Unbowed

Unbowed, written by Wangari Maathai, is a memoir of the Kenyan politician and environmental activist who founded the Green Belt Movement. In 2004, Maathai became the first African woman and environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. 

First published in 2006, the memoir describes Maathai’s path to activism, which was fueled by a familiarity with and fondness for the Kenyan landscape of her childhood, as well as an early awareness of social injustice. Maathai was born in 1940, in the small Kenyan village of Ihithe. She was born into a polygamous family and a Kenya that was still under British colonial rule.

Maathai and her family later moved to the farm where her father worked, near the provincial town of Nakuru. She describes the social hierarchy of towns like these, with their British administrators, Indian store owners, and African subjects. She also discusses the oral storytelling culture of her own Kikuyu community, which she explains is “the most populous” ethnic group in Kenya (1). She writes about growing up helping her family on their farm, describing how peaceful and meditative she found this work: “Nothing is more beautiful than cultivating the land at dusk […] As you remove the weeds and press the earth around the crops you feel content, and wish the light would last longer so you could cultivate more” (47).