Unbowed: My Autobiography

Maathai, Wangari

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434015423 ISBN 13: 9780434015429

Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd, 2007

Born in a rural Kenyan village in 1940, Wangari Maathai was already an iconoclast as a child, determined to get an education even though most African girls then were uneducated. In her remarkable and inspiring autobiography, she tells of her studies with Catholic missionaries, earning bachelors and master's degrees in the United States, and becoming the first woman both to earn a PhD and to head a university department in Kenya. She tells of her numerous run-ins with the brutal government of Daniel arap Moi and of the political and personal reasons that compelled her, in 1977, to establish the Green Belt Movement, which spread from Kenya across Africa, and which helps restore indigenous forests while assisting rural women by paying them to plant trees in their villages. Maathai's extraordinary courage and determination helped transform Kenya's government into the democracy in which she now serves as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources and as a Member of Parliament. Eventually her achievement was internationally recognized in the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in recognition of her 'contribution to sustainable development, human rights, and peace'. In "Unbowed", we are in the presence of a hugely charismatic yet humble woman whose remarkable story carries with it an inspiring message of hope. Hers is an extraordinary story, spanning different worlds and changing times, and revealing what the courage, determination, tenacity and humour of one good woman can achieve; how as small a thing as planting a seedling and watering it can made all the difference in the world.

Review:

'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.' -- Bill Clinton

`As this inspiring memoir shows Maathai's work is about a lot more than getting women to plant trees ... The more difficulties Maathai faced, the more determined she became ... Her book wonderfully demonstrates that you don't need to be in a position of power to start doing something about your environment.' -- The Sunday Times

`Maathai's book is frank and moving ... like a Nelson Mandela or a Mahatma Gandhi, Maathai stands way above most mortals.'
-- The Guardian

Book Description:

The compelling autobiography of Wangari Maathai, Kenyan peace activist and environmentalist, who in 2004 became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.