Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai: Assignment Ideas

Students will examine how Kenya’s history as a colonized nation has contributed to their challenges with deforestation. Historical footage documents the extensive clearing of the land, and the displacement of the tribes and tribal life, which took place during the period of British colonialism beginning in the 1880s. They will also learn that the clearing of forested land continued when Kenya returned to self rule beginning in 1963. Students will then identify how this environmental degradation is related to other social, political and economic problems that affect the country’s marginalized citizens. Students will recognize that the core of the Green Belt Movement’s civic action extends beyond environmentalism.

Students examine the community organizing/civic action steps that the Green Belt Movement (GBM) took to address Kenya’s deforestation and to tackle the issues closely connected to this environmental issue, including women’s rights, equitable economic development, political governance and the sustainable management of scarce resources. Students can use this investigation to help reach an overall understanding of the strategies that “change makers” and organizations use to address the issues they attempt to impact—leading them to the research of two activist organizations of their choice.