M And N Are For...

Happy Thursday! Still plugging along on the Big A to Z.  I am loving being back in the swing. What a great time this is as the home stretch looms near. Hope you are meeting and visiting some of the other awesome participants. You can find them by clicking here

M is for Wangari Maathai, an environmental and political activist from Kenya. In 2004, she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari was also the first East African woman to earn a PhD when she was awarded her doctorate from the University of Nairobi in 1971. Inspired by the environmentalists she saw here in the States, Wangari founded the Green Belt Movement in 1976. This is a community development organization that helps Kenyan women in poor rural areas plant trees to combat deforestation, restore their primary source of fuel, generate an income and stop soil erosion.

Maathai's activism led her to seek political office and she ran unsuccessfully for the Kenyan Parliament in 1997. However, she returned for another try in 2002 and was elected. The following January she was appointed Assistant Minister in the Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources, where she served until 2005. She used this time to found a political party to support environmentally minded candidates.

She continued to teach and to work for women's rights in Africa until her death of ovarian cancer in September of 2011.

N is for Sarojini Naidu, Indian independence activist, poet and child prodigy. In a country known for its disdain of girl children, Sarojini is a standout. She was the first woman governor of Uttar Pradesh state and only the second woman to ever be elected president of the Indian National Congress. Her political activism began after she joined the Indian National Movement and from 1915-1918, she traveled throughout India lecturing on social welfare, the empowerment of women and nationalism. She helped to found the Women's Indian Association and was chosen to go to London to speak to the Joint Select Committee to present the case for giving women the vote.

She counted Mahatma Ghandi amongst her friends and played a leading role in the Civil Disobedience Movement. She was arrested along with Ghandi on several occasions. 

Fluent in five language, Naidu was a child prodigy. She attended King's College London at sixteen and later studied at Cambridge. She fell in love with poetry and wrote about contemporary Indian life and culture, attracting a large Indian and English following. Some of her most well-known works include The Golden Threshold and The Bird of Time.

Fun Fact:

Sarojini was such good friends with Ghandi, she called him  "Mickey Mouse."