Abstract
The late Professor Wangari Maathai is perhaps the best-known daughter of Africa, having won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her leadership and activism in political and environmental justice issues. An unsung local heroic leader for many years before she gained international attention and won many international awards, Professor Maathai initiated a grassroots movement to plant trees as a practical solution to the problems brought about by massive deforestation in Kenya (Maathai 2007, 2010). As a leader, Maathai demonstrates many leadership approaches, the overall approach being “radical leadership,” defined as engaging in transformative actions toward the common good in spite of the personal cost. In this chapter, I profile Professor Maathai’s leadership journey, focusing on using her story to illustrate leadership lessons that may resonate with established and emerging leaders, particularly those invested in social justice leadership.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Chang, H., F. W. Ngunjiri, and K.-A. C. Hernandez, 2013. Collaborative Autoethnography. Walnut Creek: LeftCoast Press.
Christman, D., and R. McClellan, 2008. “‘Living on Barbed Wire’: Resilient Women Administrators in Educational Leadership Programs,” Educational Administration Quarterly, 44: 3–29.
Collins, P. PL, 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman.
Crenshaw, K., 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics,” The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 139–167.
—, 1991. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review, 43: 1241–1299.
Greenleaf, R. K., 1977. Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press.
Kenyatta, J., 1938, 1979. Facing Mount Kenya: The Traditional Life of the Gikuyu. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.
Kouzes, J. M., and B. Z. Posner, 2007. The Leadership Challenge (Fourth Edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Khoza, R. J., 2011. Attuned Leadership: African Humanism as Compass. Johannesburg: Penguin Books.
Maathai, W., 2006. Unbowed: A Memoir (First Edtion). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Maathai, W., 2010. Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World (First Edition). New York: Doubleday.
Maathai, W., 2009. The Challenge for Africa: A New Vision. London: William Heinemann.
Mangaliso, M. P., 2001. “Building Competitive Advantage from Ubuntu: Management Lessons from South Africa,” Academy of Management Executive, 15: 23–33.
Mbiti, J. S., 1969. African Religions and Philosophy. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers Ltd.
McClellan, P. A., 2010. “Toward Critical Servant Leadership in Graduate Schools of Education: From Theoretical Construct to Social Jutice Praxis,” in Horsford (Ed.), New Perspectives in Educational Leadership, 89–108. New York: Peter Lang.
Meyerson, D. E., 2001. Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
—, 2004. “The Tempered Radical: How Employees Push their Companies Little by Little to Be More Socially Responsible,” Stanford Social Innovation Review. 13–22.
Mogadime, D., P. Mentz, D. E. Armstrong, and B. Holtam, 2010. “Constructing Self as Leader: Case Studies of Women Who Are Change Agents in South Africa,” Urban Education, 45: 797–821.
Ndletyana, D., 2003. “The Impact of Culture on Team Learning in a South African Context,” Advances in Developing Human Resources, 5: 84–102.
Ngunjiri, F. W., 2007a. “Motherhood Deconstructed: African Women Finding Fulfillment in Serving Humanity,” paper presented at the 93rd Annual Conference of the National Communication Association, Chicago.
—, 2007b. “Rocking the Boat without Falling out: Spirited Tempered Radicals as Agents of Community Transformation,” UCEA Review, 44:4.
—, 2009. “Servant Leadership and Motherhood: Kenyan Women Finding Fulfillment in Serving Humanity,” Gender, Development and Globalization Working Paper # 294. http://www.wid.msu.edu/resources/papers/pdf/WP294.pdf
—, 2010a. “Lessons in Spiritual Leadership from Kenyan Women,” Journal of Educational Administration, 48: 755–768.
—, 2010b. Women’s Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Nkomo, S. M., 2011. “A Postcolonial and Anti-colonial Reading of ‘African’ Leadership and Management in Organization Studies: Tensions, Contradictions and Possibilities,” Organization, 18: 365–386.
Nkomo, S., and H. Ngambi, 2009. “African Women in Leadership: Current Knowledge and a Framework for Future Studies,” International Journal of African Renaissance Studies-Multi, Inter- and Transdisciplinary, 4: 49–68.
Ntiri, D. W., 2001. “Reassessing Africana Womanism: Continuity and Change,” The Western Journal of Black Studies, 25: 163–167
Oduyoye, M. A., 1995. Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Partriarchy. New York: Maryknoll.
Ospina, S., and E. Foldy, 2009. “A Critical Review of Race and Ethnicity in the Leadership Literature: Surfacing Context, Power and the Collective Dimensions of Leadership,” The Leadership Quarterly, 20: 876–896.
Oyewumi, O., 1997 The Invention of Woman: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Paris, P. J., 1995. The Spirituality of African Peoples: The Search for a Common Moral Discourse. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Ramsey, J. L., and R. Blieszner, 1999. Spiritual Resiliency in Older Women: Models of Strength for Challenges through the Life Span. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Shields, S., 2008. “Gender: An Intersectionality Perspective,” Sex Roles, 59: 301–311.
Spears, L. C., 2002. “Introduction: Tracing the Past, Present and Future of Servant Leadership,” in Spears, Lawrence, and Blanchard (Eds.), Focus on Leadership: Servant Leadership for the 21st Century, 1–18. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2014 Baba G. Jallow
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ngunjiri, F.W. (2014). “I Will Be a Hummingbird”: Lessons in Radical Transformative Leadership from Professor Wangari Maathai. In: Jallow, B.G. (eds) Leadership in Postcolonial Africa. Palgrave Studies in African Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137478122_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137478122_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50223-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47812-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)