Born in 1940, Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan ecologist and
environmental activist who founded the Green Belt Movement in
1977, causing the media to depict her as a latter-day Johnny
Appleseed who has planted millions of trees in Africa. (The
Green Belt Movement has been responsible for the planting of
more than 10 million trees to prevent soil erosion and provide a
source of firewood.) As a member of the Green Belt Movement,
Maathai has led sub-Saharan African women in provoking
sometimes-violent clashes with police. Though casting herself as
a hero of the downtrodden, she has demonstrated against
peasants’ economic interests. When Kenyan autocratic leader
Daniel arap Moi wanted to revive the nation’s dead economy by
building the world’s largest skyscraper in the capital, her
riotous actions dried up investment. Later, she led a protest to
prevent “small-scale farming” on African forestland and called
farmers “invaders” who were guilty of “rape.” In 1992, she and
the women in her Green Belt Movement foreshadowed