Sierra's January/February 2007 Let's Talk selection: Unbowed
A book by Wangari Maathai Review by Jennifer Hattam
What it's about
"Anybody can dig a hole, put a tree in it, water it, and nurture it," Wangari Maathai writes in her powerful memoir. But not just anyone could turn a small tree-planting effort in Kenya into an international voice for democracy and women's rights. By maintaining a deep connection to her rural roots while gaining an education and independence, this farmer's daughter became a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Where to get it Unbowed is widely available at libraries and bookstores.
About the author
Wangari Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She taught veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi in the 1970s before embarking the tree-planting work for which she won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1991 and eventually the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2002, she was elected to the Kenyan parliament and subsequently appointed by the president to be assistant minister for environment, natural resources, and wildlife.
Discussion questions
In the village where Maathai grew up, a newborn's first meal was "the juice of green bananas, blue-purple sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and a fattened lamb, all fruits of the local land." How do your community's traditions connect--or distance people from--the surrounding landscape?
Maathai writes that "education, if it means anything, should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it." Do you find that this is generally true? Why or why not?
How did the tree-planting initiative become part of a larger movement? What other small first steps have started (or could start) big changes?
How has the switch to cash crops such as coffee and tea contributed to malnutrition and environmental degradation in Africa? What responsibility, if any, do Americans and other First World consumers of these goods bear?
In honoring Maathai, the Norwegian Nobel Committee made a connection between resource management and peace. What other links can you make between environmental and security issues?
Links
Learn more about Maathai's Green Belt Movement, which has assisted women in planting more than 20 million trees.
Watch or read a transcript of Maathai's Nobel lecture.
Get involved with the Billion Tree Campaign, an international effort to fight global warming that Maathai launched last November at a United Nations conference on climate change.
