Biographies of remarkable women: Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan political, social and environmental activist and academic, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (2004), and the first woman in East and Central Africa to receive a PhD (in veterinary anatomy, University of Nairobi, 1971). She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization aiming to mobilize community consciousness for self-determination, justice, poverty reduction, women empowerment and environmental conservation, through tree-planting as a form of radical action.