Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan biologist, environmentalist, and political activist, known as the “Lady of the Trees,” a symbolic voice in the fight for peace.

She was born in Nyeri, Kenya, in 1940, when Kenya was a British colony and the daughters of Kikuyu farmers did not attend school. Wangari’s brother, however, convinced her mother to let her attend the village elementary school with him, and a teacher recommended her to Santa Cecilia Primary School, a boarding school at the Catholic mission in Nyeri. Wangari converted to Catholicism, topped her class in her middle school exams, and was admitted to Our Lady of Loreto High School in Limuru, Kenya’s only all-girls high school. After graduating, and thanks to scholarships from American foundations, she earned a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—the first Central American woman to do so. She continued her doctoral studies in Germany and at the University of Nairobi, obtaining a PhD (1971) from the University of Nairobi, where she also taught veterinary anatomy. She became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and associate professor in 1976 and 1977, respectively.
On World Environment Day in 1977, she and other women planted seven trees in a park just outside the Kenyan capital: these trees formed the first “green belt,” which gave its name to the environmental movement, the Green Belt Movement. Beginning in the 1980s, Maathai spearheaded a vigorous campaign to raise awareness of environmental issues and deforestation, planting more than 30 million trees in Kenya and other African countries.
Her interest later expanded to human rights, particularly those of women and children, and the fight for democracy and a multiethnic society. Her work helped raise national and international attention to political oppression in Kenya, encouraging African women in particular to fight for a better life. For her criticism of the corruption of the Kenyan regime, she was beaten, slandered, and imprisoned several times.
In 1997, she became a symbol of potential female leadership by running for president. In 2002, she was elected Minister of State for Environment, Natural Resources, and Wildlife, a position she held until 2007. Through a strategy of education, family planning, sustainable nutrition, and the fight against corruption, the Green Belt Movement paved the way for development at all levels of society. Maathai became the symbolic voice of Africa’s best forces and the struggle to promote peace and well-being on the continent. Wangari Maathai is internationally recognized for her persistent fight for democracy, human rights, and environmental conservation. She has addressed the United Nations on several occasions and spoken on behalf of women at the General Assembly’s special sessions for the five-year review of the Earth Summit. She served on the Commission on Global Governance and the Commission on the Future. For this, she was awarded numerous international prizes, most notably the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.” The report of the Prize Committee states: “Maathai courageously stood up against the previous oppressive regime in Kenya. Her unique forms of action helped draw attention to political and international oppression.” She has been an inspiration to many in the fight for democracy and has especially encouraged women to improve their situation.” In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Wangari spoke for women: “I hope my success will inspire other women to take a more active role in the community. I hope to encourage them to raise their voices and gain greater power.”
In 2006 she published her autobiography, Unbowed (in the Italian translation, Only the Wind Will Bend Me, Sperling&Kupfer).
Suffering from cancer, she died in Nairobi on 25 September 2011.