IN MANY ways it seems odd that Wangari Maathai's life should have been so closely associated with struggle. Success appeared to come almost effortlessly to her, even though her origins were humble. She was born to a Kikuyu family of peasant farmers in Ihithe, a small village in the central highlands of Kenya, which was then a British colony. Though it was far from common in the 1940s for girls like her to receive an education, Wangari was sent to primary school-at her brother's suggestion-at the age of eight.
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