Episode 262: Wangari Muta Maathai, Part Two

Wangari Maathai

We wrap up our coverage of this brave, trailblazing woman who defied convention, governmental oppression, violence, and financial hurdles (to name a few) to begin the Greenbelt Movement which not only planted 40 million trees and counting, but helped empower women around the world work for bettering themselves and their own communities from the ground up!

Her funeral with glimpses of her unique coffin, her children, and some archival footage of Wangari herself.

Her memoir
by Wangari Maathai
by Wangari Maathai
By Namulundah Florence

So many kids’ books!!

by Eucabeth Odiambo
Part of the Rebel Girls series

By Gwendolyn Hooks, Margaux Carpentier
by Jeannete Winter

by Maureen McQuerry and Robin Rosenthal

And off-topic but discussed (IYKYN) :

By Libba Bray
By Gwendolyn Hooks and Colin Bootman

The Green Belt Movement is still very active, here is their website with lots of information about their mission. their work, and their history, and the Wangari Maathai Foundation has a lot of information as well.

The Greenbelt Movement is still active around the world, here is a very recent article about how they are still standing up to the government of Kenya: The Nation (e-paper)

There is tree planted in Wangari’s honor in Washington, D.C. it’s a Golden Rain tree, lovely but pretty invasive. Here’s an article about it from the University of Florida.

Here is some information on Sagana State Lodge in Kenya where Princess Elizabeth learned she was Queen Elizabeth while Wangari was in school nearby: Sagana Lodge

The Bowery Boys New York City History podcast has several episodes that discuss parts of Central Park, this is a good one to start with: The early years of Central Park.

***We don’t usually add things to our shownotes that we didn’t talk about on the show, but a lovely friend of the show, ELizabeth, shared the One Tree Planted organization with us which is part of the Trillion Tree program that we did talk about. Check them out and help plant trees all over the world!

Episode 145: Not Mary Church Terrell, but Ida B. Wells-Barnett


This is not Mary Church Terrell, Part Two. That episode is coming as soon as we can finish it, but Ida and Mary’s lives crossed paths quite a bit and while you wait just a little longer for Mary, Part Two, we thought it would be a good idea to remember the life of this brave and brilliant writer and activist.

 

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Episode 84: Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells- born a slave, educated in a post-Civil War south and left to care for her family at an early age. She grew to become a teacher, a writer, a crusader for civil rights, a suffragist, a wife and mother. A woman of strength and character who dared to speak up and challenge those who desired to oppress others, even when her own safety was at risk.

How could we not talk about a woman like this?

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