Born in a small Kenyan town, Wangari Maathai excelled in Catholic primary school and earned degrees in the United States and Germany before earning her Ph.D. at the University of Nairobi. Although she did not witness it personally, Maathai lived through the Mau Mau uprising (1952–60) and the end of British colonialism in Kenya. Her background in biology and anatomy helped her identify the importance of environmental conservation as a success factor for Kenya due to the opportunities and resources it brought to communities and families, particularly in the unrest and instability after Kenya declared independence in 1963. In 1976, Maathai joined the National Council of Women of Kenya and began promoting the idea of planting trees to rural women—an idea that became the Green Belt Movement in 1977.