We're talking about Unbowed by Wangari Maathai, who is the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner. She is from Kenya, and she started the Green Belt Movement, which is an environmental movement in Kenya which gets women to plant trees. I just came back from Kenya in December. I'd never been there, and I'd fallen in love with the beauty of the country and its people and the complexity. People there were talking about Wangari Maathai, and there are all kinds of ads, billboards and stuff. "Plant trees! Plant trees!" And so I saw her memoir in the airport and bought it as soon as I got home.
Unbowed is her memoir; it's her story. She's about 60. She grew up in a small town, or farm, really, in central Kenya near the town of Nieri. Loving nature, and loving a being farmer and loving cultivation of the earth, and she writes about it so lyrically. The rest of the book is about her desire to unite Kenyan women who were struggling and get them to plant trees and to refurbish Kenya's environment.
The book expresses wonderful love for Africa and wonderful love for home. It describes nature so beautifully, and she is so at one with her environment that it's just wonderful; and it's a very inspiring story of how one woman can make a difference.
Unbowed is a wonderful book for anyone who's interested in the environment, who's interested in politics and social justice. If you've been to Africa, I think it's essential to read this book because it talks about how Africa is now, not a romanticized version. I would give Unbowed four stars.
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