EnvironmentCivil RightsEducation & Advocacy
A legendary life
Wangari Maathai
Wangari Muta Maathai
1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011
Kenyan environmentalist, democracy advocate, Green Belt Movement founder, and first African woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Her story
A life that changed history
Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, mobilizing women to plant trees while strengthening livelihoods, environmental stewardship, and civic participation. She challenged land seizures and authoritarian government in Kenya and later served in parliament and as assistant minister for the environment. In 2004 she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.
“Recognizing that sustainable development, democracy and peace are indivisible is an idea whose time has come.”
Nobel Lecture, Oslo, 10 December 2004 — https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2004/maathai/lecture/