Wangari Maathai: Early Life

Katherine Borden & Thomas Fehm & Kathy Gong

Early Years

Wangari Maathai was born in the small, rural village of Nyeri, Kenya (Africa) in 1940 where her father was a tenant farmer ("Biography"). Kenya was a British Colony at the time ("The Green Belt Movement").

Maathai's family enrolled her at a local primary school upon turning 8 years old ("Biography"). This decision was uncommon and highly controversial for women at the time. 

Maathai, thereafter, attended Loreto Girls High School where she received a scholarship to travel and study in the United States in 1960 ("Biography").

Educational Career

Upon receiving her scholarship, Maathai traveled to Atchison, Kansas to study at Mount St. Scholastica College in 1964 ("The Nobel Prize"). She was the first woman from East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree in Biological Sciences ("The Green Belt Movement").

Mount St. Scholastica to University of Pittsburgh. In 1966, Maathai received her Masters of Science from the University of Pittsburgh ("Britannica").

Given her time in the United States, Maathai drew on examples set by the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, which later inspired her own activism ("Biography").

Maathai soon left the United States to pursue doctoral studies in Germany, as well as at the University of Nairobi in Kenya ("The Green Belt Movement"). In 1971, she received a Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi ("The Nobel Prize").

In 1976, Maathai joined the University of Nairobi faculty as Chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy ("Biography"). She also became an associate professor ("The Nobel Prize"). Both of these were positions not previously held by women ("The Nobel Prize"). 

Environmentalism and Activism

Over time, Maathai developed a consciousness of Kenya’s devastated natural environment. She, thus, partnered with the National Council of Women of Kenya in order to reduce deforestation and desertification ("The Nobel Prize," "Britannica").

Maathai participated in the National Council of Women of Kenya in 1976-87 and became its chairman in 1981 ("The Nobel Prize").  Marrying her concept of environmentalism and feminism, Maathai developed a broad-based, grassroots organization that later became the Green Belt Movement ("Britannica"). The GBM aimed to reduce poverty and promote environmentalism through its planting of trees and uplifted the nation’s women in the process.

Resources

Maathai's family enrolled her at a local primary school upon turning 8 years old ("Biography"). This decision was uncommon and highly controversial for women at the time. 

Maathai, thereafter, attended Loreto Girls High School where she received a scholarship to travel and study in the United States in 1960 ("Biography").

Mount St. Scholastica to University of Pittsburgh. In 1966, Maathai received her Masters of Science from the University of Pittsburgh ("Britannica").

In 1976, Maathai joined the University of Nairobi faculty as Chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy ("Biography"). She also became an associate professor ("The Nobel Prize"). Both of these were positions not previously held by women ("The Nobel Prize"). 

Over time, Maathai developed a consciousness of Kenya’s devastated natural environment. She, thus, partnered with the National Council of Women of Kenya in order to reduce deforestation and desertification ("The Nobel Prize," "Britannica").

Maathai participated in the National Council of Women of Kenya in 1976-87 and became its chairman in 1981 ("The Nobel Prize").  Marrying her concept of environmentalism and feminism, Maathai developed a broad-based, grassroots organization that later became the Green Belt Movement ("Britannica"). The GBM aimed to reduce poverty and promote environmentalism through its planting of trees and uplifted the nation’s women in the process.