What was wangari maathai famous for

As well as having been featured in a number of books, she and the Green Belt Movement were the subject of a documentary film, Taking Root: the Vision of Wangari Maathai Marlboro Productions, She obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St.

Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas , a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh , and pursued doctoral studies in Germany and the University of Nairobi, before obtaining a Ph. The campaign encouraged women to plant trees in their local environments and to think ecologically.

The so-called Green Belt Movement spread to other African countries, and contributed to the planting of over thirty million trees.

Maathai's mobilisation of African women was not limited in its vision to work for sustainable development; she saw tree-planting in a broader perspective which included democracy, women's rights, and international solidarity. This movement responds to the needs of Kenyan women who stated their streams were dried up, their food supply decreased, and they walked great distances to find firewood for food and supplies.

Maathai would pay poor women to plant trees to reforest Kenya. This form of community empowerment is a different form of feminist activism to serve the needs of women and children. It was so effective and successful that in , she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to environmental sustainability, democracy, and peace, which fueled her passion to continue to vocalize her dissent about the close connection between environmental degradation and poverty.

Her outspokenness was not well-received by everyone, including the then-president of Kenya. While her work life was in turmoil, her home life was in turmoil as well. Her husband, Mwangi, whom she married in , told her on a number of occasions that she was too strong-minded for a woman, and he stated that he was unable to control her.

The place in the park where she demonstrated became known as "Freedom Corner. The following year, Maathai was beaten and badly injured at another protest in "Freedom Corner. What had started out as an environmental movement quickly became a political effort as well.

But I started seeing the linkages between the problems that we were dealing with and the root causes of environmental degradation. And one of those root causes was misgovernance. Maathai remained a vocal opponent of the Kenyan government until Moi's political party lost control in After several failed attempts, she finally earned a seat in the country's parliament that same year.

Maathai soon was appointed assistant minister of environment, natural resources and wildlife. In , she received a remarkable honor. Maathai was given the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace," according to the Nobel Foundation website.

In her Nobel speech, Maathai said that picking her for the renowned peace prize "challenged the world to broaden the understanding of peace: There can be no peace without equitable development; and there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space.

Maathai shared her amazing life story with the world in the memoir Unbowed. In her final years, she battled ovarian cancer. She died on September 25, , at the age of 71 years old. Maathai was survived by her three children: Waweru, Wanjira and Muta.