Remembering Wangari Muta Maathai 1940-2011

     
                Wangari Maathai, the first African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, died after a long struggle with cancer on 25 September 2011. She was 71.
                Kenya's most recognizable woman, Maathai won the Nobel in 2004 for combining environmentalism and social activism. She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, where over 30 years she mobilized poor women to plant 30 million trees.
                Maathai, one of the most widely respected women on the continent, played many roles- environmentalist, feminist, politician, professor, rabble-rouser, human rights advocate and head of the The Green Belt Movement which she founded in 1977. Its mission was to plant trees across Kenya to fight erosion and to create firewood for fuel and jobs for women. She said, "We're liable for the ecological system of these plants, without them, we won't survive either."
               This notable biologist was appointed the first female biologist professor of University of Nairobi in 1971, and latter elected the president of the Biological Academy. In 1978, she won the Germany academic exchange scholarship, the first female winner of the East Africa of this scholarship. Afterwards she was granted Doctoral Degree of Biologist.
                As the green party member, Maathai was elected senator in the initial free election in Kenya in December 2002. In January 2003, she was appointed Assistant Environmental Minister, in charge of natural resources protection. Recently she was conferred the title of "seniority holding a flaming spear"
                In recognizing Maathai, the Nobel committee said that she had stood up to a former oppressive regime- a reference to former Kenyan President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi.