Everyone is very thirsty, it hasn’t rained for a long time and no one knows what to do in the savanna. There are also those who remember an old story, one of which tells about a magic tree that will give food and drink to anyone who remembers its name. The problem is that only the spirit of Kilimanjaro knows the correct answer. The inhabitants of the magical African bush are visited by lions, cheetahs, buffalo and monkeys. They tried to save their land, but all failed, forgetting names or getting lost along the way. Until the turtle took slow but sure steps reminds you of a magic tree What is the name. It is awongalema, the tree of life.

As time went by, the story became a legend and its origins were forgotten. The age of humans and their machines has arrived and the power of the magic tree is fading. First its roots and the grass that grew in its shadow disappeared, then the earth was washed away. The river became muddy and we had to walk further and further to find something to drink. Until someone dreams again of restoring his power. That the story of Wangari Muta Maathai This, like the turtle legend, is a story of time, patience and determination to return to the savanna to protect all its awongalemas.

The seeds of a different life

Carrying water, gathering firewood, working in the fields. A girl born in colonial Kenya in 1940 couldn’t have hoped for much more in her life. Wangari Muta Maathai, the daughter of ethnic Kikuyu farmers, is no different. But the ghost of Kilimanjaro They have different destinies destined for them. Muta Maathai can study, he can travel, and he can return to his country to restore the power of the trees. She would also be one of the first African women to earn a doctorate and the first person to win a Nobel Prize. He did so in 2004 for his contributions to sustainable development, democracy and peace.

But let’s go back to Nyeri, his hometown in Kenya’s central highlands, and 1940. Like many Kenyans, his parents worked on a white-owned farm. Despite the hardships, her mother worked hard to ensure that Wangari Maathai and her siblings attended school, learned English, and completed their basic education. At the age of 20, when the Mau Mau rebellion opened its doors Kenya’s independence from Britain is coming to an end, Maathai’s life will take an unexpected turn: he will travel to distant Atchison, in Kansas (USA).