04/04/2020
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Kenyan environmental and political activist Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.
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Wangari Maathai, was born on April 1, 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya.
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She was a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, becoming the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize.
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Her work was often considered both unwelcome and subversive in her own country, where her outspokenness constituted stepping far outside traditional gender roles.
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While working with the National Council of Women of Kenya, Maathai developed the idea that village women could improve the environment by planting trees to provide a fuel source and to slow the processes of deforestation and desertification.
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The Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded in 1977, had by the early 21st century planted some 30 million trees.
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Leaders of the Green Belt Movement established the Pan African Green Belt Network in 1986 in order to educate world leaders about conservation and environmental improvement.
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As a result of the movement’s activism, similar initiatives were begun in other African countries, including Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe.
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In addition to her conservation work, Maathai was also an advocate for human rights, AIDS prevention, and women’s issues, and she frequently represented these concerns at meetings of the United Nations General Assembly.
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She was elected to Kenya’s National Assembly in 2002 with 98% of the vote, and in 2003 she was appointed assistant minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife.
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Her first book, “The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience” (1988) detailed the history of the organization.
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She published an autobiography, “Unbowed”, in 2007.
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Another volume, “The Challenge for Africa” (2009), criticized Africa’s leadership as ineffectual and urged Africans to try to solve their problems without Western assistance.
Maathai
