Nairobi, Sep 26: Wangari Maathai, the first African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, died after a long struggle with cancer, the environmental organisation she founded said on Monday. She was 71.
One of Kenya's most recognisable women, 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 mobilised poor women to plant 30 (m) million trees.
In recognising Maathai, the Nobel committee said that she had stood up to a former oppressive regime in Kenya 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.
Although the Green Belt Movement's tree-planting campaign did not initially address the issues of peace and democracy, Maathai said it become clear over time that responsible governance of the environment was not possible without democracy.
“Wangari has distinguished herself as one of the best faces of Africa and therefore it is a terrible loss to all of this country, to the African region and I am sure to the entire world because she was unlike anybody else when it came to issues to do with environment and preservation of the same,” Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka Kenya's Vice President said.
A former member of Kenya's parliament, Maathai was the first woman to earn a doctorate in East Africa - in 1971 from the University of Nairobi, where she later was an associate professor in the department of veterinary anatomy.
She previously earned degrees from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas and the University of Pittsburgh.
A long time friend and fellow professor at the University of Nairobi, Vertistine Mbaya said that Maathai showed the world how important it is to have and demonstrate courage.
Maathai first latched on to the idea of widespread tree planting while serving as the chairwoman of the National Council of Women in Kenya during the 1980s.
Maathai is survived by her three children. Funeral arrangements were to be announced soon, the Green Belt Movement said. AP
