Why am I passionate about this?
EM Forster said, "Only Connect." That has inspired my life and work. The Oxford Times published my Oxtopian castaway series, and those life stories were turned into three books. The castaways, with links to Oxford, were from five continents. One of those castaways was Kenyan-born Nancy Mudenyo Hunt. Nancy founded the Nasio Trust, which has transformed the lives of hundreds of disadvantaged young people in West Kenya and Oxfordshire. With friends, Iām currently fundraising to build the first community library in West Kenya. Nancy asked if we could write a book together, and we did. We wrote a novel inspired by her life.
Sylvia's book list on insights into Kenya
Why did Sylvia love this book?
In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on tree planting, environmental conservation, and women's rights. She became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for āher contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.ā
That sounds straightforward if remarkable, but it doesnāt reflect the courage she needed to achieve it. Her work was often considered both unwelcome and subversive in her own country, where her outspokenness constituted stepping far outside traditional gender rolesāa situation Nancy understands all too well, having grown up in West Kenya. Unbowed is Wangariās story in her own words.
1 author picked Unbowed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER ā¢ A remarkable memoir of courage, faith, and the power of persistence about one woman's extraodinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage.
ā[Maathaiās] story provides uplifting proof of the power of perseveranceāand of the power of principled, passionate people to change their countries and inspire the world.ā āThe Washington Post
In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary life. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she began a vital poor peopleās environmental movement, focused on the empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa. Persevering through run-insā¦