Who Was...

Dr. Wangari Maathai?

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Dr. Maathai was the first woman from a Central African country to earn her Ph.D., she was the first woman be a professor in Kenya, and she was the first woman from an African country to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps her greatest legacy was the Green Belt Movement that she began in 1977. Dr. Maathai gave women trees to plant because, “she saw tree-planting in a broader perspective which included democracy, women’s rights, and international solidarity.” The Nobel committee said of Maathai that, “She thinks globally and acts locally.”

Check out our blog post from a few years ago: 

Source: Nobelprize.org. (2018). Wangari Maathai-Facts. Retrieved from: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-facts.html

A Noble Lady

Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli

As a proponent of education, empowering women, and conservation, Dr. Maathai worked to plant trees in her native Kenya to give people sustainable jobs there and to preserve the landscape. Her efforts were noticed when she received the Nobel Peace Prize.

This book and a companion to it, Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire Nivola, are now available in the Sullivan Lexington Library. They both have the call #: JF N.