Rhetorical Legacy of Wangari Maathai

Eddah M. Mutua is professor of intercultural communication at St. Cloud State University.Alberto González is distinguished university professor in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. Anke Wolbert is lecturer in the School of Communication, Media, and Theatre Arts at Eastern Michigan University

The Rhetorical Legacy of Wangari Maathai is a beautiful tribute to this Nobel Peace Prize winner and the idea that one person—or even one fabled hummingbird—can make a powerful difference. After completing this book, the reader will never think the same way about the importance of trees, our relationships with the earth, and the roles of rhetoric, culture, and spirituality in environmental justice movements. Specifically, this book makes important contributions and can be useful in courses that consider the intersections of environmentalism, feminism, and human rights; the role of rhetoric in social movements; intercultural communication; environmentalism as a “justice” issue; and the role of spirituality and religion in environmental justice work.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Wangari Maathai and Social Justice Advocacy Alberto González, Eddah M. Mutua, and Anke WolbertPart I: Africa and the Rhetoric of the Green Belt Movement Chapter One: Bantu Sociolinguistics in Wangari Maathai’s Peacebuilding Rhetoric Kundai V. ChirindoChapter Two: Envisioning Peace and Reconciliation for Kenya: Wangari Maathai’s 2008 Peace Tent Opening Ceremony Address Anke WolbertChapter Three: The Rhetorical Potency of Storytelling: The Narrative Role of the Hummingbird in the Green Belt MovementFranklin Nii Amankwah YarteyChapter Four: Heroic Transverser: A Rhetorical Analysis of Representations of Wangari MaathaiWanjiru G. Mbure Chapter Five: Wangari Maathai’s Rhetorical Vision: Empowerment through Education Ahmet AtayChapter Six: The Green Belt Movement and Rhetoric of African Development Communication Stella-Monica Mpande and Cleophas Tauri MuneriPart II: Planting the Future: Sustaining Agency in and beyond the Green Belt Movement Chapter Seven: The Rhetorical Significance of Maathai's Environmental Advocacy to Critical Intercultural Communication and Black FeminismsRachel Alicia Griffin and Gloria Nziba PindiChapter Eight: Wangari Maathai and Mottainai: Gifting "Cultural Appropriation" with Cultural Empowerment Etsuko KinefuchiChapter Nine: Daughter of the Soil: Wangari Maathai’s Rhetorical Vision of Environmental Justice and Reform Reynaldo Anderson and D.L. Stephenson Chapter Ten: Growing the Next Generation: The Sustainability of Wangari Maathai’s Rhetoric of EnvironmentalismEllen W. GorsevskiChapter Eleven: Planting the Future: The Spiritual Legacy of Wangari MaathaiEddah M. Mutua and Susan M. Kilonzo ReferencesIndexAbout the EditorsAbout the Contributors