Abstract:
Wangari Maathai wrote her autobiography after her coronation as Nobel Laureate. This
had a consequence on the audience she chose to address and the content she would
articulate. This paper employs the concept of the organizing principle to demonstrate how
Maathai applies it in the autobiography to selectively construct a transcend persona who
grows beyond her Gikuyu ethnic identity and her Kenyan identity to become a global
cosmopolitan citizen.