Challenge for Africa

Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya, in 1940. She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which, through networks of rural women, has planted over 30 million trees across Kenya since 1977. In 2002, she was elected to Kenya's Parliament in the first free elections in a generation, and served as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 in recognition of her campaigns for democracy and environmental reform during the dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi. She died in 2011.

"I hope the world will support her vision of hope" -- Nelson Mandela "From one of Africa's most positive and far-sighted thinkers comes a wonderful book combining an elegant critique of Africa's troubled past with a rallying cry for how Africans can use culture, nature and self-belief to reverse their continent's decline. The Challenge for Africa is a milestone in African writing that both educates and inspires" -- Tim Butcher "Penetrating... a 21st century manifesto for Africans, drawing on her own experience as a worldly Kenyan, street-fighting activists, member of parliament and, from 2003-2006, government minister. Her analysis is thorough. She reaches into African history, culture, psychology, contemporary politics and fragile ecosystems" Financial Times "Like a Nelson Mandela or a Mahatma Gandhi, Maathai stands way above most mortals" The Guardian "Wangari Maathai is a prophet for our time" -- Alexandra Fuller