Wangari Maathai was a very active person. She was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. She founded the Green Belt Movement - a movement dedicated to plant millions of trees. She also campaigned for women's rights. Wangari Maathai was a great and important personality and her story is a true source of inspiration. She fought for the good at different places, despite all the oppositions she encountered. She continued and continued and continued. Therefore, I am very keen on writing more about the autobiography "Unbowed: A memoir" by Wangari Maathai here on the blog.
Title: Unbowed: A Memoir
Author: Wangari Maathai
Imprint: Anchor Books
Length: 326 pages
Published: 2007
Language: German
Blurb
In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary life. 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.
Thoughts about the book
The autobiography by Wangari Maathai was on my reading list for a very long time. I heard about her, because she was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a woman, who planted trees. I also knew that she was a biologist.
But where did she come from? Which other projects did she follow besides planting trees? And which challenges was she exposed to in an African country like Kenya?
I wanted to know more about her, and thus, read finally her autobiography. Wangari Maathai was not only an important personality in the environmental movement, she also fought for women's rights and for democracy. Wangari Maathai was an impressive woman. She was courageous, intelligent, empathetic and much more. Therefore, it is important for me to write here about my thoughts about the book, as I hope that many more people will read this autobiography and learn more about her.
Wangari did not come from a rich family which would have smoothed the way for her to get into the world of universities. No. She came from a Kikuyu family south of Nairobi. For most girls it was not usual to spend much time in school. However, luckily, Wangari had the chance to visit a monastery school where she encountered missionary sisters who supported her and her education. That education in that monastery school helped her to get a scholarship in the USA to study biology. This scholarship was connected to the end of colonialism in Kenya. Through several scholarships talented students in Kenya got the chance to study abroad in countries like the USA. Wangari Maathai was one of those talents who got a scholarship. She made her first steps in the research and academic world in the USA, but she also stayed for some time in Germany. Later, her academic path led her back home to Kenya. Importantly, she became the first women in Kenya who earned a doctoral degree. After her doctoral thesis she could continue as a professor and dean.
I won't summarize here her whole life, because I don't want to reveal the whole book. However, I found it quite important to tell here a little bit more about her background. It was for me quite impressive from where she came from and which impressive things she achieved during her school and academic career. And all this despite all the opposition she encountered. They could not intimidate her and she continued with the things she found important. The environment was important for her. But also, other political issues like the release of political prisoners. The preservation of the Uhuru park in Nairobi was another issue she tried everything to protect.
One of her main work was the Green Belt Movement which Wangari Maathai founded to move forward the protection of the environment in Kenya, but also to enforce women by planting trees and by simultaneously creating a new source of income. Also because of the foundation of this movement, she got the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Personalities like Wangari Maathai are very important in our more and more hostile, war-like, and intolerant world. In a world where the protection of the environment loses its value more and more. We destroy forests, pollute the oceans and kill species. If we continue like that, will life still be possible on Earth? Maybe yes? Maybe no?
Wangari Maathai told in her autobiography that the absence of the preservation of the environment like deforestation, this could lead to erosions and destroy the livelihood of people. In her autobiography she described how the protection of the environment even can create jobs. Not to forget all the things she did for women! Wangari Maathai wrote a very important book. Therefore, please read the book and spread her messages!
Conclusion
An important book of a courageous, determined, and impressive personality. Wangari Maathai wrote in "Unbowed: A Memoir" about all her challenge she encountered on her way to fight for the good. A fascinating story about an outstanding fighter. Please read the book!
Do you know the book "Unbowed: A Memoir" by Wangari Maathai? What do you know about her and her achievements? Do you know another important personality? Please let me know in the comments.
