Wangari maathai brief biography sample

Wangari Maathai was the founder of the Green Belt Movement and the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She authored four books: The Green Belt Movement; Unbowed: A Memoir; The Challenge for Africa; and Replenishing the Earth. As well as having been featured in a number of books, she and the Green Belt Movement were the subject of a documentary film, Taking Root: the Vision of Wangari Maathai (Marlboro Productions, 2008). 

Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, a rural area of Kenya (Africa), in 1940. She obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas (1964), a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh (1966), and pursued doctoral studies in Germany and the University of Nairobi, before obtaining a Ph.D. (1971) from the University of Nairobi, where she also taught veterinary anatomy. The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, Professor Maathai became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976 and 1977 respectively. In both cases, she was the first woman to attain those positions in the region. 

Professor Maathai was active in the National Council of Women of Kenya (1976–1987) and was its chairman (1981–1987). In 1976, while she was serving in the National Council of Women, Professor Maathai introduced the idea of community-based tree planting. She continued to develop this idea into a broad-based grassroots organisation, the Green Belt Movement (GBM), whose main focus is poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting. 

Professor Maathai was internationally acknowledged for her struggle for democracy, human rights, and environmental conservation, and served on the board of many organisations. She addressed the UN on a number of occasions and spoke on behalf of women at special sessions of the General Assembly during the five-year revie

Very often women activists are advised to form alliances with men and negotiate women’s rights as they fight to reclaim their long-withheld rights from the oppressors. The expectation is that feminism must remain ‘womanly’ as it soft-steers so as not to displease their oppressors. Whilst many travelled this path, Wangari Maathai wasn’t one of them.

Professor Wangari Maathai was a foremost environmentalist, academic, political activist, and writer. She was born a native of Kenya in 1940. Through the Kennedy Airlift, she bagged a Bachelor’s degree in biology from Mount St. Scholastica. This same scholarship program enabled her to earn a Master’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh. She proceeded rapidly to become the first woman to obtain a PhD in East Africa.

She started lecturing in Nairobi and got to the position of associate professor in 1977. As she progressed on the academic ladder, she demanded equal benefits for the female staff of the university. In her autobiography Unbowed, she disclosed that although the court denied her demands initially, they were later fulfilled. She had begun venturing into the civic space by this time with one of her earliest stints with the Red Cross Society. She was also an active member of the National Council of Women of Kenya and even served as its chairman for some time.

Growing up in a rural community exposed Professor Wangari to the suffering of women; trekking long distances to fetch wood and water, and participating in multiple unpaid jobs, therefore, denying them a chance at financial independence. With civilization came deforestation and she knew rural women would bear the brunt of the challenges. She took this as a personal affront and established the Green Belt Movement. Before the initiative, she had introduced community-based tree planting in the National Council of Women.

The Green Be

Kenyan environmental and political activist (1940–2011)

"Maathai" redirects here. For the Kenyan supermarket chain, see Maathai Supermarkets.

Wangarĩ Maathai (; 1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

As a beneficiary of the Kennedy Airlift, she studied in the United States, earning a bachelor's degree from Mount St. Scholastica and a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She went on to become the first woman in East and Central Africa to become a Doctor of Philosophy, receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In 1984, she got the Right Livelihood Award for "converting the Kenyan ecological debate into mass action for reforestation." Wangari Maathai was an elected member of the Parliament of Kenya and, between January 2003 and November 2005, served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki. She was an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council. As an academic and the author of several books, Maathai was not only an activist but also an intellectual who has made significant contributions to thinking about ecology, development, gender, and African cultures and religions.

Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer on 25 September 2011.

Early life and education

Maathai was born on 1 April 1940 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. Around 1943, Maathai's family relocated to a wh

(1940-2011)

Who Was Wangari Maathai?

In 1971, Wangari Maathai received a Ph.D., effectively becoming the first woman in either East or Central Africa to earn a doctorate. She was elected to Kenya's National Assembly in 2002 and has written several books and scholarly articles. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her "holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights, and women's rights in particular."

Early Life and Education

Born on April 1, 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya, environmental activist Wangari Maathai grew up in a small village. Her father supported the family working as a tenant farmer. At this time, Kenya was still a British colony. Maathai's family decided to send her to school, which was uncommon for girls to be educated at this time. She started at a local primary school when she was 8 years old.

An excellent student, Maathai was able to continue her education at the Loreto Girls' High School. She won a scholarship in 1960 to go to college in the United States. Maathai attended Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, where she earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1964. Two years later, she completed a master's degree in biological sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Maathai would later draw inspiration by the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements in the United States.

Returning to Kenya, Maathai studied veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi. She made history in 1971, becoming the first woman in East Africa to earn a doctorate degree. Maathai joined the university's faculty and became the first woman to chair a university department in the region in 1976.

Green Belt Movement

Maathai sought to end the devastation of Kenya's forests and lands caused by development and remedy the negative impact that this development had on the country's environment. In 1977, she launched the Green Belt Movement to reforest her be