Wangarĩ Maathai

Police cracked her skull open for protesting deforestation, so she planted trees where her blood had soaked the ground.

In 1977, Maathai launched the Green Belt Movement after rural Kenyan women came to her with a problem…

Their land was dying.

Crops were failing.

They could barely keep their families alive.

So tree by tree, village by village, she mobilized rural women to regreen their land and reclaim their power.

She paid them for every seedling that survived, creating jobs and building forests at the same time.

She trained them in family planning, nutrition, and community leadership.

But planting trees in Kenya was dangerous.

Maathai’s work threatened the political elite because it revealed their exploitation. Of land. Of women.

By the late ‘80s, her organization had planted over 20M trees.

President Daniel arap Moi labeled her “a threat to the order and security of the country.”

In 1989, the Moi regime planned to build a 60-story tower in Nairobi’s only central park: Uhuru Park.

It would include a statue of the president. A new party headquarters. Shops, hotels, and parking for 2,000 cars.

Wangari fought back.

She wrote to the president.

She wrote to UNEP, UNESCO, the British High Commissioner.

She made one simple argument: You wouldn’t build this in Hyde Park. You wouldn’t build it in Central Park. So why is it okay to do it in Kenya?

In response, Parliament called her movement “a bunch of divorcees.”

The president said anyone who opposed the tower had “insects in their heads.”

They evicted her from her office. Audited her finances. Tried to shut her down.

It didn’t work.

Investors pulled out. The tower was canceled. Uhuru Park was saved.

But that didn’t stop the violence.

In the 1990s, Maathai and her allies were arrested, beaten, tear-gassed, and hospitalized for staging peaceful protests.

She went into hiding when a government hit list came to light, with her name on it.

Still, she refused to stay quiet.

She led hunger strikes.

She exposed land-grabbing in Karura Forest and was attacked by hired thugs with whips, machetes, and stones.

She was jailed, hospitalized, and harassed repeatedly.

And still she showed up. To every protest. Every hearing.

Every vote.

And when the country finally held democratic elections in 2002, she ran for office.

She won with 98% of the vote.

She became Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources, and Wildlife.

And she built a political home for environmentalists: the Mazingira Green Party of Kenya.

In 2004, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee gave her the highest honor for her “contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”

Through the Green Belt Movement, Wangari helped plant over 50M trees.

Trained more than 30,000 women.

And launched a pan-African initiative replicated in 15+ countries.

Wangari Maathai unfortunately died in 2011 at the age of 71.