Wangari Maathai
1940 – 2011 Kenyan biologist, environmentalist, Nobel Peace laureate
Founder of the Green Belt Movement and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Affiliations
- Green Belt Movement
Wangari Muta Maathai, born at Ihithe near Nyeri, earned a doctorate in biology and founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to plant trees and organise rural women. Her environmental work grew into open confrontation with the Moi government over land and democracy, and she helped lead the Freedom Corner protests by mothers of political detainees. In 2004 she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She later served as an MP and assistant minister and died in 2011.
Works in the library
- 2006 Unbowed: A Memoir
Connections
- rival of Daniel arap Moi — Clashed with his government over land, forests, and democracy.
In the timeline
- 1977 Wangari Maathai founds the Green Belt Movement central figure
- 1977 Wangari Maathai starts the Green Belt Movement central figure
- 1989 Protests stop the KANU tower planned for Uhuru Park mentioned
- 1990 Saba Saba rally demands multiparty democracy pro-democracy campaigner
- 1992 Mothers of detainees strike at Freedom Corner leader who backed the mothers' protest
- 1992 The Freedom Corner mothers' hunger strike mentioned
- 2004 Wangari Maathai wins the Nobel Peace Prize central figure