In October 2004, Wangari Muta Maathai received a call from the Norwegian Nobel Committee informing her that she was the recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to sustainable development, democracy and peace, the first African woman and environmentalist, to win the prize. Maathai was one of those students who benefited from The African American Students Foundation, the “AASF,” an organization founded by William X. Scheinman to raise funds for African students to study at universities in the United States. Cora Weiss was its Executive Director and Frank Montero and Ted Kheel served on the Board. Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier, among others, led the initial fund raising.

Towards the end of the tumultuous colonial period of East Africa, Mau Mau uprisings and Kenya’s quest for independence, Kenyan politicians such as Tom Mboya were proposing ways to make education in the United States available to promising students. John F. Kennedy, then United States senator, agreed to fund a program through the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation to facilitate the AASF’s mission which resulted in close to 1,000 students arriving in airlifts to study at U.S. universities.  One of those was Wangari Mathaai. Another who benefited from financial aid through the AASF to study here was Barack Obama, Sr., father of the 44th president of the United States. www.AirlifttoAmerica.org

An ecofeminist, Wangari Maathai is most recognized for her work with the Green Belt Movement, an indigenous grassroots non-governmental organization she founded, focused on environmental conservation.  The movement received “seed money” from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Women and Maathai organized the Trees of Peace campaign, an environmental sustainable development mission, organizing women in rural Kenya to plant trees, to combat deforestation and soil erosion, while generating income for the community and promoting empowerment for women.   Since Maathai begun the movement in 1977, over 40 million trees have been planted and communities in Kenya have been motivated to prevent future environmental destruction. Maathai suffered many indignities provoking international outrage but persisted in her campaign and work with the Green Belt movement, her legacy to Kenya, the world and society, which earned her the Nobel Prize.  www.greenbeltmovement.org

Following the Nobel Peace Prize, Maathai received numerous other awards:   

Included in the condolences submitted by the most powerful figures in the world, none is more meaningful or relevant than that of Cora Weiss, former Executive Director of the African American Students Foundation, the organization which raised funds for the Airlift which brought Wangari Mathaai to study in the United States.

"Wangari’s death is a global loss.

Wangari Maathai, leader of women, peacemaker, human rights activist and optimist believing that if more people planted trees the world would be a healthier, better more lasting place, was educated in the U.S.

She came here on what she lovingly called the “Kennedy lift,” referring to the grant of $100,000 that then Senator John F. Kennedy arranged to have his family foundation award to the African American Students Foundation, the sponsor of the Airlift. It was 1960, Kenya and much of East Africa were fighting and negotiating for independence from colonial rule. Tom Mboya, a labor and liberation leader, organized an airlift that would bring hundreds (779 to be exact) students from Kenya and other East African countries to the U.S. for education that the British wouldn’t provide. It was the height of the cold war, the height of colonialism, and the height of the civil rights movement in this country. Mboya came here to persuade college, and some high school, heads to give him scholarships so East Africa could have an educated population of nation builders when Uhuru would be won. Scholarships were of no use if the students couldn’t get here. So he invented the idea of the airlift and I was asked to run it.Other directors included Frank Montero, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Jackie Robinson, Ted Kheel, Mrs. Ralph Bunche, and others. William X. Scheinman became a very close buddy of Mboya and was personally generous as well as helped raise funds. Tom Mboya met with John F. Kennedy, and following much discussion, the AASF, or the Airlift as we were known, became the beneficiary of a large grant of $100,000 which paid for three charted planes in 1960 (we had already brought 81 students in 1959 with contributions from hundreds of individuals). Wangari was on one of these planes. The story of the Airlift can be read in Tom Shachtman’s book, Airlift to America, How Barack Obama, Sr., John F. Kennedy, Tom Mboya and 800 East African Students Changed Their World and Ours.

Wangari was a risk taker. Her parents should be remembered for letting her come to accept the scholarship from Mount St. Scholastica (Benedictine College) in Kansas. In fact. Tom Mboya should be remembered for encouraging so many young women to get on the plane to places they never heard of. Wangari’s life story is well known and applauded by everyone everywhere. She is the third remarkable woman from the Airlift to be victims of cancer. Pamela Odede, who married Mboya, went to Western College for Women, in Oxford, Ohio. Florence Mwangi, graduated from Smith Collehe, went to Medical School and started the first clinic for women in Kenya, died of breast cancer. They were all remarkable risk-taking, generous, wonderful women who became nation builders for a free Kenya.

I loved Wangari. I admired her brilliance, her dedication to making this a safer, saner more peaceful and healthier world. I loved her laughter, and her wardrobe! Wangari worked with women who had more in common than conflict. They needed to prevent erosion so they could grow crops and also needed to be heard at decision-making tables. She worked with men, too….but was also a victim of their beating and arrest….. Wangari was a role model for all young women and men alike who refuse to be victims of violence or other abuse of human rights and want a safer saner world. The world needs Wangari’s in every country. Thank you, sister. Yours was a life beautifully and courageously lived."

Cora Weiss
Formerly Exec. Dir. African American Students Foundation (The Airlift)




Valerie Stephanie Anderson

                      October 11, 2011