Spring 2009 Meyerhoff Visiting Professor: Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai

Release date: February 09, 2009 |

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai—the Kenyan environmental and political activist who, in 2004, became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize—will present a lecture in Goucher College’s Kraushaar Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Monday, February 9, 2009.

Maathai will present a lecture titled “Environment, Democracy, and Peace: A Critical Link“ as Goucher’s Winter 2009 Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Visiting Professor. Due to widespread interest in this event, no more tickets are available.

Born in a small village in Kenya, Maathai was one of 200 African students chosen in 1960 to receive scholarships to American universities through the African-American Students Foundation. She and 80 other Kenyans who could not afford the travel expenses were airlifted to the United States by the Kennedy Foundation, led by then-Senator John F. Kennedy.

Maathai went on to earn a degree in biological sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, Kansas, in 1964 and a master of science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, which she received in 1971 from the University of Nairobi.

Maathai became active in the National Council of Women of Kenya from 1976 to 1987 and was its chairman from 1981 to 1987. During that time, in 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots non-governmental organization that is led by and for rural Kenyan women. Maathai has helped train nearly 100,000 women on skills ranging from water conservation to civic leadership, and the organization has now planted more than 40 million trees to prevent soil erosion in Kenya, a country devastated by deforestation.

The more Maathai investigated solutions to Kenya’s environmental problems, the more she found it impossible to disconnect the country’s natural resources from its social problems, its economy, and its politics. She became increasingly active in environmental, political, and women’s issues.

During the regime of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi from 1978 to 2002, Maathai was imprisoned several times and violently attacked for demanding multiparty elections and an end to political corruption and tribal politics. In 1997, when Kenya’s second multi-party elections were marred by ethnic violence, she ran for the country’s presidency until her party withdrew her candidacy.

In 2002 she was elected to parliament when the National Rainbow Coalition, which she represented, defeated the ruling party Kenya African National Union. She won her seat with 98 percent of the vote. She served as assistant minister of the environment, natural resources, and wildlife from 2003 to 2005.

In 2004 Maathai became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, lauded for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.” “Maathai stood up courageously against the former oppressive regime in Kenya,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement. “Her unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression—nationally and internationally. She has served as inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights and has especially encouraged women to better their situation.”

From 2005 to 2007, Maathai was the presiding officer of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union based in Ethiopia. The council was formed to advise the African Union on issues related to the African civil society. She was also honored in 2005 with an appointment as goodwill ambassador to the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem, where she continues to serve in an advocacy role for the region’s conservation and protection.

In 2006, Maathai founded the Nobel Women’s Initiative with her sister Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams, and Mairead Corrigan to help strengthen work being done in support of women’s rights worldwide.

Maathai ran as a candidate in the 2007 primary and parliamentary elections in Kenya, but was defeated in both.

The Jane and Robert Meyerhoff Visiting Professorship was created to bring distinguished scholars, teachers, and practitioners to Goucher’s campus to advance local and national dialogues on pressing issues of our time.

Click here to listen to the lecture or download the podcast.