In Unbowed,  Wangari Maathai recounts the political and personal beliefs that led her, in 1977, to establish the Green Belt Movement, which spread from Kenya across Africa helping to restore indigenous forests while mobilizing rural communities, particularly women, by offering them a small compensation to plant trees in their villages. Over the course of many years, Maathai’s extraordinary courage and determination helped transform Kenya’s government into the real democracy it is today and in which she has served as assistant minister for the environment and continues to serve as a member of Parliament. In 2004 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her “contribution to sustainable development, human rights, and peace.”