Customer Reviews

Unbowed

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Professor Wangari Maathai is truly one of the most important voices of our time. This dynamic and indefatigable Kikuyu woman of Kenya has illuminated rays of light through the dark clouds of Kenya, and so Africa. Standing in the face of oppression and unbearable adversity she faced when Kenya was not a land of freedom, but a state of oppression and discord, it was Wangari's resilient voice, her never-ending effort to stand strong in the winds of injustice, and her ceaseless love of mankind that has in many ways begun the great changes toward democracy and freedom for all individuals not just in Kenya, but in Africa. As the Cold War has, as Professor Maathai clearly and carefully points out, changed the dynamics of government in Africa, the reader becomes aware, in a different way than what is typically presented in the press, of the many issues involved with the challenges that the world faces through the daily experiences of those who seek `Freedom'. Clearly, as the world becomes closer and more connected, the issues that continue in Africa are critical issues that we, as a progressive society, must not simply acknowledge, but do something about. Acting on what is right . . . standing up for your beliefs . . . standing down oppression and hatred . . . and nurturing Mother Earth as she continues to nurture and provide for all, are themes this visionary African woman - who is the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize - shares with the world in her brilliantly written life story. Readers across the world - men and women of all colors and creeds and beliefs will tap into the determination of this extraordinary activist who has taught so many about how love of each other can grow through respecting and nurturing the land we live on. But there is so much more to `Unbowed': Uhuru Park - Freedom Park - is more than a rolling green field in the middle of busy Nairobi, it is more than a starting point for this wonderful woman's love affair with the world, and it is so much more than a gathering point where the notion of planting trees . . . the seeds of The Green Belt Movement occurred. As Professor Maathai has shown through her own life, `Uhuru' is not Free! `Unbowed' is the story of a magnificent and courageous leader who stood up for the oppressed, including the woman of Kenya, and provided hope for better tomorrows by demonstrating that if a person possesses a will to make change, change can and will occur. `Unbowed' is a most remarkable memoir . . . and Professor Wangari Maathai is an ingenious woman of dignity the world continues to learn from. Listen: no matter where you are from, this book will positively change your life.

When Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, questions were raised regarding her choice by the Nobel Committee. Why should an environmentalist receive a prize that was identified with peace and human rights, voiced the critics. Reading Maathai's memoir sets the record straight, and justifying her selection for the award. In this fascinating and very personal account, she paints a vivid picture of her life, embedded in the realities of Kenya before and since independence. Her experiences during the Moi regime, in particular, demonstrate the challenges a young educated woman confronted in the face of traditional prejudice as well as political oppression.

Raised in rural Kenya, Wangari Maathai never lost the deep connection with the land and its the natural beauty. Over the years, she noticed the changes and the increasing fragility of the environment. Trees for her became a symbol and a tool for protecting the vulnerable ecosystem and assisting rural population to stem the growing poverty.

Thanks to the intervention of her older brother and the support of her mother, she was able to attend school beyond the primary level, which was all girls at the time could reach for. As luck had it and, being a bright student, her convent school was one of those selected to send graduates to the US under what became known as the Kennedy Airlift: a program to send young Africans to American colleges for further education. These young people were being primed to become future leaders of their societies in the soon to be independent African states. Maathai returned to Kenya with a Master's degree in biology, a subject that for her combined her scientific interests with her deep love for her natural environment. She was encouraged in her research and added a PhD in veterinary medicine to her record. Life should have been easy after that with a good husband, a blossoming academic career and three wonderful kids. But women in Kenya were not supposed to be independent and strong. Her fight for women's equal rights broadened her environmental commitments. Eventually she lost her academic position, her husband divorced her and she ended up as poor as she was a child. Not deterred by the adversities she was facing, she continued fighting on several fronts. She started the Greenbelt Movement to plant trees to reclaim the land as a campaign for and with rural women. Over time it gained such prominence that it was perceived as a threat by the authorities. Public show of opposition, such as the demonstrations to save Uhuru Park in Nairobi from President-friendly developers, increasingly identified Maathai and the Greenbelt Movement as a focus for opposition forces. They fought for human rights and dignity, anti-tribalism and democracy. The details of these struggles, the friendships and solidarity that Maathai experienced, both in Kenya in internationally, supported her morally and probably saved her life more than once.

Maathai's memoir is very personal and written from the heart. We get to know her thinking and feelings as well as a detailed description of the difficult life women and men who opposed the Moi regime faced. Her easygoing and conversational style softens the impact of her description of the arduous and sometimes even brutal experiences that she relays. At the same time, her story is a stirring example of how one person's strength and perseverance can make a difference to a people and the world. The Greenbelt Movement is now a motor for tree planting around Africa and beyond. This is an inspirational book as well as a historical record. Reading it will make you feel enriched. [Friederike Knabe]

I really could hear Wangari speak as I read this book...with her interesting expressions and ways of seeing and saying things. I thought the details of her childhood and how it influenced her was beautiful - her mother, the land, etc. Most of all, I loved her intensity, committment, and love of learning and her courage to go to school and take jobs far from home, and her ability to keep on going no matter what. What a woman!!

I enjoyed this book! "Unbowed" is a straight-forward, gripping, and majestic effort by Wangari Maathai --- a formidable woman who faced unimaginable hurdles in a noble effort to help others ... and shape the destiny of her country.

During her fantastic journey, she became a mother of three, an inspiration for millions, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Her life is an eloquent triumph of good versus evil. Those who have asked: "What can one person do?" Need only to read about her "Green Belt Movement". I'll give you a hint: It is about trees, self reliance, and human endurance.

Prepare yourself for spell-binding details (page 277) on crime, corruption, and monumental waste of natural resources by so-called leaders --- who feed off the carcasses of their people.

"Unbowed" is a book that will have you believing in the unattainable. Exquisitely written ... it is a compelling story of incredible courage, tenacious will, and survival in modern day Africa.

I loved it. You will, too!

Reggie Johnson, Success-Tapes.Com

I love this book because Wangari has an uncanny ability to succeed in bringing about social justice. Why is it that where others fail she gets her way, in spite of the persecution of corrupt politicians? It's not just that she's so courageous and persistent. She's a leader others want to follow, for they see she knows instinctively how to get results. I reveled in her victories.

This memoir is an inspiring example of what one woman can do, bit by bit, and eventually have an internationally positive influence. The author's story resonates with anyone who wants to make a difference in her/his own molecule of the world.

I have never read such a heroic story. Every time I close my eyes they pop open again and I say but how could person like this possibly had the courage to do do all the things that she did. When I try to tell Olive about it I cant find the words to say what I want to say. I keep thinking what I want to say to you, what it has made me feel, but my mouth just drops open and I have no words to express my feelings. I am awed. I am overwhelmed at the things this person accomplished. Its almost as if it is not a human being doing these things. Perhaps its because I know where she went to school when she came to the US. Perhaps its because she is so close to the age of a lot of my younger friends. Perhaps its because I have only read of such bravery and devotion to a cause. Perhaps its because she is so close in age to many of the friends I have and I can associate personally with that. Perhaps I have never really felt this close to greatness. Perhaps I am just learning a little about life I never realized. Just perhaps.

Maathai is the first African woman and the first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize-in 2004.

Masthai's life is inspiring-from her humble beginnings as a child laborer on the plantation of a white English colonial farm with her family, to her early education in the primitive Ihithe primary school at age 8, to further education at St. Cecilia's at the Mathari Catholic Mission, to college in the United States. She taught at the University in Kenya, and was active in the National Council of Women in Kenya (NCWK) for many years.

Many failures are scattered throughout her life: she was divorced by her husband; she lost her job at the University when she tried to run for office, and she was arrested many times for her work in promoting democracy in Kenya. One of the projects she worked on was to stop the construction of a huge 60-story skyscraper in the middle of Uhuru Park in Nairobi; another was to obtain the release of over 50 men who had been imprisoned for agitating for a multi-party system. She held a hunger strike with their mothers, in Uhuru Park, and then they all retreated to a nearby Anglican cathedral to continue to protest after being routed from the park by armed police (Along with many others, Maathai was beaten and taken to hospital). Eventually the men were released.

Maathai started the Green Belt Movement in 1977. In 2002 Kenya finally held free and democratic open elections and Maathai won a seat in the Parliament. See the Green Belt web site for extensive details of her grassroots tree-planting program. The act of planting a tree is helping women throughout Africa help the environment. The GBM has planted more than 40 million trees across Africa, resulting in reduced soil erosion has affecting the critical watersheds

Everyone can make a difference. Just today I watched a report on the news about the devastating drought in the Southeast United States. Hard times are coming. We need to learn about climate change and what we can do to manage it.

Armchair Interviews says: One woman helping other women and her country.

Wangari Maathai is such an inspiration because she is identifiable to so many groups. She is empowering to women, to mothers, to advocates for education, for biology, for equality, and most importantly she is an inspiration to anyone who ever thought their one voice could change the planet. Maathai writes with a sincerity that can be identified in any language! Read this book, to learn about Africa, about plants, about women, about everything. Most importantly read this book to learn about a rather amazing woman who never backed down from a fight for what's right. Let the greenbelt movement, move you.

Reviewed by Charles Shea LeMone [...]

Nobel laureate, Wangari Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya, in 1940. Her earliest memories of the highland country are of a paradise of fertile soil, lush forests and abundant crops. The land was rich with rivers and streams. However, returning home from college in America, one of the first things she noticed was how deforestation and the mass cultivation of cash crops had devastated the countryside, causing severe top soil erosion and many creeks and streams to dry up. Furthermore, the people in her region were no longer as robust and strong as she recalled. Instead, having changed their diets to eat like Europeans, they now appeared weak and undernourished. She found the same to be true of the animals that her people raised.

As a professor, a biologist, and a Kikuyu woman, she turned to the women of her country to help restore the decimated forest. Launching the Green Belt Movement to plant trees--more than 30 million since 1977--she was subjected to beatings, arrest and death threats. Nevertheless, she and her women followers remained unbowed. In fact, the discrimination she faced for merely being a woman, led Maathai to question all human rights abuses that the corrupt government was guilty of perpetrating.

She also fought for free elections, which further alienated her in the eyes of the local leaders. Despite all of their efforts to discredit her, though, in 2002, she was elected to Kenya's Parliament. A year later, she was appointed assistant minister for the environment; and in 2004, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She continues to live and work in Nairobi.

On the back cover of "Unbowed a Memoir" there is a quote from former president Bill Clinton. "Wangari Maathai's memoir is direct, honest, and beautifully written--a gripping account of modern Africa's trials and triumphs, a universal story of courage, persistence, and success against great odds in a noble cause."