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First African woman to win Nobel Peace Prize loses battle with cancer
“The values she had for justice and civil liberties and what she believed were the obligations of civil society and government,” Mbaya said. “She also demonstrated the importance of recognizing the contributions that women can make and allowing them the open space to do so.”
Her quest to see fewer trees felled and more planted saw her face off against Kenya’s powerful elite. At least three times during her activist years she was physically attacked, including being clubbed unconscious by police during a hunger strike in 1992. The former president, arap Moi, once called Maathai “a mad woman” who was a threat to the security of Kenya.
By contrast, Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Monday called Maathai a “true African heroine.” also expressed sadness over Maathai’s death. The Nelson Mandela Foundation foundation hosted Maathai in 2005, when she headlined the foundation’s annual lecture.
“We need people who love Africa so much that they want to protect her from destructive processes,” she said in her address. “There are simple actions we can take. Start by planting 10 trees we each need to absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale.”
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.
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.
The Green Belt Movement, which was founded in 1977, said on its website that Maathai’s death was a great loss to those who “admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier and better place.”
Edward Wageni, the group’s deputy executive director, said Maathai died in a Nairobi hospital late Sunday. Maathai had been in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year, he said.
Prof. Maathai is survived by three children.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
