Wangari Muta Maathai
Sign in to saveKenyan environmentalist and politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 (1940–2011)
AI overview
Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan environmentalist and politician who founded the Green Belt Movement to promote tree-planting and environmental conservation in Africa. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work linking environmental protection to human rights and social justice, and remains an influential figure in the global environmental movement.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
Wangarĩ Maathai (/wænˈɡɑːri mɑːˈðaɪ/; 1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on planting trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
As a beneficiary of the Kennedy Airlift, she studied in the United States, earning a bachelor's degree from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, and a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. She then became the first woman in East and Central Africa to become a Doctor of Philosophy, receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1984, she received the Right Livelihood Award for "converting the Kenyan ecological debate into mass action for reforestation."
Gallery (5)
Connections
Categories
1940 births2011 deaths20th-century Kenyan scientists20th-century Kenyan women scientists21st-century Kenyan politicians21st-century Kenyan scientists21st-century Kenyan women politiciansBenedictine College alumniCandidates for President of KenyaCommons link from WikidataConverts to Roman CatholicismDeaths from cancer in Kenya