1. Wangari Maathai
Her life through her pictures, her
words, and the words of those who
knew her and reflections from nature
through the photos a young
photographer

2. Wangari Maathai on what her receipt of the Nobel
Peace Prize means for Africa
“I have received so many messages from
Kenyans—women, men and even children—
saying how happy they are and how proud
they feel as Kenyans and as Africans. I meet
people around Nairobi and they hug me with
tears in their eyes. This prize has given
Kenyans a lot of energy. It really is the icing
on the cake after the elections of 2002. While
Kenya and Africa have many challenges, this
prize is a signal that there is hope. For
Kenyans, being recognized like this means we
have been given a special challenge. I hope
the Prize will inspire us as a government and
as a people to set a good example for Africa
and the rest of the world, to show them that
no matter what problems we face we can still
protect the environment and think of future
generations. The message for Africans is that
the solutions to our problems lie within us.
The work we have been doing with the Green
Belt Movement is a local response to a local
problem.” Wangari Maathai on what her
receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize means for
Africa. Picture taken at Oslo Norway with her
children and celebrities

3. “One can but marvel at her foresight and the scope of her
success. She was a true African heroine,” Desmond Tutu : Photo
by Daniel Mugo
Wangari whose spirited effort to plant
trees according to her was to allow
children enjoy a fresh future once
addressed a UNICEF children conference
and reminded children of the benefit of
education and the fight for a good
climate. “Whatever you are
doing, wherever you are, do not feel
discouraged. Be brave and take
advantage of the situation you are in.
Protect yourselves from distractive
activities and be strong! Allow yourself to
be healthy, to work hard, and do your
best. Stay in school! Especially for the
girls, I want to say the sky is the
limit, give yourself a chance,” she said.
Indeed, she loved children, and in
another message to the world’s
children, Wangari Maathai said, “There
are many people who love you, who care
for you, who want the best for you, and
are working day and night, to give you a
better life.”

4. Wangari Maathai on how youth can protect the environment
Baruani Ndume, who is an orphan, was handed
awarded the annual International Children's
Peace Prizefor producing a radio programme for
children in a Tanzanian refugee camp by Kenyan
Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai -
“I would like to call on young people to take
inspiration from the Nobel Peace Prize. I want
them to know that despite the challenges and
constraints they face, there is hope. I want to
encourage them to serve the common good.
My experiences have taught me that service to
others has its own special rewards. I also have a
lot of hope in youth. Their minds do not have to
be held back by old thinking about the
environment. And you don’t have to be rich or
give up everything to become active.
Even simply using both sides of a piece of paper
before recycling is conserving the environment.
The situation, however, is serious because the
youth of today will experience the consequences
of their elders’ mismanagement of the
environment.
Unless we change course, the coming generations
will inherit an impoverished environment that
will mean a hungrier, less fertile, and more
unstable world. More conflicts will erupt.”

5. Leading by example . She understood and acted on the
inextricable links between poverty, rights and environmental
sustainability. Photo by Daniel Mugo
“In the tropics, trees grow fast; in five to ten
years, you can use them for fencing, building, and
firewood. But planting a tree can also be an entry
point for communities to understand how to
restore their own resources. You can educate
people on how to preempt their own conflict.
http://www.oprah.com/world/O-Interviews-
Nobel-Prize-Winner-Wangari-
Maathai#ixzz1bOu7zP00
Maathai's parents taught her to respect the soil
and its bounty, and to love planting trees, she
says.
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Phenomenal-
Woman-Wangari-Maathai/2#ixzz1bOuW6WGx

6. Wangari Maathai on the environmental challenges facing Kenya
“In Kenya, few forests are left. The
population is increasing and there is not
enough land for everyone to grow crops.
For the last 80 years or so we have been
planting exotic species for the timber
industry, often in indigenous forests. As
the trees are planted, people are invited
to go into the forests and grow crops
along with the exotic trees. This is known
as the shamba system. It is something I
have been fighting to eliminate from
indigenous forests. I have been trying to
convince others in government and in the
community that we need to stop cutting
or cultivating crops in our indigenous
forests. When the forests are
cleared, rivers and streams dry
up, biodiversity is lost, and rainfall
becomes erratic. This threatens farmers’
livelihoods and has negative impacts on
other species as habitats are lost.” Green
Belt Movement

7. Wangari Maathai on Climate Change : Photo by Daniel Mugo
“Africa is the continent that will be hit hardest by
climate change. Unpredictable rains and
floods, prolonged droughts, subsequent crop failures
and rapid desertification, among other signs of
global warming, have in fact already begun to change
the face of Africa. The continent’s poor and
vulnerable will be particularly hit by the effects of
rising temperatures and, in some parts of the
continent, temperatures have been rising twice as
fast as in the rest of the world. In wealthy
countries, the looming climate crisis is a matter of
concern, as it will affect both the wellbeing of
economies and people’s lives. In Africa, however, a
region that has hardly contributed to climate
change, its greenhouse gas emissions are negligible
when compared with the industrialized worlds; it will
be a matter of life and death. Therefore, Africa must
not remain silent in the face of the realities of
climate change and its causes. African leaders and
civil society must be involved in global decision-
making about how to address the climate crisis in
ways that are both effective and equitable. We have
a responsibility to protect the rights of
generations, of all species, that cannot speak for
themselves today. The global challenge of climate
change requires that we ask no less of our leaders, or
ourselves.”

8. Wangari Maathai on the women of the Green Belt Movement
“I placed my faith in the rural women of Kenya
from the very beginning, and they have been
key to the success of the Green Belt
Movement. Through this very hands-on
method of growing and planting trees, women
have seen that they have real choices about
whether they are going to sustain and restore
the environment or destroy it. In the process
of education that takes place when someone
joins the Green Belt Movement, women have
become aware that planting trees or fighting
to save forests from being chopped down is
part of a larger mission to create a society that
respects democracy, decency, adherence to
the rule of law, human rights, and the rights of
women. Women also take on leadership
roles, running nurseries, working with
foresters, planning and implementing
community-based projects for water
harvesting and food security. All of these
experiences contribute to their developing
more confidence in themselves and more
power over the direction of their lives.” Green
Belt Movement

9. in May 2006 when Noble Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai addressed 7,000
international educators who had gathered in Montreal for NAFSA’s 58th annual
conference. Here is the story she shared about the Hummingbird – Photo by Daniel
Mugo
One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest - a huge woodlands
was suddenly engulfed by a raging wild fire. Frightened, all the
animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came
to the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they
were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all
bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them
thought there was nothing they could do about the fire, except
for one little hummingbird.
This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It
swooped into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and
went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back
to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and
again and again. All the other animals watched in disbelief; some
tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Don't
bother, it is too much, you are too little, your wings will
burn, your beak is too tiny, it’s only a drop, you can't put out this
fire.“ And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird’s
efforts, the bird noticed how hopeless and forlorn they looked.
Then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the
hummingbird in a mocking voice, "What do you think you are
doing?" And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a
beat, looked back and said, "I am doing what I can."

10. A Green Belt Movement sign calling for an end to land-grabbing
Photo by Wangari Maathai.
“I have invested 20 years of my life in this campaign for
the environment and I’m still only scratching the
surface. I am confident of winning. Nobody will build
anything [in the forest] as long as we live. We cannot
dignify theft.” "The reality that sustainable
development, democracy, and peace are indivisible
concepts should not be denied. Peace cannot exist
without equitable development, just as development
requires sustainable management of the environment
in a democratic and peaceful space. In order to
advance peace, we must promote its underlying
democratic institutions and ideals. In large part, this is
only possible if management of the environment is
pursued as a universal priority. Only a holistic approach
that takes these interlinked factors into account can
ensure effective, ecologically sustainable
development." -- Wangari Maathai, "An Unbreakable
Link: Peace, Environment, and Democracy," Harvard
International Review, vol. 29, issue 4 (Winter 2008). “As
she told the world, "we must not tire, we must not give up, we must persist." Her legacy will stand as an
example to all of us to persist in our pursuit of progress”, by Barack Obama

11. Wangari Maathai on Genuine Priesthood
“What becomes clear through the Green Belt
Movement seminars is that the Christian religion that
the colonized people were exposed to was
commercialized and trivialized. While the Christian
priests may have claimed they were committed to the
community they served, and while some may have
actually been concerned with the indigenous culture
of their community, the majority were committed
rather to the colonizing power and its people, with
their God and their destiny.
“A genuine priesthood stands between a community
and its God, who chooses that priesthood for itself so
that it can stand between it and its people to interpret
the will of their God to them. A genuine priesthood
nurtures the community, identifies with its aspirations
and concerns, and guides it toward their God and their
destiny. Such a priesthood cannot be imposed from
above; it cannot exist in the absence of culture.
“A foreign priesthood cannot recognize the God of the
colonized or its destiny; nor can it cannot take them
toward their God and destiny. Led by a foreign
priesthood, a people will perish, either because the
foreign priesthood is genuinely unable to lead them or
because it deliberately leads them toward the wrong
God and the wrong destination. This is one of the
reasons why the destruction of traditional
priesthood, through the destruction of
culture, becomes necessary to any colonizing power.”

12. One lasting memory is Prof’s inimitable words “I’ve
been thinking…..” By Maggie Buxter
Prof’s presence was felt wherever she went. I
remember a visit to Womankind when she simply
said thank you to everyone for what they were
doing to gain women’s rights around the world –
no lecture, just plain appreciation. On
international public platforms her presence
added gravitas. In attending training sessions with
colleagues she showed support and
solidarity. Small and big things, local and
global, bridging the communities of the elite and
the every day, never losing the sight of the reason
why it was important to do so. Her passion was
to gain human rights, human dignity and equality
of opportunity for those so often overlooked.
Over the years there have been many meetings
to manage the world business of being a Nobel
Peace Laureate, as well as strategizing the future
for a national organization which had now
become international. One lasting memory is
Prof’s inimitable words “I’ve been
thinking…..” This used to come after a night’s
sleep on the previous day’s deliberations, and
always resulted in a change of the decision of the
day before. It became a continuing joke at every
meeting as well as a dread that decisions would
be revisited, unpicked and remade!