Revolutionary Afkrikan Women - RAW!

[Lyonezz]

Phenomenal Women You Should Know!

March is Women's History Month. Its time to highlight some revolutionary women you know.... or have heard of...here is one that I recently became aware of .....Go Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai

Sixty-four year old Wangari Maathai, the most prominent environmental activist in
Africa, was the 2004 recipient of the Alfred Nobel Peace Prize.
Wangari Muta was born on April 1, 1940 in Ihithe, Nyeri Province, Kenya
during British colonial rule. Her family was of Kikuyu origin and her
father was polygamous. As a child Muta was permitted a small plot of
land to grown her own food, to learn how to cultivate the land. Muta
attended primary school at St. Cecilia’s Intermediate Primary School
near her home in Nyeri. While there she converted to Catholicism.

In 1956 Muta entered Loreto Girl’s High School outside of Nairobi and then began college in 1960 at Mount St. Scholastica College
(now Benedictine College) in Atchison, Kansas where she received her
Bachelor’s Degree in Biology four years later. After graduation she
earned a Master's Degree in Biological Sciences at the University of
Pittsburgh. In April 1966, after returning to Kenya, Wangari Muta met
her future husband, Mwangi Mathai; a politician. The two married in
May 1969.

From 1966 to 1982 Wangari Maathai taught at the University of Nairobi. In 1971 Maathai received her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine
from the University of Nairobi, becoming the first woman in Eastern
Africa to receive a Ph.D.

In 1977 Wangari and Mwangi were divorced; soon after Wangari was imprisoned for the first time because of her critical comments
about the divorce judge’s ruling. The judge then ordered her to stop
using her former husband's last name. In defiance of the judge, she
changed the spelling, adding an "a" and becoming Wangari Maathai.

The same year she founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots environmental non-governmental organization which over the
next three decades planted over 30 million trees across Kenya. She
became known as the Tree Mother of Africa.

Maathai was also a political activist who was imprisoned several times in the 1980s for her criticism of then Kenyan President
Daniel arap Moi, and for demanding multi-party elections in Kenya. She
also angered Moi when she in 1989 led the effort to save Nairobi's
Uhuru Park by stopping the construction of a 60 story office tower by
Moi's business associate.

In 1992 Maathai ran for President of Kenya on a platform urging environmental protections. She was the first African politician
to publicly embrace that cause. She withdrew from the race but ran
again in 1997. In 2002 Maathai was elected to the Kenyan Parliament on
the National Rainbow Coalition ticket. In 2003 she founded the
Mazingira Green Party of Kenya and later that year was appointed
Assistant Minister for Environmental and Natural Resources by Kenyan
President Mwai Kibaki. In 2004 Maathai won the Nobel Prize for her
work. She was defeated in her 2007 reelection bid for Parliament.

Wangari Muta Maathai continues to be an environmental and political activist. In 2006 she was one of the founders of the Nobel
Women's Initiative, an organization of six women recipients of the
Prize representing North and South America, Europe, the Middle East,
and Africa who united in their efforts to work for peace, justice, and
equality throughout the world. In January 2007 Maathai hosted the
Global Young Greens conference in Nairobi, which some have described as
a meeting of the next wave of leadership of the world environment
movement. Maathai who has written four books including The Greenbelt
Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience, lives in Nairobi.

Sources:
Wangari Maathai, The Canopy of Hope: My Life Campaigning for Africa, Women and the Environment (Brooklyn, New York: Lantern Books, 2002);
Wangari Maathai, Unbowed (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006); Anita
Price Davis and Marla J. Selvidge, Women Nobel Peace Prize Winners
(London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006).

Contributor(s):
Faal, Courtney
University of Washington, Seattle

Wangari Maathai is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, an environmentalist,
a civil society and women's rights activist, and a parliamentarian. You
can read about her life and her organization through her two books, Unbowed: A Memoir and The Green Belt Movement. You can also scan condensed versions of her life and achievements, including being awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Since winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai has become a spokesperson for a number of important initiatives.

Both before and since she won the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai has
spoken about, and been interviewed on, a range of subjects.

Shows

Watch this video in a new window

Taking Root The Vision of Wangari Maathai

About Wangari Maathai

• Biography
• Curriculum Vitae
• The Nobel Peace Prize
• Maathai Quotes
• Other Initiatives

Books

Wangari Maathai is the author of two books, Unbowed: A Memoir and The Green Belt Movement.

Wangari Maathai On ...

• Africa
• AIDS
• Animals and Wildlife
• Culture
• Democracy and Civil Society
• Development
• Environmentalism
• Kenya
• Religion
• Women's Rights

The Green Belt Movement

[TheArtiste Hassan]

Thanks you my Sister Lyonezz, you sure came back strong.
Little unknown facts during Womem History Month.

This is not a laughing matter but you may want to laugh at this woman...