 November 1989, Parliament expressed outrage at Maathai's actions,
complaining of her letters to foreign organizations and calling the
Green Belt Movement a bogus organization and its members "a bunch of
divorcees". They suggested that if Maathai was so comfortable writing to
Europeans, perhaps she should go live in Europe.
[39]
Despite Maathai's protests, as well as popular protest growing
throughout the city, ground was broken at Uhuru Park for construction of
the complex on 15 November 1989. Maathai sought an injunction in the
Kenya High Court to halt construction, but the case was thrown out on 11
December. In his first public comments pertaining to the project,
President arap Moi said those who opposed the project had "insects in
their heads." On 12 December, in Uhuru Park, during a speech celebrating
independence from the British, President Moi suggested Maathai be a
proper woman in the African tradition and respect men and be quiet.
[40]
She was forced by the government to vacate her office, and the Green
Belt Movement was moved into her home. The government then audited the
Green Belt Movement in an apparent attempt to shut it down. Despite all
this, her protests, the government's response — and the media coverage
it garnered — led foreign investors to cancel the project in January
1990.
[41][42]
In January 1992, it came to the attention of Maathai and other
pro-democracy activists that a list of people were targeted for
assassination and that a government-sponsored coup was possible.
Maathai's name was on the list. The pro-democracy group, known as the
Forum for the Restoration of Democracy
(FORD), presented its information to the media, calling for a general
election. Later that day, Maathai received a warning that one of their
members had been arrested. Maathai decided to barricade herself in her
home. Shortly after, police arrived and surrounded the house. She was
besieged for three days before police cut through the bars she had
installed on her windows, came in, and arrested her. She and the other
pro-democracy activists who had been arrested were charged with
spreading malicious rumours, sedition and treason. After a day and a
half in jail, they were brought to a hearing and released on bail. A
variety of international organizations and eight senators (including
Al Gore and
Edward M. Kennedy)
put pressure on the government of Kenya to substantiate the charges
against the pro-democracy activists or risk damaging relations with the
United States. In November 1992, the government of Kenya dropped the
charges.
[43]
On 28 February 1992, while released on bail, Maathai and others took part in a
hunger strike in a corner of Uhuru Park, which they labelled Freedom Corner, to pressure the government to release
political prisoners.
After four days of the hunger strike, on March 3, 1992, the police
forcibly removed the protesters. Maathai and three others were knocked
unconscious by police and hospitalized.
[44] President Daniel arap Moi called her "a mad woman" who is "a threat to the order and security of the country".
[45] The attack drew international criticism. The
US State Department said it was "deeply concerned" by the violence and by the forcible removal of the hunger strikers.
[46]
When the political prisoners were not released, the protesters — mostly
mothers of those in prison — moved their protest to All Saints
Cathedral, the seat of the
Anglican Archbishop in Kenya,
across from Uhuru Park. The protest there continued, with Maathai
contributing frequently, until early 1993, when the prisoners were
finally released.
[47]
During this time, Maathai was being recognized with various awards
internationally, but the government of Kenya did not appreciate her
work. In 1991 she received the
Goldman Environmental Prize in
San Francisco and the
Hunger Project's Africa Prize for Leadership in
London.
CNN
aired a three-minute segment concerning the Goldman prize, but when it
aired in Kenya, that segment had been edited out. In June 1992, during
the lengthy protest at Uhuru Park, both Maathai and President arap Moi
travelled to
Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (
Earth Summit).
The government of Kenya accused Maathai of inciting women and
encouraging them to strip at Freedom Corner, urging that she not be
allowed to speak at the summit. In spite of this, Maathai was chosen to
be a chief spokesperson at the summit.
[48]
Push for democracy
During the first multi-party
election of Kenya, in 1992,
Maathai strove to unite the opposition and promote free and fair
elections in Kenya. The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD)
had fractured into
FORD-Kenya (led by
Oginga Odinga) and
FORD-Asili (led by
Kenneth Matiba);
Mwai Kibaki, the former
vice president, had left the ruling
Kenya African National Union (KANU) party, and formed the
Democratic Party.
Maathai and many others believed such a fractured opposition would lead
to KANU's retaining control of the country, so they formed the Middle
Ground Group in an effort to unite the opposition. Maathai was chosen to
serve as its chairperson. Also during the election, Maathai and
like-minded opposition members formed the Movement for Free and Fair
Elections. Despite their efforts, the opposition did not unite, and the
ruling KANU party used intimidation and state-held media to win the
election, retaining control of parliament.
[49]
The following year, tribal clashes occurred throughout Kenya. Maathai
believed they were incited by the government, who had warned of stark
consequences to
multi-party democracy.
Maathai travelled with friends and the press to areas of violence in
order to encourage them to cease fighting. With the Green Belt Movement
she planted "trees of peace," but before long her actions were opposed
by the government. The conflict areas were labeled as "no go zones", and
in February 1993 the president claimed that Maathai had masterminded a
distribution of leaflets inciting
Kikuyus to attack
Kalenjins.
After her friend and supporter Dr. Makanga was kidnapped, Maathai chose
to go into hiding. While in hiding, Maathai was invited to a meeting in
Tokyo of the
Green Cross International, an environmental organization recently founded by former Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev.
When Maathai responded that she could not attend as she did not believe
the government would allow her to leave the country and she was in
hiding, Gorbachev pressured the government of Kenya to allow her to
travel freely. President arap Moi denied limiting her travel, and she
was allowed to leave the country, although too late for the meeting in
Tokyo. Maathai was again recognized internationally, and she flew to
Scotland to receive the Edinburgh Medal in April 1993. In May she went to
Chicago to receive the
Jane Addams International Women's Leadership Award, and in June she attended the UN's
World Conference on Human Rights in
Vienna.
[50]
During the
elections of 1997,
Maathai again wished to unite the opposition in order to defeat the
ruling party. In November, less than two months before the election, she
decided that she would run for parliament and for president as a
candidate of the
Liberal Party.
Her intentions were widely questioned in the press; many believed she
should simply stick to running the Green Belt Movement and stay out of
politics. On the day of the election, a rumour that Maathai had
withdrawn from the election and endorsed another candidate was printed
in the media. Maathai garnered few votes and lost the election.
[51]
In the summer of 1998, Maathai learned of a government plan to
privatize large areas of public land in the Karura Forest, just outside
Nairobi, and give it to political supporters. Maathai protested against
the privatization through letters to the government and the press. She
went with the Green Belt Movement to Karura Forest, planting trees and
protesting the destruction of the forest. On 8 January 1999, a group of
protesters including Maathai, six opposition MPs, journalists,
international observers, and Green Belt members and supporters returned
to the forest to plant a tree in protest. The entry to the forest was
guarded by a large group of men. When she tried to plant a tree in an
area that had been designated to be cleared for a golf course, the group
was attacked. Many of the protesters were injured, including Maathai,
four MPs, some of the journalists, and German environmentalists. When
she reported the attack to the police, they refused to return with her
to the forest to arrest her attackers. However, the attack had been
filmed by Maathai's supporters, and the event provoked international
outrage.
[41][52]
Student protests broke out throughout Nairobi, and some of these groups
were violently broken up by the police. Protests continued until 16
August 1999, when the president announced that he was banning all
allocation of public land.
[53]
In 2001, the government was again planning to take public forest land
and give it to its supporters. While protesting the land-grab and
collecting
petition signatures on 7 March 2001, in Wang'uru village near
Mount Kenya,
Maathai was again arrested. The following day, following international
and popular protest at her arrest, she was released without being
charged. On 7 July 2001, shortly after planting trees at Freedom Corner
in Uhuru Park in Nairobi to commemorate
Saba Saba Day, Maathai was again arrested. Later that evening, she was again released without being charged.
[54] In January 2002, Maathai returned to teaching as the Dorothy McCluskey Visiting Fellow for Conservation at the
Yale University's
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
She remained there until June 2002, teaching a course on sustainable
development focused on the work of the Green Belt Movement.
[55]
Election to parliament
Upon her return to Kenya, Maathai again campaigned for parliament in the
2002 elections, this time as a candidate of the
National Rainbow Coalition,
the umbrella organization which finally united the opposition. On 27
December 2002, the Rainbow Coalition defeated the ruling party
Kenya African National Union, and in her constituency Maathai won with an overwhelming 98% of the vote.
[56]
In January 2003, she was appointed Assistant Minister in the Ministry
for Environment and Natural Resources and served in that capacity until
November 2005.
[13] She founded the
Mazingira Green Party of Kenya in 2003 to allow candidates to run on a platform of conservation as embodied by the Green Belt Movement. It is a member of the
Federation of Green Parties of Africa and the
Global Greens.
[57]
Nobel Peace Prize 2004
Wangari Maathai was awarded the 2004
Nobel Peace Prize for her "contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace".
[58] She had received a call from
Ole Danbolt Mjos, chair of the
Norwegian Nobel Committee, on 8 October informing her of the news.
[59][60] She became the first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to win the prize.
| “ |
Maathai stood up courageously against the former oppressive regime in Kenya.
Her unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to
political oppression—nationally and internationally. She has served as
inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights and has
especially encouraged women to better their situation. |
” |
|
|
AIDS
Controversy arose when it was reported by
The Standard that Maathai had claimed HIV/AIDS was "deliberately created by Western scientists to decimate the African population."
[61] Maathai denied making the allegations, but
The Standard has stood by its reports.
[61]
In a 2004 interview with
Time,
in response to questions concerning that report, Maathai replied, "I
have no idea who created AIDS and whether it is a biological agent or
not. But I do know things like that don't come from the moon. I have
always thought that it is important to tell people the truth, but I
guess there is some truth that must not be too exposed," and when asked
what she meant, she continued, "I'm referring to AIDS. I am sure people
know where it came from. And I'm quite sure it did not come from the
monkeys."
[62]
In response she issued the following statement:
| “ |
I have warned
people against false beliefs and misinformation such as attributing this
disease to a curse from God or believing that sleeping with a virgin
cures the infection. These prevalent beliefs in my region have led to an
upsurge in rape and violence against children. It is within this
context, also complicated by the cultural and religious perspective,
that I often speak. I have therefore been shocked by the ongoing debate
generated by what I am purported to have said. It is therefore critical
for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was
developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the
African people. Such views are wicked and destructive.[63] |
” |
Later life 2005–2011
On 28 March 2005, Maathai was elected the first president of the
African Union's
Economic, Social and Cultural Council and was appointed a goodwill ambassador for an initiative aimed at protecting the
Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem.
[64] In 2006 she was one of the eight flagbearers at the
2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. Also on 21 May 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by and gave the commencement address at
Connecticut College. She supported the International Year of Deserts and Desertification program. In November 2006, she spearheaded the
United Nations Billion Tree Campaign. Maathai was one of the founders of the
Nobel Women's Initiative along with sister Nobel Peace laureates
Jody Williams,
Shirin Ebadi,
Rigoberta Menchu Tum,
Betty Williams and
Mairead Corrigan Maguire. Six women representing
North America and
South America,
Europe, the
Middle East and
Africa
decided to bring together their experiences in a united effort for
peace with justice and equality. It is the goal of the Nobel Women's
Initiative to help strengthen work being done in support of women's
rights around the world.
[65]
In August 2006, then
United States Senator Barack Obama
traveled to Kenya. His father was educated in America through the same
program as Maathai. She and the Senator met and planted a tree together
in Uhuru Park in Nairobi. Obama called for freedom of the press to be
respected, saying, "Press freedom is like tending a garden; it
continually has to be nurtured and cultivated. The citizenry has to
value it because it's one of those things that can slip away if we're
not vigilant." He deplored global ecological losses, singling out
President
George W. Bush's refusal to join the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its subsidiary, the
Kyoto Protocol.
[66]
Maathai was defeated in the
Party of National Unity's
primary elections for its parliamentary candidates in November 2007 and
chose to instead run as the candidate of a smaller party.
[67] She was defeated in the
December 2007 parliamentary election. She called for a recount of votes in the presidential election (officially won by
Mwai Kibaki,
but disputed by the opposition) in her constituency, saying that both
sides should feel the outcome was fair and that there were indications
of fraud.
[68]
In June 2009, Maathai was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes.
[69] Until her death, Maathai served on the Eminent Advisory Board
[70] of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (
AWEPA).
Wangari Maathai died of complications arising from ovarian cancer
while receiving treatment at a Nairobi hospital on 25 September 2011.
[71]
Selected publications
- The 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 978-0-307-59114-2
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Jessy Dixon was an American gospel music singer, songwriter, and pianist, with success among audiences across racial lines. He garnered seven Grammy award nominations during his career.
