Remembering Green Belt Movement Founder Wangari Maathai

Remembering Green Belt Movement Founder Wangari Maathai

Remembering Green Belt Movement Founder Wangari Maathai

The best way to remember Maathai is to support the Green Belt Movement, which she founded and in which she invested her life hopes.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

Professor Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan who became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with her female compatriots to demand and obtain greater access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. She became a steadfast advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and social justice.

In presenting her with the Peace Prize, the Nobel committee hailed her for taking “a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women’s rights in particular” and serving “as inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights.” A summary of her  astounding life and work can be read here.

The best way to remember Maathai is to support the Green Belt Movement, which she founded and in which she invested her life hopes.

Support independent journalism that does not fall in line

Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more. 

But this journalism is possible only with your support.

This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?

Ad Policy
x