Afrikan Goddess (AG) Online

By: N. Amma Twum-Baah (July 1, 2010)

Wangari Muta Maathai is the first in many of the achievements in her life. She was the first woman in Central/Eastern Kenya to hold a Ph.D., the first woman to head the department of a University in Kenya, and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She is also the first Kenyan woman to be featured in the ReMarkable Women’s column. Go figure!

Born in 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya, Wangari Maathai is a member of the Kikuyu ethnic group. Her early life can be described as anything other than privileged, and yet she persevered in all that she did, knowing that her destiny was not one that was to be lived in poverty and mediocrity. She has experienced turmoil and instability in her life as a result of civil unrest and attempts to strip her of her identity. At the age of eleven, she was converted to Catholicism and given the name Mary Josephine. She did almost everything Catholic – primary school, secondary school and Catholic societies – and yet somehow she never stuck with the Church’s attempt to name her something she was not. After she returned to Kenya after receiving her Bachelors and Masters degrees abroad, she reverted to her given birth name and has stuck with it ever since.

Wangari Muta Maathai is a fighter in all things – probably one of the reasons why she’s also the first in so many things. She is not your typical woman to be controlled and subdued, according to her ex-husband who divorced her in 1979 claiming she was “too strong-minded for a woman and that he was unable to control her. A statement she made against the judge in her divorce case landed her in jail for six months. She has made what the Western media terms controversial statements about AIDS, she has survived accusations of civil disobedience, contempt of court charges, political sabotages and threats made against her life. Then president Arab Moi of Kenya, one of her staunch political enemies, once referred to Wangari Maathai as “a mad woman.” Every fight and threat she has had to fight and experience in Kenya, she has had to fight alone, without any guarantees of protection. And yet, she never let down.

In 1971, she became the first woman in East Africa to gain a PhD. She received her doctorate in anatomy from the University of Nairobi where she later became a senior lecturer in 1974. She later chaired the Department of Veterinary Anatomy in 1976 and became associate professor in 1977.  She was the first woman to occupy all of these positions. While she was at the University of Nairobi, Dr. Maathai fought for the rights of women and demanded equal benefits for women on the teaching staff.

Despite all her early achievements, she is most noted for being the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize as a result of her work with the Green Belt Movement. The Green Belt Movement is a national grassroots movement, she founded, that organizes work for the poor through the planting of trees to curb soil erosion and other environmental issues brought on by modernization. She is the recipient of several awards – World Citizenship Award, Sophie Prize and the NAACP Image Award - honors and honorary degrees from Universities across the world.

She currently lives in Kenya and has three children, Waweru, Wanjira and Matu.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(April 1, 2010)

Dr. Oluffunmilayo Olopade
(February 1, 2010)

Her Excellency
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
(January 5, 2010)

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
(December 1, 2009)

Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro
(November 2009)