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Books by Wangari Maathai
Unbowed: My Autobiography
In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she began a vital poor people’s environmental movement, focused on the empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa. Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personal losses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathai continued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya’s forests and to restore democracy to her beloved country. Infused with her unique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai’s remarkable story of courage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspire generations to come.
Some chapters of this book are available to read online free of charge via GoogleBooks.
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The ISBN of this book is 9780307275202
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Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maathai, founder of the green-belt movement in Kenya, brings a firm grasp of the science of environmental destruction and climate change, and of the dire physical and political consequences for humankind, to this bracing and breathtaking investigation of the spiritual dimension of this growing crisis. Lucid and inspiring, as in Unbowed (2006), Maathai explicates our bred-in-the-bone reliance on the great web of life; the ancient, now largely lost perception of nature as divine, yet not limitless or invulnerable; and the bedrock truth that when the environment is degraded, so, too, are we. Maathai looks to her Kikuyu upbringing as an example of a sustainable way of living, and draws on her Catholic education in fresh and striking readings of the Bible. She also studies the living gospel of the planet, tallying the far-reaching harm done by our “craving for more.” As Maathai presents a clarion set of “core values” based on “gratitude and respect for the Earth’s resources” and a commitment to conservation, she gracefully entwines environmentalism and justice, the practical and the sacred. — Donna Seaman / BOOKLIST
Some chapters of this book are available free of charge via GoogleBooks. Click here to read.
(Use arrow keys and/or page-up, page-down keys to navigate through available text.)
The ISBN of this book is 9780307591142
Click here to find library availability or
to search for new/used copies on WorldCat.org.
Please note: This link is provided as a public service only.
This website is not affiliated with any bookstores.
The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience
Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1940. In 1960, she won a Kennedy scholarship to study in America and earned a master’s degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh and became the first woman in East Africa to earn a Ph.D.
Returning to Kenya in 1966, Wangari Maathai was shocked at the degradation of the forests and the farmland caused by deforestation. Heavy rains had washed away much of the topsoil, silt was clogging the rivers, and fertilizers were depriving the soil of nutrients. Wangari decided to solve the problem by planting trees.
Under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya, of which she was chairwoman from 1981 to 1987, she introduced the idea of planting trees through citizen foresters in 1976, and called this new organization the Green Belt Movement (GBM). She continued to develop GBM into broad-based, grassroots organization whose focus was women’s groups planting of trees in order to conserve the environment and improve their quality of life. Through the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai has assisted women in planting more than 20 million trees on their farms and on schools and church compounds in Kenya and all over East Africa.
In Africa, as in many parts of the world, women are responsible for meals and collecting firewood. Increasing deforestation has not only meant increasing desertification, but it has also meant that women have had to travel further and further afield in order to collect the firewood. This in turn has led to women spending less time around the home, tending to crops, and looking after their children. By staying closer to home, earning income from sustainably harvesting the fruit and timber from trees, women not only can be more productive, they can provide stability in the home. They can also create time for education opportunities—whether for themselves or their children.
This virtuous circle of empowerment through conservation is serving as a model throughout the world, where women both individually and collectively are entrusted with money and material to invest it in ways that make a difference to their daily lives. Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement is a great example of how one person can turn around the lives of thousands, if not millions of others, by empowering others to change their situation.
Wangari’s road to success was by no means easy. During the 1970s and 1980s, she came under increasing scrutiny from the government of Daniel arap Moi. She was frequently the target of vilification from the government, as well as subject to outright attacks and imprisonment. She refused to compromise her belief that the people were best trusted to look after their natural resources, as opposed to the corrupt cronies of the government, who were given whole swathes of public land, which they then despoiled.
In December 2002, Wangari Maathai was elected by an overwhelming margin to Parliament, where she is the Assistant Secretary for Environnment, Wildlife, and Natural Resources in the democratically elected Kibaki government. Even though she is now being protected by the very same soldiers who once arrested her, her voice on behalf of the environment is still strong and determined.
In October 2004, she capped a lifetime of incredible achievements when she was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.
In The Green Belt Movement, founder Wangari Maathai tells its story: why it started, how it operates, and where it is going. She includes the philosophy behind it, its challenges and objectives, and the specific steps involved in starting a similar grassroots environmental and social justice organization. The Green Belt Movement is the inspiring story of people working at the grassroots level to improve their environment and their country. Their story offers ideas about a new and hopeful future for Africa and the rest of the world.
Some chapters of this book are available free of charge via GoogleBooks. Click here to read.
(Use arrow keys and/or page-up, page-down keys to navigate through available text.)
The ISBN of this book is 9781590560402
Click here to find library availability or
to search for new/used copies on WorldCat.org.
Please note: This link is provided as a public service only.
This website is not affiliated with any bookstores.
Used copies available on Amazon.
Videos featuring Wangari Maathai
IN MEMORIAM Professor Wangari Muta Maathai (1940 – 2011) was a woman of many firsts. Her unrivalled determination to fight for what she believed in throughout her life set her apart from the ordinary Kenyan woman. Here’s a summary of the fallen heroine’s battles, controversies and achievements, featuring reflections from her daughter.
Documentary: Wangari Muta Maathai (1940 – 2011)
