Sunday, 2 October 2011
Wangari Maathai: Obituary
Professor Wangari Maathai the environmental activist, human rights campaigner and hero far beyond her home country of Kenya, died last Sunday (25 September). She had kept her illness private, so it was quite a shock to hear that she'd been ill and died in hospital during surgery. The videos below tell her story and mission far better than I can. The work of the organisation that she founded - Green Belt Movement will go on. Wangari Maathai will be much missed.
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RIP Wangari Mathai [via KWELI Mag]
Wangari Maathai
Gerardo Ugarte
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Remembering Nobel laureate
Wangari Maathai in her words
Wangari Maathai passed away on September 25 at the age of 71, after a year-long battle with cancer. She was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the first person to win for environmental activism. Maathai had been first in a lot of things. She was the first woman in central Africa to hold a PhD and the first woman head of a university department in Kenya. In later years, Maathai was elected to the Kenyan Parliament and served as a cabinet minister. Maathai published a memoir, “Unbowed,” in 2007 where she recounts starting the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, which is responsible for planting more than 10 million trees to provide firewood and combat soil erosion — the project was carried out primarily by women. In a 2007 interview with Steve Paulson on To the Best of Our Knowledge, Maathai shared insights from her memoir and talked about how she triumphed over discrimination and tribalism in her native land and became an environmental activist.
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Wangari Maathai
Photo: Prof Wangari Maathai sits on a log cut down by developers at Uhuru Park in 1989. She fought and stopped the construction of a 60-storey building mooted by the Government of the day. (Seen via The Standard, Kenya)
Professor Wangari Maathai died on September 25th 2011 from ovarian cancer. The Government of Kenya announced she would be accorded a state funeral. More here
>via: http://fyeahafrica.tumblr.com/post/10809541199/kilele-photo-prof-wangari-maat...