The first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prizes has passed away. Wangari Maathi, died after a long battle with cancer, sources said. She was 71.
Maathi won the Noble Peace Prize for environmentalism and social activism. She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement where she moved poor women to plant 30 million trees. Her work entered improving the lives of women, building a relationship between people, the land, and education.
In recognizing Maathai, the Nobel committee said that she had stood up to a former oppressive regime – a reference to former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi – and that her “unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression.”
Maathai said during her 2004 acceptance speech that the inspiration for her life’s work came from her childhood experiences in rural Kenya, where she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water.
