Hello, I'm Mr. Robertson.

I love RE, and I'm really looking forward to spending time with you today in this fantastic lesson.

We are on the unit "Christianity: How Have the Experiences of the Global South Shaped it?" Today's lesson is all about Wangari Maathai, and the Green Belt movement.

A fantastic, extraordinary woman who I love and I know by the end of the lesson you are going to love as well.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain how Wangari Maathai's worldview inspired her environmental activism.

We have a number of keywords today.

We have Kikuyu, colonialism, activist, dominion and stewardship.

The Kikuyu are one of Kenya's largest ethnic groups or micro nations.

Colonialism is taking control of a country and exploiting the resources and people.

An activist is a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change.

Dominion is the idea that God gave humans control over nature.

And stewardship is the idea that humanity should look after the world God has created.

All of these keywords are gonna come up in the lesson, and I'm confident you will learn how to use them by the end of it.

So in this lesson on Wangari Maathai, we're gonna start with the question, "Who was Wangari Maathai?" Let's go.

So this is a photograph of Wangari Maathai, and I've got a question for you here.

Have you ever encountered a problem that felt too big? Have you ever felt too small to make a difference? How did you respond? So I'm sure at all times in our lives we encounter problems that feel huge and massive.

And often we can feel quite powerless that there's nothing we can really do to change them.

Well, Wangari Maathai was one of these people who didn't feel pessimistic.

She saw an overwhelming problem.

She stood up, she made a difference.

Let's find out a little bit more about her.

Wangari Maathai often shared this story, the Hummingbird story.

And if you don't know a hummingbird, there's a photograph of one there.

It's a tiny, beautiful bird we find in Africa and other parts of the world, beats its wings really, really fast.

In this story, there is a forest on fire.

The flames are crackling and burning.

The forest is destroying the trees.

The animals have fled the forest and they're standing around in a circle looking on helplessly as they see the fire burning.

And as they're watching, they see a tiny hummingbird flying back and forth.

It flies out of the forest down, finds a pond, takes up just a few drops of water in its tiny beak and flies back over the flames and drops the tiny water onto the fire.

And the other animals look on and say, "What are you doing? You are not gonna make any difference here.

You are far too small to make any difference." The hummingbird simply replies, "I'm doing the best I can." I love that story and it's such a powerful story.

It's worth really just pausing the video and thinking a little bit about what Wangari Maathai was meaning there when she told that story.

She often used to say, "I will be the hummingbird.

I will do the best I can." So who was she? Well, Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental activist and scientist.

She grew up in the central Highlands of Kenya.

We can see a map of the continent of Africa there.

Kenya is shaded in, and there we can see a close-up map of Kenya, the capital Nairobi, Nyeri county where she grew up.

She was an activist.

She was also an academic.

So Wangari Maathai was born on the 1st of April, 1940.

She grew up in the rural highlands, surrounded by nature.

She was a member of the Kikuyu people, and she was also a Catholic.

From a young age, she developed a deep respect for the land.

This early connection to the environment would shape her life's work.

She was both an intellectual and an activist.

Her academic journey took her far from home.

She studied in the United States, earning a degree in biology, and later a master's in biological science.

She then returned to Kenya, determined to use her education to make a difference.

And we'll see that is a constant theme of her life.

In 1971, she made history as the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a PhD, specialising in veterinary anatomy.

She later became the chair of the Department of Veteran Anatomy at the University of Nairobi and an associate professor.

Both achievements made her the first woman in the region to hold such positions.

We can see Kenya and we can see USA where she studied.

Okay, let's think about what we've learned so far.

Which of the following academic achievements was Wangari Maathai the first to accomplish? A, she was the first woman to earn a degree in environmental science.

B, she was the first African woman to study in the United States.

C, she was the first female professor ever in Kenya.

And D, she was the first woman in Eastern central Africa to earn a PhD.

Can you remember what we said? Which one of those is correct? Pause the video.

Have a think.

Amazing, she was the first female professor in Kenya, and she was the first woman in Eastern central Africa to earn a PhD.

Great listening, if you got that right.

Let's find out a little bit more about her life.

We can see an image there of some women.

What are those women up to? I wonder.

Let's find out a little bit more about her.

In the 1970s, Wangari Maathai became involved in the National Council of Women in Kenya.

During her work with the council, she listened to the struggles of local women.

Many told her how they lacked fuel for cooking and had to walk long distances for water and struggle to grow enough food for their families.

Using her scientific background, Wangari Maathai understood that these hardships were linked to environmental destruction.

Deforestation had caused soil erosion, the drying up of streams had left the land barren.

She saw a simple but powerful solution, plant trees.

In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, a programme that encouraged women to plant trees to restore the land, and we can see an image of a tree nursery there and some women working on it.

The trees would not only provide firewood and food, but would also prevent erosion and keep the water sources flowing.

So in what ways can planting trees be a solution? Well, you could see it could offer many different solutions.

The simple act of planting a tree can make a massive difference.

So we can see here a table of some problems and solutions.

The lack of fuel for cooking.

Trees provide a fuel source for communities.

Problem of walking long distances for water, trees stabilise and improve the soil and retain groundwater.

A struggle to provide nutritious food, well, trees provide a nutritious food source for people and animals.

So trees incredibly useful.

Let's just check our understanding here.

In what ways did Wangari Maathai see trees as the solution to the women's problems? Trees provide a.

Source for communities.

Trees stabilise and improve the.

And retain the ground.

And trees provide a nutritious.

Source for people and animals.

What words do we think are going to be the most sensible words to put there? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent, you might say, trees provide a fuel source for communities.

They stabilise and improve the soil and retain ground water.

And they provide a nutritious food for people and animals.

Fantastic thinking if you got those right.

Now Wangari Maathai understood that change took time and she believed in the importance of addressing the root causes rather than just the symptoms. The Green Belt movement quickly grew into something bigger, expanding beyond Kenya.

Wangari Maathai and her supporters found themselves tangled up in politics.

They were not just protecting forests, they were also fighting for human rights, democracy, and against government corruption.

Because of this, she faced many challenges.

She was beaten, arrested, and even imprisoned for her activism, but she never gave up.

Thanks to her determination and the work of many others, the Green Belt movement has planted over 50 million trees in Kenya.

Here we have another quote from Wangari.

She says, "You have to do things that don't happen overnight.

If you're going to solve many of the problems we deal with, you have to be patient." I wonder in what ways a long-term approach was more beneficial for the women Wangari Maathai wanted to help, and for the environment.

Why is it important to do things slowly and being patient, do you think? True or false question for you here.

"True or false, the Green Belt movement has planted over 50 million trees in Kenya." Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent, it's true, isn't it? Okay, let's carry on with her extraordinary life.

So Wangari's impact extended beyond environmental activism.

In 2002, she was selected as a member of the Kenyan parliament and became assistant minister for the environment, natural Resources and wildlife.

This led her to advance her mission to protect nature and empower communities.

In 2004 Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in environmental conservation and social justice.

She continued her work for many years, inspiring people across the world to care for the planet.

As we say here, when she has found that she'd won the Nobel Peace Prize, she remarked, "I didn't know anybody was listening." Well, they were listening because she was such an extraordinary person.

She passed away on the 25th of September, 2011.

But her legacy lives on not just in the millions of trees she helped plant, but in the people she empowered and the change that she inspired.

What a life she had.

Let's just check our understanding.

"Wangari Maathai was the first woman to achieve the Nobel Peace Prize.

True or false?" Pause the video.

Have a think.

Absolutely, it's not true, is it? It's false.

But why is it false? Well, it's false because she was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, not the first woman at all.

Fantastic if you got that right.

"Laura, Alex, Lucas, and Aisha are discussing key events and details from Wangari Maathai's life." I wonder who you most agree with and why.

Laura says, "I think the important detail was that from a young age, she had deep respect for nature." Alex says, "I think the most important events were her gaining her degree, PhD and professorship." Lucas said, "I think the fact she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 is the most important event." And Aisha says, "I think the most important event was when she founded the Green Belt Movement." Hmm, interesting ideas, guys.

I mean, there's all so many fantastic points made here.

I wonder who you most agree with.

You might want to pause the video at this point and think about what you think was the most important event in her life and the impact it might have had.

Okay, we're gonna do our first task today.

The question we're trying to answer in this learning cycle is, "Who was Wangari Maathai?" I'd like you to summarise Wangari Maathai's life and achievements in four detailed sentences.

And you might want to think about these points.

Her role as an activist, her educational achievements, the founding of the Green Belt movement, and of course her receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

And you might like to use a sentence stem to help you.

"Wangari Maathai was.

." So we've had a really rich story of her incredible life.

I'd like you to summarise that, please.

Pause the video and have a think.

Oh, amazing, what wonderful, brilliant ideas you've come up with.

So you might have said something like this.

You might have said, "Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan activist who dedicated her life to environmental conservation and social justice." You might have said, "She was a trailblazing scholar, becoming the first woman in Eastern Central Africa to earn her PhD in biology, later serving as a professor at the University of Nairobi." You might have mentioned that, "In 1977, she founded the Green Belt movement, which empowered women to plant trees, combat deforestation, and restore degraded land." Or you may have mentioned that, "In recognition of her efforts, she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, and that she left a legacy of environmental and social change." Amazing if you've managed to summarise some of these points in your own way.

Hope you've really enjoyed learning about her extraordinary life.

So for the next bit of the lesson, we're going to investigate Wangari Maathai's worldview.

Here is another image of Wangari with one of the trees that she was so brilliantly fond of planting.

Her activism was shaped by her Kikuyu traditions, the culture and tribe she grew up in, and Christianity, along with insights from other religions as well.

Her worldview was complex and these influences sometimes clash, which is what makes her such an interesting figure, I think.

However, she found ways to draw strength from each, using them to guide her mission of environmental and social justice.

And so we're gonna unpick a little bit about different strands that influenced and made up her worldview and see if that helps us understand her a little better.

So as we said, her worldview was complicated, but of course most people's worldviews are complicated.

And unlike other people, she was influenced by a number of factors.

So one of the big influences on her was colonialism and its impact on Kenya, which we'll talk about shortly.

She was also influenced from her community of the Kikuyu influence and how that affected her spirituality.

She had a Catholic influence from her schooling and attending church.

So let's take these in turn.

What we know about the impact of colonialism in Kenya? So Kenya became a British colony in 1895 and was officially named the Kenya colony in 1920.

White settlers took fertile land, displacing tens of thousands of Kikuyu people and banning them from owning land.

And that is the the micro nation that Wangari was from.

The British controlled education, religion, and the economy.

And missionaries introduced Christianity, which often clashed with and suppressed traditional African beliefs.

So as you can see, colonialism had a massive impact economically, nature, spiritually, in terms of political freedom as well on Kenya.

"Which of the following is true about British colonial rule in Kenya?" A, indigenous Kenyans willingly invited British rule and control over their land? B, traditional African beliefs were often suppressed by the missionaries who introduced Christianity? C, the British had no control over education, religion, or the economy in Kenya? D, the Kikuyu people were given equal land rights alongside white settlers? Pause the video and have a think.

Absolutely right.

B, traditional African beliefs were often suppressed by missionaries who introduced Christianity.

Fantastic if you got that right.

So we have an image here of Mount Kenya.

And Mount Kenya is situated close to where Wangari grew up.

Growing up in the Kikuyu community, Wangari was taught that nature was sacred.

The Kikuyu people see a deep connection between themselves and the natural world.

The land, trees, and mountains were seen not only as vital for survival, but as spiritual connections to ancestors.

For example, Mount Kenya is considered to be the home of the supreme being, Ngai, meaning "One Creator God." This mountain and this connection helped sustain the Kikuyu people.

Their ancestors had lived there for centuries and centuries.

They believed that the land was divine and therefore that connection to the land was really important 'cause it wasn't just about somewhere to live, but it was about identity and stories, a sense of belonging and purpose in life.

Now, Wangari was critical of colonialism and Christianity and the way it had been used to control communities.

She observed that missionaries often cut down sacred trees, such as fig trees, which held deep spiritual significance for the Kikuyu people.

Missionaries saw them as barriers to people worshipping the Christian God, which was meant to be honoured in churches.

She called these acts of sacred vandalism, arguing that when people lost their spiritual connection to nature, it weakened the community's respect for nature and made it easier for colonisers to exploit the land without reverence or responsibility.

So this is a really important point that Wangari was making.

The land had been sacred to the peoples of Kenya.

Colonisers coming in and disrupting that link actually then was leading to a loss of connection with nature and a lack of looking after it.

And she saw a real problem with the way that Christianity had been positioned against traditional African beliefs, which meant that that close connection with land was disrupted.

Now, Maathai considered herself to be a devoted Catholic and considered herself, as she would put it, "A good student of Jesus Christ." However, she viewed faith as a call to action and not just belief.

She was greatly influenced and admired how Catholic nuns who had a significant role in her education lived out their faith through service, and she saw her own environmental work as an act of service.

We have a quote from her here.

When she was asked about her own commitment to serving others, she said, "It is the nun in me.

They lived their faith, which many of us don't." What do you think Wangari Maathai meant by, "Lived their faith?" You might want to pause the video and think.

I think that this quote talks about how the nuns Wangari Maathai encountered, lived out their beliefs through practical action rather than just through work and ideas.

So I think this is really important, although Wangari was very critical about aspects of Christianity, the way it had come into Kenya and the way in which the missionaries had cut down sacred trees and split apart the Kikuyu people's connection to the land.

She didn't reject Christianity in itself.

She actually hugely admired the nuns and social action that they did.

And she talked about herself, the nun in her, and the importance of living out your faith.

So she was deeply upset by the way in which Christianity had arrived in the country and the way it had severed connections with traditional beliefs.

But she was also deeply devoted to ideas of service and could see the ways in which the church in Kenya was a call to action for service as well.

And this influence encouraged her to live out her beliefs about the environment as an activist.

Another thing that Wangari Maathai was trying to do was challenge and correct the idea of dominion.

She challenged interpretation of Christianity that promoted dominion over nature.

She critiqued belief that humans were put on earth to dominate and subdue nature.

Seeing this as a misrepresentation of the creation story in Genesis.

Instead, she encouraged people to rethink the creation story in Genesis, asking whether the destruction of the environment could ever be called good.

We have a quote from her here.

"When God was creating the earth, every day he would look at what he had done and would say, 'And that is good.

' So I ask them, 'If you look at your land, the way it is decimated, would God say, 'It is good?''" So I wonder here, how is Genesis, how is Wangari Maathai using the Genesis story to challenge this idea of dominion? The idea that humans can somehow have control over nature to treat it like they will.

You might want to pause the video here and have a think or talk to the person next to you.

As it says here, beliefs based on dominion tend to see the environment as something to be used for human benefit.

Whereas she is saying this question, "If you look at your land and the way it's decimated, would God say, 'it is good?'" So she encouraged people to revisit the Genesis story and view themselves as stewards.

Stewards, caretakers, people looking after God's creation, not subduing it, controlling it, taking whatever you want from it, but something to be valued and cared, in lots of ways, like the Kikuyu people's traditional ideas of the land.

Okay, a true or false question for you here.

"During British colonial rule in Kenya, the idea of dominion over nature led to the widespread abuse of the environment." Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Absolutely, it's true, isn't it? We've seen how these ideas meant that trees were cut down and the environment was destroyed.

I want to introduce you to someone now.

This is Njeri, and she is a young Kenyan environmental activist.

Wangari has really influenced her own worldview, Njeri says, "Wangari Maathai inspires me to embrace and heal my identity as both Kikuyu and as a Christian, showing how they are deeply connected and not in conflict.

My Kikuyu ancestors viewed nature as sacred, and my Christian faith calls me to care and restore God's creation too.

By caring for the natural world, I'm not just helping the environment, I'm living out my faith and honouring my heritage." This is quite powerful, isn't it? We can see how Njeri is managing to bring together her two strong identities, her Kikuyu ancestry and her Christian worldview.

She's brought together the ancestral idea of nature being sacred, and her Christian view, which calls for care of God's creation.

And you can see, can't you, how Wangari's ideas have shaped her own worldview.

Okay, I've got two final tasks for you now.

In the first one, Sophia, Jacob, and Andeep are reflecting on Wangari Maathai's worldview.

Sophia says, "She could not reconcile Christianity with her Kikuyu beliefs and rejected them both." Jacob says, "She used her Kikuyu beliefs to critique Christianity, but blended them together to focus on respect for the earth." Andeep says, "She saw no difference between her Kikuyu beliefs and Christianity, as they have the same values.

Which of these people has the best understanding of her worldview as we've explained it? And why do we think that? I want you to choose somebody and think about the evidence using the story of her life and the ways in which she interpreted some of the texts we looked at.

Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent work theologians.

So we might have said that Jacob's explanation is best because Wangari Maathai critiqued colonial Christianity, but she also blended it with her Kikuyu beliefs to emphasise caring for nature.

Sophia is incorrect because Wangari Maathai remained a devoted Christian and embraced her Kikuyu heritage.

Andeep was partly right that she found harmony between the two, but she did acknowledge tensions, as we could see where she critiqued the colonial Christian ideas and the way they destroyed and erased indigenous ties to nature.

But how she also wanted to reinterpret Genesis and focus it far more about ideas of care and stewardship.

Congratulations if you managed to write something similar to this.

Our final task is this.

Using Njeri's explanation, explain how Wangari Maathai's life and legacy have shaped Christianity.

Because this unit title is all about the global south and how it has challenged and shaped Christianity.

I'd like you to use the terms Kikuyu, activism, stewardship, dominion, and colonialism.

And I've got some possible sentence status for you as well.

We might say, "Wangari Maathai integrated her Kikuyu heritage and Christian faith, believing that.

." We might say, "She viewed the protection of the environment as an act of stewardship of God's creation rather than.

." And we might say, "She lived out her faith by taking direct action such as.

." Pause the video again.

What can we say about her influence upon Christianity? Off you go, theologians.

What amazing ideas.

So you might have said something like, "Wangari Maathai integrated her Kikuyu heritage and Christian faith believing both emphasised a deep respect for nature, which she incorporated into her activism.

Her Kikuyu background taught her that nature was sacred, while her Christian faith reinforced that responsibility to care for God's creation.

She viewed the protection of the environment as an act of stewardship rather than dominion over nature.

She challenged colonial misuse of the Bible to justify environmental destruction, instead encouraging people to see caring for the earth as a moral responsibility." And finally, you might have said, "She lived out her faith by taking direct action such as founding the Green Belt movement.

Rather than just speaking about environmental issues, she physically worked to restore and heal the land.

Her legacy continues to inspire people to connect faith with environmental care." Amazing if you've managed to make some of those points about Wangari's life.

I just want to close by reflecting back on her story.

Wangari said, "I will be a hummingbird.

I will do the best I can." I wonder how you felt she lived as a hummingbird throughout her life.

I wonder how her approach fits within your worldview.

Are there ideas in her worldview and teaching, and activism that might influence you? And I wondered what influences you to respond the way you do and why.

We've thought a lot about the influences on Wangari, but I wonder what influences affect the way you see the world and the choices that you make.

So to sum up our learning in this lesson, we've learned that Wangari was born in 1940 in Kenya.

She founded the Green Belt movement in 1977, which focused on environmental conservation and empowering women through tree planting.

We've learned she was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

Her legacy includes planting over 50 million trees and inspiring global environmental movements.

She challenged colonial Christianity's attitude of dominion over nature, and she integrated her Kikuyu heritage with her Catholic faith, advocating for environmental stewardship.

Thank you very much for spending time with me today.

I hope that Wangari's story has inspired you, that no one is too small to make a difference and that we can all be hummingbirds in our lives.

Thank you.