Wangari Muta Maathai Research Paper

Ryan Stenzel

Shiela Allard

Written Communication

7 December 2010

Wangari Muta Maathai

                Wangari Muta Maathai has done so many things to preserve Africa’s natural wildlife and women’s rights.  She started the Green Belt Movement and received a Nobel Prize for her work for the environment.  She was born in Nyeri, Kenya on April 1, 1940. 

                Wangari Muta Maathai may have been born in Africa, but she attended college in the United States.  She attended Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas and received her Biological Sciences degree.  She also attended the University of Pittsburgh and received her masters degree in science.  Besides going to college in the United States, she attended the University of Nairobi in Kenya and received a Ph.D.  At this university, she was the chairwoman of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy.  She also held a position as a professor for two years.

                Maathai started the Greenbelt Movement in 1977.  This is considered to be one of the most successful environmental programs in Africa.  She was actually on the National Council of Women at the time and she wanted to intertwine the ideas of saving the environment with her passion for promoting woman’s rights.  She achieved this by gearing the focus of the Greenbelt Movement from everyone to specifically women and women’s rights groups.  The Greenbelt Movement is about women getting together and planting trees and bushes in Africa to help the environment.  It gives women a sense of pride and satisfaction to be doing something together that helps out the environment and society.  Maathai achieved what she set out to do with this movement, and this is to empower women.  She was mentioned in the magazine Earth Times as one of the top one-hundred people in the world to make a difference in the environment.  She was also part of the Global 500 Hall of Fame’s list of the top one-hundred heroines in the world.

                Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in the environment, for women’s rights, and for starting the Greenbelt Movement.  She was actually chosen in 2001 to receive the prize, but was denied.  She argued with the board that her work promoted peace and was worthy of the prize, but she did not receive it until 2004.

                Maathai was married, but her husband got so fed up with people telling him that he could not control his wife and that his wife had more power in society than he did, that he divorced her.  He served as a member of the parliament in Kenya, as did Wangari in 2002.  She has also been ridiculed by the public in Africa for her views on politics and woman’s rights.  The president of Kenya at the time, Daniel Arap Moi, was against Maathai’s political views completely.  He harassed her and sent her to jail many times for her involvement in sit-ins, strikes, and other movements.

                Overall, Wangari Maathai has done so many things for the environment and woman’s rights.  She has had many achievements and has won many awards throughout her life.  She is a remarkable human being and deserves to hold the Nobel Peace Prize.