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Mother of Planting Trees in Kenya - Wangari Muta Maathai
[Found the Green Belt · Guard the Earth]
Think about what we can do, and do not worry what we can't.
—Wangari Muta Maathai
● Not only did Wangari Muta Maathai protect the existing environment, but developed the strategy of protecting and reinforcing ecologically sustainable development – the real basis. In 1977, she initiated the Green Belt Movement. Over the past 30 years, she kept mobilizing poor African women to plant 45 million trees, so thousands of people could land a job while protecting the ecological environment.
● Wangari Muta Maathai’s great ambition of afforestation was derived from her childhood experiences. At that time, she lived in the rural areas of Kenya, and saw people cut down forests, replant industrial crops and destroy biodiversity and the water storage capacity of forests.
Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate - Wangari Muta Maathai established the Green Belt Movement. For more than 30 years, she planted 45 million trees in Kenya to protect soil and water and beautify the earth. Besides, she mobilized over 500,000 women to participate in the Movement and improved their lives, and hence became a force for social stability.
In 1970, biologist Wangari Muta Maathai stepped forward bravely out of her profound concern over the indiscriminate felling of forests in her hometown Kenya.
Similar to other developing countries, poverty and population explosion has become a heavy load of Kenya’s natural environment. In order to obtain fuel and reclaim farmland, the impoverished people indiscriminately fell trees. Other animals and plants begin to disappear along with the disappearance of trees. Moreover, due to the lack of tree protection, the topsoil is eroded by rainwater with all nutrients in soil washed away.
Degradation of the natural environment deteriorates the vicious cycle of poverty, and leads to malnutrition, food and water shortages, spread of infectious diseases and other issues. In 1977, she started encouraging countrywomen to grow trees through National Council of Woman of Kenya founded by her in Kenya. This public service activity elicited enthusiastic response from all walks of life in Africa, and eventually is developed into a grassroots sustainable socially useful activity – the Green Belt Movement.
This movement instructs women how to cultivate saplings and how to allocate saplings to the areas in most desperate need of planting trees. Women earn money from such tasks to satisfy the current urgent needs and to fund the schooling of their children. Thus, this is a multi-investment benefiting the public. Additionally, this movement teaches people the sound natural environment and sound social relations. Farmers and villagers have mastered proper land management skills, such as composting, ensuring soil fertility and making appropriate use of local native plant varieties.
The Green Belt Movement in Africa brings fresh hope to Africa. Not only does it eases the problem of deforestation, but brings income and dignity to African women.
This environmental protection initiative, which was originally undertaken in seedbed of Wangari, has grown into a mainstream global environmental protection movement.
As she told everyone she met, “Each of us can make our due contributions. We tend to aim high but accomplish little – we concentrate on ambitious aims, but forget we can make contribution wherever we are. Sometimes I tell myself I might just plant a tree here, but imagine what amazing results will be produced if billions of people start to take actions?”
What is most commendable is that she fought with repressive regime, and was arrested and put in prison for a couple of times in order to protect forests and parks, defend democracy and safeguard the vulnerable. Furthermore, she had to battle against cancer, and in her last few years, she almost regarded hospitals as home, where she constantly promoted and spared no efforts to the Greenbelt Movement even after her death.
The Green Belt Movement founded by her is precisely her continuity of living out love. 5 years after she died of cancer in 2011, Chou Ta-Kuan Foundation and the other winner of Global Fervent Love of Lives Medal, 12-year-old Felix Finkbeiner, known as the German Earth Angel, passed on the love of Wangari Muta Maathai and established Plant-for-the-Planet. They aim to unite the world’s schoolchildren, and grow one million trees in each country. Also, they have attained the goal of growing one million trees in Germany in 2010.
Thus, the Green Belt Movement called for by Wangari Muta Maathai has found its way into people around the world. People naturally and continuously grow health, hope and love. Therefore, Wangari Muta Maathai was worthy of the “Mother of Planting Trees”. Among the 2459 nominees for the medal, Wangari Muta Maathai has been award the 19th Global Fervent Love of Lives Medal by the Chou Ta-kuan Foundation。
Worship Mount Kenya since Childhood
On April 1, 1940, Maathai was born in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central highlands of the colony of Kenya. She was the eldest daughter and had two elder brothers, two younger sisters and one younger brother. Her parents and grandparents were born in Nyeri. Mount Kenya stands on the north of Kenya and is the second highest peak in Africa, and is regarded by the Kikuyu tribe as the land of wisdom, the Holy Land as well as the source of everything.
Her parents were farmers and were from Kikuyu tribe, the tribe with the largest population among the 42 tribes in Kenya. In the era when she was born, Ihithe was still lush and had fertile soil, normal seasonal variation and abundant rainfall. Corn, peas, wheat and vegetables grew in the farmlands. Due to a good harvest, the family needed not to worry about food and clothing.
In the end of Nineteenth century, Kenya became a British protectorate and a British colony in 1920. In 1910, the British embarked on a massive migration to Kenya, and the locals were forced to give up land to newly arrived immigrants. Wangari Muta’s father moved to the reserve of Ihithe. Almost all Kenyan contemporaries of Muta converted to Christianity, so Wangari naturally became a Christian like her parents.
Muta was heavyset and able-bodied. Wangari learned from the older generation that her father did not need a jack to change wheel. Her mother Wanjiru was tall and thin, kind and amiable, persevering and calm and diligent. She married Muta at the age of 25 (about 1930).
Wangari, as the eldest daughter, did housework and farming with her mother since she was little, so they were particularly close. Her mother improved her knowledge and encouraged her to make progress. She said in her memoirs that “Mother is the force that reassures me.”
British levied tax on Kenyan men. Her father was forced to work at the immigrants’ farm to earn money to pay taxes. He worked as a mechanic and driver at the farm and was the right-hand man of the owner Neelum. Muta built a house to shelter the whole family and grew crops. After arriving at the farm, her mother gave birth to two girls.
Father had four wives, and Wangari’s mother was the second wife. But the four wives never felt jealous or bitter towards each other.
Yearn to Attend School
At the age of 7, Wangari went to Nyeri with her mother to take care of her two elder brothers who studied there. Mother allocated a small piece of land of 15 feet in the center of the field to Wangari in order to teach her to grow and reap crops. She observed seed germination, and sometimes even naively pulled the seeds out to see how fast they grew. She was particularly amazed to see corns bore fruits.
One day, her eldest brother Nderitu asked his mother, “Why Wangari could not go to school with us?” Mother thought for a moment, and replied, “She could!” The decision changed the life of Wangari.
On the first day of primary school, Wangari was extremely excited. Her cousin wrote with a pencil and then wiped the words. She felt it very miraculous, like playing magic. She desired that she could write and wipe the words. In the fourth grade, she passed the national examination and went up to fifth grade. Then, she was 11 years old.
Wangari was particularly fond of working in the fields late in the afternoon, since she believed nothing was more beautiful than farming at dusk. Sunset shone the ridges and trees, with fresh air and pleasant scenery.
These experiences caused her to cherish the beauty of the environment. She was grieved that the land was destroyed every time she saw the river was silted up.
After graduating from primary school, Wangari attended a Catholic boarding school named St. Cecilia’s Intermediate Primary School in Nyeri. She carried bags and bid farewell to her families, and embarked on a new campus life away from home for the first time. After attending courses on Christianity, especially on the Reformation, she decided to become a Catholic.
Mau Mau Freedom Fighters
In 1952, Mau Mau Uprising which fought against colonial rules broke out in Kenya. Kenyan soldiers in World War II felt betrayed after returning to Kenya and started to unite other soldiers to fight for the independence of Kenya. Their primary demands included: land, freedom and autonomy.
In October, the British Governor-General arrested Kenyatta, the leader of Mau Mau and the president of African Union, and declared a state of emergency. Kenyatta was thrown into prison for 7 years and exiled for 2 years. Finally, Britain locked approximately one million of Africans in the detention camps, concentration camps and “emergency villages”. When Wangari was a junior high school student, she was also arrested by soldiers on the road and was released after two days. She first witnessed the inhuman treatment in detention camps. She slept on the floor crying, looking at people being tortured and abused. She thought such harsh environment was designed to destroy people’s will and self-confidence and fueled fear to force them to give up resistance.
It is estimated that more than eleven thousand Kikuyu clansmen died due to the Mau Mau Uprising. Besides, it was only in recent years that Kenya’s laws renamed Mau Mau rebels as the “Freedom Fighters.”
After graduating from junior high school in early 1956, Wangari attended Loreto High School in the outskirts of Nirobi. She met a good teacher there who aroused and encouraged her lifelong interest in science, especially in chemistry and later biology.
As graduation was drawing closer, many classmates of Wangari were ready to be a teacher or a nurse. However, Wangari wanted to pursue further study and said “I don’t want to be a teacher or a nurse. I want to attend Makerere University.” Makerere University is situated in Kampala, capital of Uganda, and is only university in East Africa, renown as the “University of Oxford in East Africa”. Unexpectedly, she went to the United States, farther than Makerere University, for further study.
Pursue Dreams in the New World
In 1959, Wangari graduated from high school. In September 1960, six hundred Kenyan students were sent to American universities to receive higher education by the “Kennedy Airlift” funded by the U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy, aiming to foster national talents for the country which was to be independent. Wangari and father of the incumbent U.S. President Obama were included.
A new world unfolded before her. She and her junior high school and high school classmate Agatha were assigned to Benedictine College in the Kansas State. The school nuns were very loving with a number of them becoming Wangari’s mentors. Wangari majored in biology and minored in chemistry and German.
This Catholic school was open and free. Boys and girls kissed publicly. Parties were thrown at weekends, where boys and girls embraced and danced. These made Wangari feel surprised and fresh.
She applied herself to study, but also wanted to grasp the civil rights movement and the complex United States. She found that there was an institutionalized discrimination based on skin color in the United States. School tutors led her and Agatha to visit the adjacent places where the black and the rich lived, from which she saw the inequality and inequality in American society. In an interview with the British media in September 2009, she stated that “the civil rights movement changed me, and made me aware of how to live as a citizen and as a woman.” She knew that it was time that she returned to Kenya, since her forests were calling her.
In the junior year in college, Wangari and Agatha began to follow the fashion, dance, and listen to rock music and other popular music. Upon graduation, they were fully Americanized.
Return Home with Academic Achievement
They interned in Missouri in summer vocations in order to gain enough experience and skills to complete their studies. Wangari worked in the San Jose Hospital and helped the lab technicians to process human tissues so that the tissues could be observed via a microscope.
4-year studies at Benedictine College and experiences inside and outside the campus helped Wangari to develop her willingness to listen to others, learn and carefully analyze and contemplate. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science in 1964, Wangari pursued a Master’s Degree in Biology at the University of Pittsburgh.
Wangari studied pineal gland and chose to observe the pineal gland of Japanese quail. She used artificially hatched quail eggs to track the development of the quails’ brain pineal gland from eggs to adult birds. By virtue of this study, she was granted the Master’s Degree in Science.
In 1965, she was about to complete her studies. The Kenyan government dispatched people to the United States to recruit the overseas students which would soon graduate. Wangari was recruited as a research assistant in the Department of Zoology at the University College of Nairobi. The school informed her of reporting for duty on January 10, 1966.
The United States changed her, and taught her not to miss any opportunity and to do what she could. She wanted to nurture this spirit in Kenya, so she returned to Kenya.
Mutual Development of Study and Teaching
Wangari excitedly headed for the Department of Zoology to report her duty, but the professor told her that her work had been assigned to others (his clansman). When she soon applied for this university again, she was subject to gender discrimination from this professor.
Therefore, Wangari had to find another job. One day, she met Prof. Hoffmann, who was sent to Kenya and helped the German University of Giessen to set up the School of Veterinary Anatomy at the University College of Nairobi. After the interview, she served as a research assistant to the Department of Micro-anatomy. The tissue processing and microscopy techniques acquired in the United States enabled her to land this job. In the Guillaume campus, she was obsessed with books, microscopes and slides. She honed her skills and eventually became a member of the research and teaching team of the department.
She applied for PhD, and the school assigned her a bungalow.
In 1966, Wangari met her future husband Mwangi Mathai. Mwangi was kind-hearted, handsome and very devout, so he was admired by Wangari.
In early 1967, Prof. Hoffmann sent her to Germany to sharpen the electron microscopy techniques, and conducted some of her doctoral studies. In 1969, she returned to school as an assistant lecturer. In May, she married Mwangi when she was 29 years old and he was 34 years old.
First Female Doctor in East and Central Africa
In 1969, Tom Mboya, who facilitated the “Kennedy Airlift”, was assassinated. He was seen as Kenyatta’s successor. His death caused Kenyatta to ban the people’s alliance activities of the opposition party after the congressional election, thereby ending Kenya’s multiparty system.
A few months later, Wangari gave birth to a son named Waweru. A couple of years later, another two children were born. The second child was the daughter Wanjira and the youngest one was the son Muta.
Wangari doctoral thesis was concerned with the development and differentiation of gonads cattle, a study equipping her with more profound understanding of how reproductive organs developed into females or males. In 1971, she completed her papers and became the first female doctor in East and Central Africa. Wangari was promoted to senior lecturer after obtaining the Doctor’s Degree.
The discrimination she faced when reporting for duty led her to believe that the female teachers should enjoy the same benefits as their male colleagues. She and Professor Mbaya, an American marrying to a Kenyan, jointly launched the first battle for equal treatment for men and women. Although the protest did not succeed, they became the first female teachers in the school of veterinary to enjoy the equal treatment as male faculty.
The struggle for equal treatment rendered her convinced that sometimes she must adhere to her unwavering faith.
Wangari was promoted to senior lecturer in anatomy in 1974, to a chair professor of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and to an associate professor in 1977. She was the first female teacher in this university to assume these teaching posts.
Love the Land and Protect the Environment
In the early 1970s, aside from teaching, Wangari also got involved in some a number of non-governmental organizations and was invited to join the local committee of the Environmental Liaison Centre International (ELCI). She was elected branch president and performed her duties for 19 years.
She saw the fig trees, the “sacred tree” in her childhood, were cut, resulting in landslides that had never happened before. Nothing could grow in this land, as if it told people that it refused other trees but the fig trees. Besides, the brook where she caught frogs and played with tadpoles when she was young also ran dry without trace of frogs and tadpoles. Therefore, she vowed to let them return to their “home.”
Also, women’s precarious situation awakened her. She served as a member of the National Council of Women in Kenya. In the seminars, a female researcher found that children in the central Kenya regions were suffering from malnutrition-related diseases, and the conclusion pointed out that the firewood shortage was responsible for child malnutrition. Large numbers of farmers grew coffee and tea for export in most of the land, reducing the land to grow food. Women had to make processed foods as staples, but the vitamins, proteins and minerals contained by these foods were relatively low. Furthermore, deforestation reduced firewood, and women used less firewood to make processed foods.
Wangari knew that this was caused by environmental degradation, while deforestation, reclamation, unsustainable agriculture and soil erosion were some of the causes.
Why not Plant Trees
Wangari’s outlook on life was that: Think about what we can do, and do not worry what we can’t. She expressed in an interview that “Many of my female classmates farmed in their hometown after graduation and lived in thatched cottages. I want to help them.” When she saw the forest was cut and children suffered malnutrition during her visits across the country, it struck on her, “Why not plant trees?” Trees could provide firewood, allow women to cook nutritious food, provide fodder for cattle and sheep and wood to make fences to protected fields and as building materials. Additionally, trees can shelter people and animals, protect water sources and consolidate soil, and even can bring back birds and small animals to revitalize the land.
That is how the Green Belt Movement started.
Mwangi lost an election 5 years ago, and in 1974 was elected as a congressman. At that time, unemployment was so serious that he strongly advocated solutions to “unemployment”. He regarded political views as “election tricks”, to which Wangari did not agree. To fulfill his political views, she ran the Envirocare Ltd., hoping to provide tons of work to people and help others plant trees and garden. She established the first nursery.
Envirocare hired impoverished people in the poor areas of Mwangi constituency to serve the rich in the wealthy areas. However, the rich still preferred to hire gardeners by themselves.
A turning point came when she was in despair.
Wangari was invited to attend the 1976 first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements. One of the solutions proposed by the participants was a “greener city, where trees and wood, and flowers and grass grew.
The Green Belt Movement Started
Wangari decided to promote her ideas after returning home. She held that planting trees was the activity that the National Council of Women could assist other rural members and meet the needs of women. She named this action “Save the Land Harambee”.
On June 5, 1977, Kenya celebrated the World Environment Day, and the “Save the Land Harambee” held a planting ceremony. Seven trees were planted on that day in memory of 7 environmental protection leaders from different races. The seven trees constituted the first “Green Belt”.
In August 1977, the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) was convened in Nairobi, and the delegation of the National Council of Women in Kenya planted the second “Green Belt” in the Naivasha farm in the northwest of Kenya.
By the end of this year, the information about planting activities were spread via networks, encouraging farmers, churches and schools to set up their own plans to plant trees. This was the beginning of the communities’ takeover of the Green Belt Movement. Despite a myriad of setbacks, she started to fulfill her dream.
In order to meet the requirements that the public asked for saplings, Wangari decided to build her own nursery. She and the women held meetings. The professional growers explained to them how to manage their own nurseries and lots of expertise in soil and tree cultivation. Besides, the growers told Wangari that “professionally certified persons” were needed. Yet, she thought what women needed to know was just how to plant saplings in the soil and help them grow.
Little Rabbit in Political Jungle
The colleagues of National Council of Women in Kenya encouraged her to compete for the president, but she was elected the vice-president due to 3 votes. In 1980, she again ran for the president. But Kenyan authorities did not want her to lead women. Various means were used to force her withdrawal, and the bank account of the National Council of Women in Kenya was checked.
Fortunately, thanks to her friends’ great support, shew was surprisingly elected by a unanimous vote. The National Council of Women in Kenya gave top priority to the environment and water resources through the Green Belt Movement. In the 1980s, Moi authorities labeled these two organizations as “disobedience” and made every attempt to restrict Wangari’s activities and sound. She acted as the president until 1987.
In early 1982, Wangari quited teaching and ran for member of congress. The Election Commission thought she was unqualified, so she brought a charge with the court against the Election Commission, but the court sentenced her to lose the candidacy.
Blow fell one after another. She made a request to the school of re-serving as the chair professor of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, but was declined. She walked out of school in immense disappointment, ending up with nothing, no pension and health insurance. The next day, the school staff asked her to move out of the school premises. In just 3 days, everything was gone.
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining
Wangari often said that “We cannot control the occurrence of every situation, but we can do is how to handle it when it comes to a head”. She always considered failure as a challenge to motivate her to stand up and forge ahead, and falls were just a small step in her long journey.
Without marriage and teaching post, she remained the president of the National Council of Women in Kenya. She seriously contemplated the direction and future of the Green Belt Movement. A few months later, she got a job, which changed her life path and the future of Green Belt.
One afternoon in 1982, Wilhelm Elsrud, the Executive Director of Norwegian Forestry Society paid a visit to Wangari in the National Council of Women in Kenya, hoping she could team up with the Norwegian Forestry Society. A few months later, Elsrud sent her a sum of money and an idea and recommended that she act as the coordinator of cooperation programs, and offered her a small allowance equivalent to full-time salary. Soon, UN Decade for Women also decided to fund the “Seed Money” of the Green Belt Movement. The first grant was up to 122,700 USD. Additionally, she received an annual remuneration of 600 USD.
Then, Wangari was the only staff of the Green Belt Movement, and she finally had the funds to employ a few young women, who had just graduated from high school, as supervisors. Her ideas in the early 1970s developed from empty talks and several nurseries into a farm where millions of trees were planted, improving the lives of thousands of women.
The cooperation program between the Green Belt Movement and the Norwegian Forestry Society started from the Murang'a Primary School. Wangari seized the opportunity to motivate the whole community. Murang'a became one of the typical green belt areas, where trees on both sides of the road were thick, stretching from the valley to the hill. How lush the area was.
Affirmation for Tree Planting for the Women’s Movement
Wangari also learned at work. She encouraged women living far from the nurseries to set up nurseries in their villages to facilitate tendering and watering. In this way, the nurseries not only increased, but were closer to home and thus beautified the living environment.
The Green Belt Movement gradually thrived, and also passed on ideas apart from growing trees. In the forums across the communities, Wangari told people that they were also responsible for environmental destruction and not protecting their land, and should not only blame the government. Instead, they should try their best to cope with their situation.
In the Green Belt Movement, now two thousand women groups manage nurseries and plant and tender trees. Also, over one thousand green belts are managed by schools and students. Later, it helped to establish more than 6,000 nurseries and network management based on 600 communities, including hundreds of thousands of women and men. In the 21st century, the Green Belt has planted more than forty-five million trees in Kenya alone, and delivers its experience in Africa and around the world.
Wangari and the Green Belt Movement began to receive some awards. In 1983, she was named the Women of the Year in Kenya by a civil society in the entertainment industry. The following year, she was awarded the Swedish “Right Livelihood Award”. In 1987, she was listed in the Global 500 Roll of Honour by the UN Environment Programme.
In 1989, she won the UK Women Awards of the UK Women’s Rescue Foundation, and felt it was a great honor to accept the award presented by Princess Diana with Mother Teresa.
Ironically, the government made use of the draconian law in the colonial era and provided that the gathering of more than 9 people was deemed illegal without authorization. Each group of the Green Belt Movement consisted of 15 to 30, so this provision was clearly aimed at the Green Belt.
Defend Uhuru Park
In 1989, Wangari learned that the government intended to build a 60-storey skyscraper in Uhuru Park. The park was situated in downtown Nairobi, like London’s Hyde Park and New York’s Central Park. It was a great stretch of green space amid the noisy and concrete-ridden city, and a place where the citizens relaxed and entertained and where national celebrations were held.
In March, Wangari wrote to the Kenya Times, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and other authorities, but received no response. She continued to write to more institutions. Eventually, the media gave this matter extensive coverage, capturing the attention of people across the country to it.
On November 16, she wrote to President Moi, urging him to take the last resort to stop the construct the complex of the Times in the park. The day before, the ground-breaking ceremony of the building kicked off in Uhuru Park. In the National Day Assembly on December 12, Mobi even directly mentioned Wangari’s opposition in his speech.
Soon, the Moi government expelled the Green Belt Movement from the government office for National Council of Women in Kenya. The government went to any lengths to eradicate the Green Belt Movement, but Wangari also determined not to defeat the government. She converted a small bungalow and a garden into an office for 80 staff, and worked in difficulties for seven years.
Wangari won the first battle. On January 29, 1990, the government announced the plan of the complex changed and that the complex was downsized. By the end of February, the fences around the construction site was removed, suggesting that the Times building would not be built. Wangari bought a wreath and hung it on the former construction site, announcing the plan was dropped.
To kill this “park monster”, for Wangari, was the beginning of ending Kenya’s one-party dictatorship Kenya.
Accusation of Treason in Fighting for Democracy
After the complex plan was canceled, the government’s hostility against the Green Belt Movement, Wangari and opponents was greater, resulting in increasingly pressing political climate.
In May 1990, Madiba, former minister of Moi government, Rubia former mayor of Nairobi and the son of veteran politician Odinga stepped forward and appealed to restore multi-party system. On July 7, a democratic assembly was organized in Kamukunji Grounds, and hundreds of thousands of people staged demonstrations in the streets. The mass rally became a riot. The security forces opened fire on people, and killed dozens of people. The July 7 Event was the turning point of the fight for truly representative politics in Kenya.
In August 1991, Odinga united others to establish the “Democracy Restoration Forum”, and invited Wangari and many other Democrats to join it. Moi accepted a multiparty system in December and decided to hold a general election by the end of 1992.
In January 1992, Wangari and other democrats issued a statement opposing Moi to relinquish power to the military. They were arrested separately. The police accused Wangari of spreading malicious rumors and advocating sedition and treason, so she was arrested again. After a court hearing, the judge granted bail.
Many overseas friends made every endeavor to rescue her, including eight United States senators such as Gore and Kennedy Jr. In November, the government withdrew the charges against Wangari and other people.
Brutally Beaten because of Support for Political Prisoners
A political prisoner’s mother Monica set up a joint group to release political prisoners with a few relatives and friends, and Wangari was invited to join it. On February 28, she and these mothers and supporters rallied in Uhuru Park, walked into the Attorney General’s Office to demand the release of their son, and set up a camp in a crossroad on their way.
They camped in the crossroad of camping as the “Corner of Freedom”. Many people who had been tortured came here to disclose their horrible experience for the first time. After having waited for five days, more people gathered. On the afternoon of March 3, the police equipped with batons and guns fired tear gas to the tents and beat them with batons. Wangari was struck senseless and taken to hospital, and almost died.
The “Democracy Restoration Forum” was dissolved only after one year of establishment, since Madiba and Odinga were at odds and formed their own party. Former Vice President Kibaki formed a Democratic Party.
Owing to the division of the opposition party, even though the ruling party received only thirty percent of the votes, it remained the largest party in congress and Moi was re-elected President.
Concern about Ethnic Groups Provoked Crisis
Ethnic groups were a political tool manipulated by politicians. The government appointed the township chiefs and other tribal leaders and through them, controlled places and attacked the tribes which the government wanted to “clear”. As many as two thousand people died in the tribal clashes provoked by the government in early 1992.
Wangari decided to help resolve the tribal conflicts. She and several figures of the opposition party personally visited Rift Valley Province where tribal conflicts were severe. They saw burned houses and schools, widows and widowers, and orphaned children. People were homeless, and slept in church. The province was abandoned everywhere.
She believed that she must stop the politicians from creating racial antagonism and destruction. She began to unite the victims of racial violence and called on them not to take revenge and attacks. She also set up a service center of tribal conflict volunteers to help them out of the shadows.
However, the government charged Wangari and other people with inciting violence. She started taking precautions, concealed her identity, went out at night, often changed cars, dressed as a nun and used an assumed name.
In the end of February, Moi claimed that Wangari “plotted” to distribute leaflets, instigate the Kikuyu tribe to attack the Kalenjin tribe, and even provoked more conflicts by “burning forests”.
Living under a repressive regime, seeking self-protection by developing her information network was a major feature. Wangari’s network was exceedingly extensive, including friends, clergies, supporters of democracy movement as well as foreign diplomats. In the first half of 1993, she often crouched at her friends’ car, which carried her to attend activities around Nairobi. One of her friends was the Ambassador of Norway Adar.
Bloodstained Karura Forest
Wangari counted herself lucky to receive the encouragement and assistance of many domestic and foreign individuals and institutions in a wide range of fights and struggles. “It is no exaggeration” to say that these friends, the awards she received and the conferences she attended saved her life, she said.
In the summer of 1998, she learned that the government decided to allocate the state-owned land in Karura Forest to its political allies to build administrative buildings and a private residence. The natural forest covering two thousand five hundred acres in Karura Forest is the catchment area of four rivers, and the lush jungles are the places where tons of rare flora and fauna gather. In September, she found that some workers were laying the drainage system with built shelters for workers.
The government ignored her petition, but the National Daily took aerial photos of Karura Forest, which showed that Karura Forest was being cleared for farming and badly damaged. The Green Belt began launched a campaign, requesting the government to recover the damaged forest and to prevent reclamation. On October 27, Toepfe, executive chief of UNEP issued a statement and pointed out that Karura Forest was a valuable natural resource that Nairobi could not afford to lose. With the support from this important environmental agency, Wangari no longer felt helpless.
Soon, the government permitted to the forest “landlords” to hire bodyguards to protect the land. On January 8, 1999, Wangari and other congressmen, reporters, and other international observers visited the forest again. More than two hundred guards armed with machetes and sticks attacked them. Wangari’s head bled, and other congressmen reporters were also injured. US Ambassador and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the violence.
Disarm by Singing and Dancing
Wangari won another battle. On August 16, President Moi announced a ban on distribution of all state-owned land with immediate effect.
For Wangari, the destruction of Karura Forest, construction of a complex in Uhuru Park and custody of political prisoners without trial were the problems that must be talcked. She committed herself to finding a solution, so she did not realize she was in danger. “You will revolt against anyone and hence become tough and fearless if devoting yourself to find solutions”, she said. Many people think that she must be very brave in order to contend with the police and villains. But in fact, she relied on concepts and perseverance.
She had the “tricks” to protect herself. In case of tense situations, they would sing for forest protection and dance. This rick worked. The armed men voluntarily disarmed before them, since after all, they were only the singing and dancing women and singing and dancing would not pose a threat. They knew they were right, stuck to their ideas and were fearless in spite of intimidation.
On March 8, 2000, International Women’s Day, her mother died at the age of 94 and was buried in her hometown Ihithe. Wangari prayed that “May she rest in peace in good weather.”
Peace, Democracy and Good Governance
Wangari ardently advocated full development would result in poverty in Kenya. From her perspective, poverty not only resulted from poor governance and poor environmental management, but from the global economic system as well. Enormous debts crippled the development of developing countries. The countries were in debt, but the money was transferred to the foreign accounts of senior officials, but was not used for medical care, education environment and to benefit people.
Wangari and Jubilee Movement Internationa launched a signature of one million people, demanding the rich countries to write off the debts of the Third World countries. Between 1970 and 2002, the debts of African countries totaled 54 billion USD with 55 billion USD repaid. After the deduction of interest, a total of 30 billion USD was to be repaid.
Wangari believed that good governance and democratic space were the basic elements of the development of Africa.
Wangari hoped to peacefully resume democracy. The Kenyan authority was aware of its short forthcoming overturn, so it declared that 170,000 acres of ancient woodlands were allocated to government officials and political supporters. The woodland of Kenya suddenly decreased to less than 2% of the national land, far below the10% limit recommended by the United Nations. Wangari and the Green Belt Movement launched a signature campaign, requesting the government to abolish the subdivision plan. She explained the contents to the public via an electronic loudspeaker installed in the back seat of a car. The police pushed the driver out of the car and drove her to the police station for detention. The Kenyan government acquitted her due to pressure.
In January 2002, at the invitation of Speth, the former administrator of the UN Development Programme, she acted as a visiting professor of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies for six months. Two years later, she was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Yale University.
Join the Cabinet of New Government
In 2002 election, the opposition party, which suffered successive failures, united and formed a National Rainbow Coalition, and Wangari was a candidate congresswoman for this Coalition. She was elected with an overwhelming vote of 98%.
This was a wonderful moment for Kenya. After 24 years of struggle, frustration, imprisonment and humiliation, the opposition party finally brought democracy back to the people of Kenya. Moi handed over power to the newly elected president Kibaki. In 2007, Kibaki successfully served a second term. But after the election, the opposition party accused him of election fraud, giving rise to nationwide riots and the death of hundreds of people. Till now, the political chaos has not been quelled.
Wangari acted as the Deputy Minister of the Department of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife under the new cabinet. She believed that democracy did not automatically combat poverty or prevent deforestation. But without democracy, it was impossible for people to resolve problems, improve poverty or respect the environment.
She said what she had learned over the years was that you must tolerate, persist and dedicate. When they planted trees, someone said to her that, “I don’t want to plant this kind of tree, since it does not grow fast enough.” She told them that the trees which they were now cutting and under which they were enjoying the cool were not planted by themselves, but by their ancestors. She reminded them that a sapling would take root in the soil, and one day would reach for the sky as long as they were nourished by sun, fertile soil and abundant rainfall. From her point of view, the development of people and a country was the same as the growth of a sapling.
God’s Reward ˙Nobel Peace Prize
On the morning of October 8, 2004, Wangari drove to the constituency to attend a meeting. On the way, she received the call from Mjos, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who informed her that she had won the Nobel Peace Prize. The news was like a bolt from the blue. Suddenly, she did not know what to say and could hardly believe the news was true. She parked her car and took a rest in a hotel. Then she planted a tree in the Mount Kenya, celebrating this great news with the best way she knew.
Tree is a symbol of peace and hope in her life. It tells us that great oaks from little acorns grow, so we should lay a solid groundwork in order to aim high. It reminds us that we cannot forget our roots once we succeed.
She advocated the establishment of a fair and stable society. Such a society required three pillars. The first pillar was democratic space, where all human rights and interests were respected; the second was the sustainable and equitable management of resources, the third was peaceful culture. The three pillars were indispensable.
On December 10, WangarI accepted the award in the City Hall in Oslo, capital of Norway. She was the first African woman as well as the first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Winning the award came with more opportunities, and with more challenges and businesses. She was tired of coping with too many invitations. Although she remained active in the international environmental community and women’s circle, the activities she attended in the past few years were those exerting the greatest impact on the largest number of people.
Long Way to Go ˙ Continue even after Death
Although she no longer served as a congresswoman and in the cabinet, she remained the founder and president of the Green Belt Movement, and led the Green Belt to constantly bring forth the new through the old. Besides, she set up the Green Belt Movement International, promoted with UNEP the ambitious project of growing one billion trees by the end of 2007, and educated and served AIDS patients. Furthermore, she established the “Nobel Women’s Initiative” with other female winners of the Nobel Peace Prize which was dedicated to identifying the underlying causes of violence and to preventing it. Billion Tree Campaign was an unprecedented success. As of September 21, 2009, more than 7.3 billion trees had been planted, exceeding the original target of planting 7 billion trees by the end of the year. The slogan of “Billion Tree Campaign” has been translated into actions in the world, motivating the governments, civil societies and individuals to throw themselves into protecting trees in the globe.
She acted as the chairman of the Economic, Social and Cultural Commission of the African Union (the former Organization of African Unity), and promoted the establishment of more powerful civil societies across the Africa. She maintained that this was the best approach to ending the inhumane poverty, ensuring human rights and good governance and avoiding conflicts.
Besides, she once served as the Goodwill Ambassador of the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystems and co-chair of the Foundation. She had always spared no efforts to the second largest “Lung” only second to the Amazon Forest on Earth, which was well received.
“Think about what we can do, and do not worry what we can’t”, a sentence which was her catch phrase and made her aware that there was a long way to go and that she could never stop.
Despite the fact that Wangari died of cancer in 2011, the Green Belt Movement founded by her has planted the seeds of trees to save t
[Found the Green Belt · Guard the Earth]
Think about what we can do, and do not worry what we can't.
—Wangari Muta Maathai
● Not only did Wangari Muta Maathai protect the existing environment, but developed the strategy of protecting and reinforcing ecologically sustainable development – the real basis. In 1977, she initiated the Green Belt Movement. Over the past 30 years, she kept mobilizing poor African women to plant 45 million trees, so thousands of people could land a job while protecting the ecological environment.
● Wangari Muta Maathai’s great ambition of afforestation was derived from her childhood experiences. At that time, she lived in the rural areas of Kenya, and saw people cut down forests, replant industrial crops and destroy biodiversity and the water storage capacity of forests.
Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate - Wangari Muta Maathai established the Green Belt Movement. For more than 30 years, she planted 45 million trees in Kenya to protect soil and water and beautify the earth. Besides, she mobilized over 500,000 women to participate in the Movement and improved their lives, and hence became a force for social stability.
In 1970, biologist Wangari Muta Maathai stepped forward bravely out of her profound concern over the indiscriminate felling of forests in her hometown Kenya.
Similar to other developing countries, poverty and population explosion has become a heavy load of Kenya’s natural environment. In order to obtain fuel and reclaim farmland, the impoverished people indiscriminately fell trees. Other animals and plants begin to disappear along with the disappearance of trees. Moreover, due to the lack of tree protection, the topsoil is eroded by rainwater with all nutrients in soil washed away.
Degradation of the natural environment deteriorates the vicious cycle of poverty, and leads to malnutrition, food and water shortages, spread of infectious diseases and other issues. In 1977, she started encouraging countrywomen to grow trees through National Council of Woman of Kenya founded by her in Kenya. This public service activity elicited enthusiastic response from all walks of life in Africa, and eventually is developed into a grassroots sustainable socially useful activity – the Green Belt Movement.
This movement instructs women how to cultivate saplings and how to allocate saplings to the areas in most desperate need of planting trees. Women earn money from such tasks to satisfy the current urgent needs and to fund the schooling of their children. Thus, this is a multi-investment benefiting the public. Additionally, this movement teaches people the sound natural environment and sound social relations. Farmers and villagers have mastered proper land management skills, such as composting, ensuring soil fertility and making appropriate use of local native plant varieties.
The Green Belt Movement in Africa brings fresh hope to Africa. Not only does it eases the problem of deforestation, but brings income and dignity to African women.
This environmental protection initiative, which was originally undertaken in seedbed of Wangari, has grown into a mainstream global environmental protection movement.
As she told everyone she met, “Each of us can make our due contributions. We tend to aim high but accomplish little – we concentrate on ambitious aims, but forget we can make contribution wherever we are. Sometimes I tell myself I might just plant a tree here, but imagine what amazing results will be produced if billions of people start to take actions?”
What is most commendable is that she fought with repressive regime, and was arrested and put in prison for a couple of times in order to protect forests and parks, defend democracy and safeguard the vulnerable. Furthermore, she had to battle against cancer, and in her last few years, she almost regarded hospitals as home, where she constantly promoted and spared no efforts to the Greenbelt Movement even after her death.
The Green Belt Movement founded by her is precisely her continuity of living out love. 5 years after she died of cancer in 2011, Chou Ta-Kuan Foundation and the other winner of Global Fervent Love of Lives Medal, 12-year-old Felix Finkbeiner, known as the German Earth Angel, passed on the love of Wangari Muta Maathai and established Plant-for-the-Planet. They aim to unite the world’s schoolchildren, and grow one million trees in each country. Also, they have attained the goal of growing one million trees in Germany in 2010.
Thus, the Green Belt Movement called for by Wangari Muta Maathai has found its way into people around the world. People naturally and continuously grow health, hope and love. Therefore, Wangari Muta Maathai was worthy of the “Mother of Planting Trees”. Among the 2459 nominees for the medal, Wangari Muta Maathai has been award the 19th Global Fervent Love of Lives Medal by the Chou Ta-kuan Foundation。
Worship Mount Kenya since Childhood
On April 1, 1940, Maathai was born in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central highlands of the colony of Kenya. She was the eldest daughter and had two elder brothers, two younger sisters and one younger brother. Her parents and grandparents were born in Nyeri. Mount Kenya stands on the north of Kenya and is the second highest peak in Africa, and is regarded by the Kikuyu tribe as the land of wisdom, the Holy Land as well as the source of everything.
Her parents were farmers and were from Kikuyu tribe, the tribe with the largest population among the 42 tribes in Kenya. In the era when she was born, Ihithe was still lush and had fertile soil, normal seasonal variation and abundant rainfall. Corn, peas, wheat and vegetables grew in the farmlands. Due to a good harvest, the family needed not to worry about food and clothing.
In the end of Nineteenth century, Kenya became a British protectorate and a British colony in 1920. In 1910, the British embarked on a massive migration to Kenya, and the locals were forced to give up land to newly arrived immigrants. Wangari Muta’s father moved to the reserve of Ihithe. Almost all Kenyan contemporaries of Muta converted to Christianity, so Wangari naturally became a Christian like her parents.
Muta was heavyset and able-bodied. Wangari learned from the older generation that her father did not need a jack to change wheel. Her mother Wanjiru was tall and thin, kind and amiable, persevering and calm and diligent. She married Muta at the age of 25 (about 1930).
Wangari, as the eldest daughter, did housework and farming with her mother since she was little, so they were particularly close. Her mother improved her knowledge and encouraged her to make progress. She said in her memoirs that “Mother is the force that reassures me.”
British levied tax on Kenyan men. Her father was forced to work at the immigrants’ farm to earn money to pay taxes. He worked as a mechanic and driver at the farm and was the right-hand man of the owner Neelum. Muta built a house to shelter the whole family and grew crops. After arriving at the farm, her mother gave birth to two girls.
Father had four wives, and Wangari’s mother was the second wife. But the four wives never felt jealous or bitter towards each other.
Yearn to Attend School
At the age of 7, Wangari went to Nyeri with her mother to take care of her two elder brothers who studied there. Mother allocated a small piece of land of 15 feet in the center of the field to Wangari in order to teach her to grow and reap crops. She observed seed germination, and sometimes even naively pulled the seeds out to see how fast they grew. She was particularly amazed to see corns bore fruits.
One day, her eldest brother Nderitu asked his mother, “Why Wangari could not go to school with us?” Mother thought for a moment, and replied, “She could!” The decision changed the life of Wangari.
On the first day of primary school, Wangari was extremely excited. Her cousin wrote with a pencil and then wiped the words. She felt it very miraculous, like playing magic. She desired that she could write and wipe the words. In the fourth grade, she passed the national examination and went up to fifth grade. Then, she was 11 years old.
Wangari was particularly fond of working in the fields late in the afternoon, since she believed nothing was more beautiful than farming at dusk. Sunset shone the ridges and trees, with fresh air and pleasant scenery.
These experiences caused her to cherish the beauty of the environment. She was grieved that the land was destroyed every time she saw the river was silted up.
After graduating from primary school, Wangari attended a Catholic boarding school named St. Cecilia’s Intermediate Primary School in Nyeri. She carried bags and bid farewell to her families, and embarked on a new campus life away from home for the first time. After attending courses on Christianity, especially on the Reformation, she decided to become a Catholic.
Mau Mau Freedom Fighters
In 1952, Mau Mau Uprising which fought against colonial rules broke out in Kenya. Kenyan soldiers in World War II felt betrayed after returning to Kenya and started to unite other soldiers to fight for the independence of Kenya. Their primary demands included: land, freedom and autonomy.
In October, the British Governor-General arrested Kenyatta, the leader of Mau Mau and the president of African Union, and declared a state of emergency. Kenyatta was thrown into prison for 7 years and exiled for 2 years. Finally, Britain locked approximately one million of Africans in the detention camps, concentration camps and “emergency villages”. When Wangari was a junior high school student, she was also arrested by soldiers on the road and was released after two days. She first witnessed the inhuman treatment in detention camps. She slept on the floor crying, looking at people being tortured and abused. She thought such harsh environment was designed to destroy people’s will and self-confidence and fueled fear to force them to give up resistance.
It is estimated that more than eleven thousand Kikuyu clansmen died due to the Mau Mau Uprising. Besides, it was only in recent years that Kenya’s laws renamed Mau Mau rebels as the “Freedom Fighters.”
After graduating from junior high school in early 1956, Wangari attended Loreto High School in the outskirts of Nirobi. She met a good teacher there who aroused and encouraged her lifelong interest in science, especially in chemistry and later biology.
As graduation was drawing closer, many classmates of Wangari were ready to be a teacher or a nurse. However, Wangari wanted to pursue further study and said “I don’t want to be a teacher or a nurse. I want to attend Makerere University.” Makerere University is situated in Kampala, capital of Uganda, and is only university in East Africa, renown as the “University of Oxford in East Africa”. Unexpectedly, she went to the United States, farther than Makerere University, for further study.
Pursue Dreams in the New World
In 1959, Wangari graduated from high school. In September 1960, six hundred Kenyan students were sent to American universities to receive higher education by the “Kennedy Airlift” funded by the U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy, aiming to foster national talents for the country which was to be independent. Wangari and father of the incumbent U.S. President Obama were included.
A new world unfolded before her. She and her junior high school and high school classmate Agatha were assigned to Benedictine College in the Kansas State. The school nuns were very loving with a number of them becoming Wangari’s mentors. Wangari majored in biology and minored in chemistry and German.
This Catholic school was open and free. Boys and girls kissed publicly. Parties were thrown at weekends, where boys and girls embraced and danced. These made Wangari feel surprised and fresh.
She applied herself to study, but also wanted to grasp the civil rights movement and the complex United States. She found that there was an institutionalized discrimination based on skin color in the United States. School tutors led her and Agatha to visit the adjacent places where the black and the rich lived, from which she saw the inequality and inequality in American society. In an interview with the British media in September 2009, she stated that “the civil rights movement changed me, and made me aware of how to live as a citizen and as a woman.” She knew that it was time that she returned to Kenya, since her forests were calling her.
In the junior year in college, Wangari and Agatha began to follow the fashion, dance, and listen to rock music and other popular music. Upon graduation, they were fully Americanized.
Return Home with Academic Achievement
They interned in Missouri in summer vocations in order to gain enough experience and skills to complete their studies. Wangari worked in the San Jose Hospital and helped the lab technicians to process human tissues so that the tissues could be observed via a microscope.
4-year studies at Benedictine College and experiences inside and outside the campus helped Wangari to develop her willingness to listen to others, learn and carefully analyze and contemplate. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science in 1964, Wangari pursued a Master’s Degree in Biology at the University of Pittsburgh.
Wangari studied pineal gland and chose to observe the pineal gland of Japanese quail. She used artificially hatched quail eggs to track the development of the quails’ brain pineal gland from eggs to adult birds. By virtue of this study, she was granted the Master’s Degree in Science.
In 1965, she was about to complete her studies. The Kenyan government dispatched people to the United States to recruit the overseas students which would soon graduate. Wangari was recruited as a research assistant in the Department of Zoology at the University College of Nairobi. The school informed her of reporting for duty on January 10, 1966.
The United States changed her, and taught her not to miss any opportunity and to do what she could. She wanted to nurture this spirit in Kenya, so she returned to Kenya.
Mutual Development of Study and Teaching
Wangari excitedly headed for the Department of Zoology to report her duty, but the professor told her that her work had been assigned to others (his clansman). When she soon applied for this university again, she was subject to gender discrimination from this professor.
Therefore, Wangari had to find another job. One day, she met Prof. Hoffmann, who was sent to Kenya and helped the German University of Giessen to set up the School of Veterinary Anatomy at the University College of Nairobi. After the interview, she served as a research assistant to the Department of Micro-anatomy. The tissue processing and microscopy techniques acquired in the United States enabled her to land this job. In the Guillaume campus, she was obsessed with books, microscopes and slides. She honed her skills and eventually became a member of the research and teaching team of the department.
She applied for PhD, and the school assigned her a bungalow.
In 1966, Wangari met her future husband Mwangi Mathai. Mwangi was kind-hearted, handsome and very devout, so he was admired by Wangari.
In early 1967, Prof. Hoffmann sent her to Germany to sharpen the electron microscopy techniques, and conducted some of her doctoral studies. In 1969, she returned to school as an assistant lecturer. In May, she married Mwangi when she was 29 years old and he was 34 years old.
First Female Doctor in East and Central Africa
In 1969, Tom Mboya, who facilitated the “Kennedy Airlift”, was assassinated. He was seen as Kenyatta’s successor. His death caused Kenyatta to ban the people’s alliance activities of the opposition party after the congressional election, thereby ending Kenya’s multiparty system.
A few months later, Wangari gave birth to a son named Waweru. A couple of years later, another two children were born. The second child was the daughter Wanjira and the youngest one was the son Muta.
Wangari doctoral thesis was concerned with the development and differentiation of gonads cattle, a study equipping her with more profound understanding of how reproductive organs developed into females or males. In 1971, she completed her papers and became the first female doctor in East and Central Africa. Wangari was promoted to senior lecturer after obtaining the Doctor’s Degree.
The discrimination she faced when reporting for duty led her to believe that the female teachers should enjoy the same benefits as their male colleagues. She and Professor Mbaya, an American marrying to a Kenyan, jointly launched the first battle for equal treatment for men and women. Although the protest did not succeed, they became the first female teachers in the school of veterinary to enjoy the equal treatment as male faculty.
The struggle for equal treatment rendered her convinced that sometimes she must adhere to her unwavering faith.
Wangari was promoted to senior lecturer in anatomy in 1974, to a chair professor of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and to an associate professor in 1977. She was the first female teacher in this university to assume these teaching posts.
Love the Land and Protect the Environment
In the early 1970s, aside from teaching, Wangari also got involved in some a number of non-governmental organizations and was invited to join the local committee of the Environmental Liaison Centre International (ELCI). She was elected branch president and performed her duties for 19 years.
She saw the fig trees, the “sacred tree” in her childhood, were cut, resulting in landslides that had never happened before. Nothing could grow in this land, as if it told people that it refused other trees but the fig trees. Besides, the brook where she caught frogs and played with tadpoles when she was young also ran dry without trace of frogs and tadpoles. Therefore, she vowed to let them return to their “home.”
Also, women’s precarious situation awakened her. She served as a member of the National Council of Women in Kenya. In the seminars, a female researcher found that children in the central Kenya regions were suffering from malnutrition-related diseases, and the conclusion pointed out that the firewood shortage was responsible for child malnutrition. Large numbers of farmers grew coffee and tea for export in most of the land, reducing the land to grow food. Women had to make processed foods as staples, but the vitamins, proteins and minerals contained by these foods were relatively low. Furthermore, deforestation reduced firewood, and women used less firewood to make processed foods.
Wangari knew that this was caused by environmental degradation, while deforestation, reclamation, unsustainable agriculture and soil erosion were some of the causes.
Why not Plant Trees
Wangari’s outlook on life was that: Think about what we can do, and do not worry what we can’t. She expressed in an interview that “Many of my female classmates farmed in their hometown after graduation and lived in thatched cottages. I want to help them.” When she saw the forest was cut and children suffered malnutrition during her visits across the country, it struck on her, “Why not plant trees?” Trees could provide firewood, allow women to cook nutritious food, provide fodder for cattle and sheep and wood to make fences to protected fields and as building materials. Additionally, trees can shelter people and animals, protect water sources and consolidate soil, and even can bring back birds and small animals to revitalize the land.
That is how the Green Belt Movement started.
Mwangi lost an election 5 years ago, and in 1974 was elected as a congressman. At that time, unemployment was so serious that he strongly advocated solutions to “unemployment”. He regarded political views as “election tricks”, to which Wangari did not agree. To fulfill his political views, she ran the Envirocare Ltd., hoping to provide tons of work to people and help others plant trees and garden. She established the first nursery.
Envirocare hired impoverished people in the poor areas of Mwangi constituency to serve the rich in the wealthy areas. However, the rich still preferred to hire gardeners by themselves.
A turning point came when she was in despair.
Wangari was invited to attend the 1976 first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements. One of the solutions proposed by the participants was a “greener city, where trees and wood, and flowers and grass grew.
The Green Belt Movement Started
Wangari decided to promote her ideas after returning home. She held that planting trees was the activity that the National Council of Women could assist other rural members and meet the needs of women. She named this action “Save the Land Harambee”.
On June 5, 1977, Kenya celebrated the World Environment Day, and the “Save the Land Harambee” held a planting ceremony. Seven trees were planted on that day in memory of 7 environmental protection leaders from different races. The seven trees constituted the first “Green Belt”.
In August 1977, the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) was convened in Nairobi, and the delegation of the National Council of Women in Kenya planted the second “Green Belt” in the Naivasha farm in the northwest of Kenya.
By the end of this year, the information about planting activities were spread via networks, encouraging farmers, churches and schools to set up their own plans to plant trees. This was the beginning of the communities’ takeover of the Green Belt Movement. Despite a myriad of setbacks, she started to fulfill her dream.
In order to meet the requirements that the public asked for saplings, Wangari decided to build her own nursery. She and the women held meetings. The professional growers explained to them how to manage their own nurseries and lots of expertise in soil and tree cultivation. Besides, the growers told Wangari that “professionally certified persons” were needed. Yet, she thought what women needed to know was just how to plant saplings in the soil and help them grow.
Little Rabbit in Political Jungle
The colleagues of National Council of Women in Kenya encouraged her to compete for the president, but she was elected the vice-president due to 3 votes. In 1980, she again ran for the president. But Kenyan authorities did not want her to lead women. Various means were used to force her withdrawal, and the bank account of the National Council of Women in Kenya was checked.
Fortunately, thanks to her friends’ great support, shew was surprisingly elected by a unanimous vote. The National Council of Women in Kenya gave top priority to the environment and water resources through the Green Belt Movement. In the 1980s, Moi authorities labeled these two organizations as “disobedience” and made every attempt to restrict Wangari’s activities and sound. She acted as the president until 1987.
In early 1982, Wangari quited teaching and ran for member of congress. The Election Commission thought she was unqualified, so she brought a charge with the court against the Election Commission, but the court sentenced her to lose the candidacy.
Blow fell one after another. She made a request to the school of re-serving as the chair professor of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, but was declined. She walked out of school in immense disappointment, ending up with nothing, no pension and health insurance. The next day, the school staff asked her to move out of the school premises. In just 3 days, everything was gone.
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining
Wangari often said that “We cannot control the occurrence of every situation, but we can do is how to handle it when it comes to a head”. She always considered failure as a challenge to motivate her to stand up and forge ahead, and falls were just a small step in her long journey.
Without marriage and teaching post, she remained the president of the National Council of Women in Kenya. She seriously contemplated the direction and future of the Green Belt Movement. A few months later, she got a job, which changed her life path and the future of Green Belt.
One afternoon in 1982, Wilhelm Elsrud, the Executive Director of Norwegian Forestry Society paid a visit to Wangari in the National Council of Women in Kenya, hoping she could team up with the Norwegian Forestry Society. A few months later, Elsrud sent her a sum of money and an idea and recommended that she act as the coordinator of cooperation programs, and offered her a small allowance equivalent to full-time salary. Soon, UN Decade for Women also decided to fund the “Seed Money” of the Green Belt Movement. The first grant was up to 122,700 USD. Additionally, she received an annual remuneration of 600 USD.
Then, Wangari was the only staff of the Green Belt Movement, and she finally had the funds to employ a few young women, who had just graduated from high school, as supervisors. Her ideas in the early 1970s developed from empty talks and several nurseries into a farm where millions of trees were planted, improving the lives of thousands of women.
The cooperation program between the Green Belt Movement and the Norwegian Forestry Society started from the Murang'a Primary School. Wangari seized the opportunity to motivate the whole community. Murang'a became one of the typical green belt areas, where trees on both sides of the road were thick, stretching from the valley to the hill. How lush the area was.
Affirmation for Tree Planting for the Women’s Movement
Wangari also learned at work. She encouraged women living far from the nurseries to set up nurseries in their villages to facilitate tendering and watering. In this way, the nurseries not only increased, but were closer to home and thus beautified the living environment.
The Green Belt Movement gradually thrived, and also passed on ideas apart from growing trees. In the forums across the communities, Wangari told people that they were also responsible for environmental destruction and not protecting their land, and should not only blame the government. Instead, they should try their best to cope with their situation.
In the Green Belt Movement, now two thousand women groups manage nurseries and plant and tender trees. Also, over one thousand green belts are managed by schools and students. Later, it helped to establish more than 6,000 nurseries and network management based on 600 communities, including hundreds of thousands of women and men. In the 21st century, the Green Belt has planted more than forty-five million trees in Kenya alone, and delivers its experience in Africa and around the world.
Wangari and the Green Belt Movement began to receive some awards. In 1983, she was named the Women of the Year in Kenya by a civil society in the entertainment industry. The following year, she was awarded the Swedish “Right Livelihood Award”. In 1987, she was listed in the Global 500 Roll of Honour by the UN Environment Programme.
In 1989, she won the UK Women Awards of the UK Women’s Rescue Foundation, and felt it was a great honor to accept the award presented by Princess Diana with Mother Teresa.
Ironically, the government made use of the draconian law in the colonial era and provided that the gathering of more than 9 people was deemed illegal without authorization. Each group of the Green Belt Movement consisted of 15 to 30, so this provision was clearly aimed at the Green Belt.
Defend Uhuru Park
In 1989, Wangari learned that the government intended to build a 60-storey skyscraper in Uhuru Park. The park was situated in downtown Nairobi, like London’s Hyde Park and New York’s Central Park. It was a great stretch of green space amid the noisy and concrete-ridden city, and a place where the citizens relaxed and entertained and where national celebrations were held.
In March, Wangari wrote to the Kenya Times, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and other authorities, but received no response. She continued to write to more institutions. Eventually, the media gave this matter extensive coverage, capturing the attention of people across the country to it.
On November 16, she wrote to President Moi, urging him to take the last resort to stop the construct the complex of the Times in the park. The day before, the ground-breaking ceremony of the building kicked off in Uhuru Park. In the National Day Assembly on December 12, Mobi even directly mentioned Wangari’s opposition in his speech.
Soon, the Moi government expelled the Green Belt Movement from the government office for National Council of Women in Kenya. The government went to any lengths to eradicate the Green Belt Movement, but Wangari also determined not to defeat the government. She converted a small bungalow and a garden into an office for 80 staff, and worked in difficulties for seven years.
Wangari won the first battle. On January 29, 1990, the government announced the plan of the complex changed and that the complex was downsized. By the end of February, the fences around the construction site was removed, suggesting that the Times building would not be built. Wangari bought a wreath and hung it on the former construction site, announcing the plan was dropped.
To kill this “park monster”, for Wangari, was the beginning of ending Kenya’s one-party dictatorship Kenya.
Accusation of Treason in Fighting for Democracy
After the complex plan was canceled, the government’s hostility against the Green Belt Movement, Wangari and opponents was greater, resulting in increasingly pressing political climate.
In May 1990, Madiba, former minister of Moi government, Rubia former mayor of Nairobi and the son of veteran politician Odinga stepped forward and appealed to restore multi-party system. On July 7, a democratic assembly was organized in Kamukunji Grounds, and hundreds of thousands of people staged demonstrations in the streets. The mass rally became a riot. The security forces opened fire on people, and killed dozens of people. The July 7 Event was the turning point of the fight for truly representative politics in Kenya.
In August 1991, Odinga united others to establish the “Democracy Restoration Forum”, and invited Wangari and many other Democrats to join it. Moi accepted a multiparty system in December and decided to hold a general election by the end of 1992.
In January 1992, Wangari and other democrats issued a statement opposing Moi to relinquish power to the military. They were arrested separately. The police accused Wangari of spreading malicious rumors and advocating sedition and treason, so she was arrested again. After a court hearing, the judge granted bail.
Many overseas friends made every endeavor to rescue her, including eight United States senators such as Gore and Kennedy Jr. In November, the government withdrew the charges against Wangari and other people.
Brutally Beaten because of Support for Political Prisoners
A political prisoner’s mother Monica set up a joint group to release political prisoners with a few relatives and friends, and Wangari was invited to join it. On February 28, she and these mothers and supporters rallied in Uhuru Park, walked into the Attorney General’s Office to demand the release of their son, and set up a camp in a crossroad on their way.
They camped in the crossroad of camping as the “Corner of Freedom”. Many people who had been tortured came here to disclose their horrible experience for the first time. After having waited for five days, more people gathered. On the afternoon of March 3, the police equipped with batons and guns fired tear gas to the tents and beat them with batons. Wangari was struck senseless and taken to hospital, and almost died.
The “Democracy Restoration Forum” was dissolved only after one year of establishment, since Madiba and Odinga were at odds and formed their own party. Former Vice President Kibaki formed a Democratic Party.
Owing to the division of the opposition party, even though the ruling party received only thirty percent of the votes, it remained the largest party in congress and Moi was re-elected President.
Concern about Ethnic Groups Provoked Crisis
Ethnic groups were a political tool manipulated by politicians. The government appointed the township chiefs and other tribal leaders and through them, controlled places and attacked the tribes which the government wanted to “clear”. As many as two thousand people died in the tribal clashes provoked by the government in early 1992.
Wangari decided to help resolve the tribal conflicts. She and several figures of the opposition party personally visited Rift Valley Province where tribal conflicts were severe. They saw burned houses and schools, widows and widowers, and orphaned children. People were homeless, and slept in church. The province was abandoned everywhere.
She believed that she must stop the politicians from creating racial antagonism and destruction. She began to unite the victims of racial violence and called on them not to take revenge and attacks. She also set up a service center of tribal conflict volunteers to help them out of the shadows.
However, the government charged Wangari and other people with inciting violence. She started taking precautions, concealed her identity, went out at night, often changed cars, dressed as a nun and used an assumed name.
In the end of February, Moi claimed that Wangari “plotted” to distribute leaflets, instigate the Kikuyu tribe to attack the Kalenjin tribe, and even provoked more conflicts by “burning forests”.
Living under a repressive regime, seeking self-protection by developing her information network was a major feature. Wangari’s network was exceedingly extensive, including friends, clergies, supporters of democracy movement as well as foreign diplomats. In the first half of 1993, she often crouched at her friends’ car, which carried her to attend activities around Nairobi. One of her friends was the Ambassador of Norway Adar.
Bloodstained Karura Forest
Wangari counted herself lucky to receive the encouragement and assistance of many domestic and foreign individuals and institutions in a wide range of fights and struggles. “It is no exaggeration” to say that these friends, the awards she received and the conferences she attended saved her life, she said.
In the summer of 1998, she learned that the government decided to allocate the state-owned land in Karura Forest to its political allies to build administrative buildings and a private residence. The natural forest covering two thousand five hundred acres in Karura Forest is the catchment area of four rivers, and the lush jungles are the places where tons of rare flora and fauna gather. In September, she found that some workers were laying the drainage system with built shelters for workers.
The government ignored her petition, but the National Daily took aerial photos of Karura Forest, which showed that Karura Forest was being cleared for farming and badly damaged. The Green Belt began launched a campaign, requesting the government to recover the damaged forest and to prevent reclamation. On October 27, Toepfe, executive chief of UNEP issued a statement and pointed out that Karura Forest was a valuable natural resource that Nairobi could not afford to lose. With the support from this important environmental agency, Wangari no longer felt helpless.
Soon, the government permitted to the forest “landlords” to hire bodyguards to protect the land. On January 8, 1999, Wangari and other congressmen, reporters, and other international observers visited the forest again. More than two hundred guards armed with machetes and sticks attacked them. Wangari’s head bled, and other congressmen reporters were also injured. US Ambassador and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the violence.
Disarm by Singing and Dancing
Wangari won another battle. On August 16, President Moi announced a ban on distribution of all state-owned land with immediate effect.
For Wangari, the destruction of Karura Forest, construction of a complex in Uhuru Park and custody of political prisoners without trial were the problems that must be talcked. She committed herself to finding a solution, so she did not realize she was in danger. “You will revolt against anyone and hence become tough and fearless if devoting yourself to find solutions”, she said. Many people think that she must be very brave in order to contend with the police and villains. But in fact, she relied on concepts and perseverance.
She had the “tricks” to protect herself. In case of tense situations, they would sing for forest protection and dance. This rick worked. The armed men voluntarily disarmed before them, since after all, they were only the singing and dancing women and singing and dancing would not pose a threat. They knew they were right, stuck to their ideas and were fearless in spite of intimidation.
On March 8, 2000, International Women’s Day, her mother died at the age of 94 and was buried in her hometown Ihithe. Wangari prayed that “May she rest in peace in good weather.”
Peace, Democracy and Good Governance
Wangari ardently advocated full development would result in poverty in Kenya. From her perspective, poverty not only resulted from poor governance and poor environmental management, but from the global economic system as well. Enormous debts crippled the development of developing countries. The countries were in debt, but the money was transferred to the foreign accounts of senior officials, but was not used for medical care, education environment and to benefit people.
Wangari and Jubilee Movement Internationa launched a signature of one million people, demanding the rich countries to write off the debts of the Third World countries. Between 1970 and 2002, the debts of African countries totaled 54 billion USD with 55 billion USD repaid. After the deduction of interest, a total of 30 billion USD was to be repaid.
Wangari believed that good governance and democratic space were the basic elements of the development of Africa.
Wangari hoped to peacefully resume democracy. The Kenyan authority was aware of its short forthcoming overturn, so it declared that 170,000 acres of ancient woodlands were allocated to government officials and political supporters. The woodland of Kenya suddenly decreased to less than 2% of the national land, far below the10% limit recommended by the United Nations. Wangari and the Green Belt Movement launched a signature campaign, requesting the government to abolish the subdivision plan. She explained the contents to the public via an electronic loudspeaker installed in the back seat of a car. The police pushed the driver out of the car and drove her to the police station for detention. The Kenyan government acquitted her due to pressure.
In January 2002, at the invitation of Speth, the former administrator of the UN Development Programme, she acted as a visiting professor of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies for six months. Two years later, she was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Yale University.
Join the Cabinet of New Government
In 2002 election, the opposition party, which suffered successive failures, united and formed a National Rainbow Coalition, and Wangari was a candidate congresswoman for this Coalition. She was elected with an overwhelming vote of 98%.
This was a wonderful moment for Kenya. After 24 years of struggle, frustration, imprisonment and humiliation, the opposition party finally brought democracy back to the people of Kenya. Moi handed over power to the newly elected president Kibaki. In 2007, Kibaki successfully served a second term. But after the election, the opposition party accused him of election fraud, giving rise to nationwide riots and the death of hundreds of people. Till now, the political chaos has not been quelled.
Wangari acted as the Deputy Minister of the Department of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife under the new cabinet. She believed that democracy did not automatically combat poverty or prevent deforestation. But without democracy, it was impossible for people to resolve problems, improve poverty or respect the environment.
She said what she had learned over the years was that you must tolerate, persist and dedicate. When they planted trees, someone said to her that, “I don’t want to plant this kind of tree, since it does not grow fast enough.” She told them that the trees which they were now cutting and under which they were enjoying the cool were not planted by themselves, but by their ancestors. She reminded them that a sapling would take root in the soil, and one day would reach for the sky as long as they were nourished by sun, fertile soil and abundant rainfall. From her point of view, the development of people and a country was the same as the growth of a sapling.
God’s Reward ˙Nobel Peace Prize
On the morning of October 8, 2004, Wangari drove to the constituency to attend a meeting. On the way, she received the call from Mjos, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who informed her that she had won the Nobel Peace Prize. The news was like a bolt from the blue. Suddenly, she did not know what to say and could hardly believe the news was true. She parked her car and took a rest in a hotel. Then she planted a tree in the Mount Kenya, celebrating this great news with the best way she knew.
Tree is a symbol of peace and hope in her life. It tells us that great oaks from little acorns grow, so we should lay a solid groundwork in order to aim high. It reminds us that we cannot forget our roots once we succeed.
She advocated the establishment of a fair and stable society. Such a society required three pillars. The first pillar was democratic space, where all human rights and interests were respected; the second was the sustainable and equitable management of resources, the third was peaceful culture. The three pillars were indispensable.
On December 10, WangarI accepted the award in the City Hall in Oslo, capital of Norway. She was the first African woman as well as the first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Winning the award came with more opportunities, and with more challenges and businesses. She was tired of coping with too many invitations. Although she remained active in the international environmental community and women’s circle, the activities she attended in the past few years were those exerting the greatest impact on the largest number of people.
Long Way to Go ˙ Continue even after Death
Although she no longer served as a congresswoman and in the cabinet, she remained the founder and president of the Green Belt Movement, and led the Green Belt to constantly bring forth the new through the old. Besides, she set up the Green Belt Movement International, promoted with UNEP the ambitious project of growing one billion trees by the end of 2007, and educated and served AIDS patients. Furthermore, she established the “Nobel Women’s Initiative” with other female winners of the Nobel Peace Prize which was dedicated to identifying the underlying causes of violence and to preventing it. Billion Tree Campaign was an unprecedented success. As of September 21, 2009, more than 7.3 billion trees had been planted, exceeding the original target of planting 7 billion trees by the end of the year. The slogan of “Billion Tree Campaign” has been translated into actions in the world, motivating the governments, civil societies and individuals to throw themselves into protecting trees in the globe.
She acted as the chairman of the Economic, Social and Cultural Commission of the African Union (the former Organization of African Unity), and promoted the establishment of more powerful civil societies across the Africa. She maintained that this was the best approach to ending the inhumane poverty, ensuring human rights and good governance and avoiding conflicts.
Besides, she once served as the Goodwill Ambassador of the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystems and co-chair of the Foundation. She had always spared no efforts to the second largest “Lung” only second to the Amazon Forest on Earth, which was well received.
“Think about what we can do, and do not worry what we can’t”, a sentence which was her catch phrase and made her aware that there was a long way to go and that she could never stop.
Despite the fact that Wangari died of cancer in 2011, the Green Belt Movement founded by her has planted the seeds of trees to save t
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