Wangari Maathai

Who is Wangari Maathai?

Wangari Muta Maathai was born on 1 April 1940 in Nyeri, in the central highlands of Kenya. She studied biology in the United States before earning a doctorate in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi, becoming the first woman in East and Central Africa to hold a PhD. In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organisation that empowered rural women to plant trees to combat deforestation, soil erosion and water scarcity; the movement has planted tens of millions of trees. Maathai linked environmental conservation with democracy, human rights and women's empowerment, and she frequently clashed with the government of President Daniel arap Moi over land and forest conservation, enduring arrests and beatings. In 2002 she was elected to Parliament and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. In 2004 she became the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She died on 25 September 2011.

Sources: Wangari Maathai, 'Unbowed: A Memoir' (2006) · Wangari Maathai, 'The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience' (2003) · Norwegian Nobel Committee, Nobel Peace Prize 2004 citation