Kenyan Environmentalist & Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai died in Nairobi

Kenyan environmentalist & Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai died on 25 September 2011 in Nairobi. The first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai had began a movement to reforest her country by paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees.  The Green Belt Movement organization founded by her in 1977 mentioned that she had been treated for ovarian cancer in the past year.

Wangari Muta Maathai was born on 1 April 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya.  She won a scholarship to study biology at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison and received a degree in 1964. She earned a master of science degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She went on to obtain a doctorate in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi, becoming the first woman in East or Central Africa to hold such a degree.

Dr. Maathai, one of the most widely respected women on the continent, played many roles like that of environmentalist, feminist, politician, professor, rabble-rouser, human rights advocate and head of the Green Belt Movement.

The mission of Green Belt Movement was to plant trees across Kenya to fight erosion and to create firewood for fuel and jobs for women. The movement helped to plant more than 30 million trees in Africa and has also helped nearly 900,000 women, according to the United Nations, while inspiring similar efforts in other African countries.

She won the Peace Prize in 2004 for what her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. It was a moment of immense pride in Kenya and across Africa.

She served as a member of Parliament and as an assistant minister on environmental issues until falling out of favor with Kenya’s new leaders and losing her.  In 2008, after being pushed out of government, she was hit with tear gas by the police during a protest against the excesses of Kenya’s entrenched political class.