Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace
Price 2004
The First African Woman
to Win the Nobel Price in Peace
Wangari Maathai founded the Green
Belt movement in Kenya in 1977, which has planted more than 10 million trees to
prevent soil erosion and provide firewood for cooking fires. A 1989 United
Nations report noted that only 9 trees were being replanted in Africa for every
100 that were cut down, causing serious problems with deforestation: soil
runoff, water pollution, difficulty finding firewood, lack of animal nutrition,
etc. The program has been carried out primarily by women in the villages
of Kenya, who through protecting their environment and through the paid
employment for planting the trees are able to better care for their children
and their children's future. 
Dr. Wangari Maathai
Born in 1940 in Nyeri, Wangari
Maathai was able to pursue higher education, a rarity for girls in rural areas
of Kenya. She earned her biology degree from Mount St. Scholastica College in
Kansas and a master's degree at the University of Pittsburgh.
When she returned to Kenya, Wangari
Maathai worked in veterinary medicine research at the University of Nairobi,
and eventually, despite the skepticism and even opposition of the male students
and faculty, was able to earn a Ph.D. there. She worked her way up
through the academic ranks, becoming head of the veterinary medicine faculty, a
first for a woman at any department at that university.
Wangari Maathai's husband ran for
Parliament in the 1970s, and Wangari Maathai became involved in organizing work
for poor people and eventually this became a national grass-roots organization,
providing work and improving the environment at the same time. The
project has made significant headway against Kenya's deforestation.
Wangari Maathai's husband divorced
her in the 1980s, complaining that she was "too educated, too strong, too
successful, too stubborn and too had to control." (quote from Encyclopedia
of World Biography, 1999, Gale Group.) They had three children.
Wangari Maathai continued her work
with the Green Belt Movement, and working for environmental and women's causes.
She also served as national chairperson for the National Council of Women of
Kenya.
In 1997 Wangari Maathai ran for the
presidency of Kenya, though the party withdrew her candidacy a few days before
the election without letting her know; she was defeated for a seat in
Parliament in the same election.
In 1998, Wangari Maathai gained
worldwide attention when the Kenyan President backed development of a luxury
housing project and building began by clearing hundreds of acres of Kenya
forest. In 1991, she was arrested and imprisoned; an Amnesty International
letter-writing campaign helped free her. In 1999 she suffered head injuries
when attacked while planting trees in the Karura Public Forest in Nairobi, part
of a protest against continuing deforestation. She was arrested numerous times
by the government of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi.
In January, 2002, Wangari Maathai
accepted a position as Visiting Fellow at Yale University's Global
Institute for Sustainable Forestry.
And in December, 2002, Wangari
Maathai was elected to Parliament, as Mwai Kibabi defeated Maathai's long-time
political nemesis, Daniel arap Moi, for 24 years the President of Kenya.
Kibabi named Maathai as Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Environment, Natural
Resources and Wildlife in January, 2003.