Hello, humans! This blog is about a book that I read in which we had to find the role trees played in it.
I read the book Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees by Franck Prévot.
The main character in this book is Wangari Maathai.
In the book, Wangari’s life and achievements are summarized. Here is my summary of that summary:
Wangari is young (yet of school age), and helps out on her family’s farm. She does not go to school because women are not encouraged to. This is until her older brother asks why she does not go to school, and their mother allows Wangari to go to school. She is accomplished in her studies and is invited (along with 600 other Kenyans) by John F. Kennedy to learn in the USA. She returns home, but although the Kenyans are now free, trees are being cut down at a worrying rate. Wangari decides to dedicate herself to stopping this, and in 1977 creates the Green Belt Movement, an organization that plants trees through tree nurseries, that Wangari affirms are staffed by village women in need of (better) jobs. Wangari fights for trees not to be cut down, and protests against the plans of the president, Daniel arap Moi. She faces some repercussions, but persists in her beliefs, until eventually a new president is elected and Wangari is appointed to Parliament, assistant minister of the environment, natural resources, and wildlife.
In this book, trees pretty much play the role of the important and helpful, yet defenseless, victims, and the central conflict is just that, too many trees being cut down and the environment and wildlife suffering, and Wangari’s efforts to stop this being punished.
The solution/end to this conflict is President Daniel arap Moi eventually being replaced by a new president that gladly embraced Wangari’s ideas and beliefs, appointing her as assistant manager of the environment, natural resources, and wildlife, an important role that allowed her to protect and replant trees.
In this story, trees are used and portrayed accurately, as one of the most important parts of any ecosystem they’re in, and very necessary to the Earth and its creatures’ well being.
The overall message of the story is that Wangari Maathai has accomplished a lot, and trees need to be preserved and protected for everyone’s sake, and I believe this is what the readers of this book should learn from reading it.
