Biography
Wangari Maathai
Founder of the Green Belt Movement. Tetu MP and Assistant Environment Minister 2003 to 2005. Nobel Peace laureate. Died 2011.
Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement and won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai fought land grabs of public parks and forests under Moi and later served as an MP and assistant minister. Born on 1 April 1940 in Ihithe, Nyeri County. Died on 25 September 2011 in Nairobi, aged 71.
- Full name
- Wangari Muta Maathai
- Born
- 1 April 1940, Ihithe, Nyeri County
- Died
- 25 September 2011, Nairobi
- Party
- Mazingira Green Party
Education
- Loreto High School, LimuruSecondary school
- Mount St. Scholastica College, United StatesBSc in Biology (1964)
- University of PittsburghMSc (1966)
- University of NairobiPhD (1971), the first doctorate earned by a woman in East and Central Africa
Career
- 1970sLecturer, then head of veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi
- 1977Founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted tens of millions of trees
- 1989Stopped a skyscraper being built in Uhuru Park
- 2002 to 2007MP for Tetu
- 2003 to 2005Assistant Minister for Environment
- 2004Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman to receive it
What Maathai stood for
A liberty-first environmental and democratic activist who treated public land as a public trust.
- Social values: Leans socially progressive
- Land, wealth and taxes: Leans strong redistribution
- Institutions and power-sharing: Leans checks and devolution
- Political style: Anti-establishment
- Civil liberties: Liberty-first
Placed mainly from what Maathai did, not what Maathai said. See the full record, with every source.
Common questions
Who was Wangari Maathai?
Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement and won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai fought land grabs of public parks and forests under Moi and later served as an MP and assistant minister. Founder of the Green Belt Movement. Tetu MP and Assistant Environment Minister 2003 to 2005. Nobel Peace laureate. Died 2011.
When was Wangari Maathai born, and when did they die?
Born on 1 April 1940 in Ihithe, Nyeri County. Died on 25 September 2011 in Nairobi, aged 71.
What did Wangari Maathai study?
BSc in Biology (1964) at Mount St. Scholastica College, United States; MSc (1966) at University of Pittsburgh; PhD (1971), the first doctorate earned by a woman in East and Central Africa at University of Nairobi.
Which party was Wangari Maathai in?
Mazingira Green Party.
What did Wangari Maathai stand for?
A liberty-first environmental and democratic activist who treated public land as a public trust.
Sources (2)
Facts above come from these sources. Where they disagree, we leave the detail out. Spotted an error? Send it in.