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NAME: Wangari Maathai
LIFETIME: April 1, 1940 – September 25, 2011
WHAT SHE IS KNOWN FOR: Wangari Maathai was an inspirational Kenyan environmentalist and activist, founder of the Green Belt Movement and pro-democracy activist.
WHY WE LOVE HER: Maathai was one of 300 Kenyans selected to study in the United States through the Kennedy Airlift program. She studied environmental science and became the first East African woman to receive a Ph.D. When she returned to Kenya, she was refused a job at the University College of Nairobi because of gender bias and tribal bias. Maathai overcame this bias and became the first woman in Nairobi to be a senior lecturer, chair of a department and associate professor. At this time, Kenya was facing economic turmoil. Believed to have stemmed from environmental degradation, Maathai explored connecting environmental restoration to providing jobs for the unemployed. She started the Green Belt Movement, which encouraged women to plant trees throughout the country for a small stipend. Slowly the Green Belt Movement became one that opposed the single-party government. Not for the first time, Maathai was targeted for assassination by the government and arrested with other pro-democracy protesters. International pressure forced the government to drop the charges, but she was later attacked and hospitalized during a hunger strike. In 1997, Maathai decided to run for Parliament and for the Presidency. She did not win the election, but in 2002, she won 98 percent of the vote to become a Member of Parliament and Assistant Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources.
FUN FACT: Maathai became the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize and was the first environmentalist to win the award.
