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Early years
Wangari Maathai was born in 1940 in Nyeri in rural Kenya, she was fortunate enough to acquire a university education which was very rare for young girls in the area. She received her master's degree at the University of Pittsburgh. She returned home to Kenya and worked in veterinary medicine and then despite the difficulties of being a women in Kenya she obtained her Ph.D. Through discrimination and determination she made it all the way up the head of the veterinary medicine faculty. She was the first African woman to receive her Ph.D and become the head of the veterinary medical faculty.
Wangari Maathai’s husband ran for parliament in the 1970s and Wangari worked with organizations that helped the poor. She was instrumental in improving the lives of Kenyans. Her efforts developed into a grassroots organization. She was also against deforestation of Kenya and fought to keep the forests in tack. The organization was known as the Green Belt Movement; that movement, her work with the poor, and being the national chairperson for the National Council of Women of Kenya kept her pretty busy.
The middle years
The couple divorced in 1977. Her husband was quoted as saying, she was "too strong-minded for a woman" and that he was "unable to control her.”
After the divorce she began working for Economic Commission for Africa because she could not support herself and children on the wages she received from the university. She was forced to give her children to her ex-husband because the job required traveling and she could not bring them with her.
In 1991, Wangari Maathai was arrested for her part in trying to bring down the government decision to cut down an enormous amount of trees for a tower and complex in Uhuru Park. She ran for the Presidency of Kenya in 1997, but her party withdrew her candidacy and so she lost the chance. She did not even win a seat in Parliament.
The last years
Then in 1999 she was injured with a blow to the head when, “she was planting trees in Karura Public Forest in Nairobi, as part of a protest against continuing deforestation. She was arrested numerous times by the government of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi.”
She was finally elected to Parliament in 2002. Wangari Maathai was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her "contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." She was the first African Woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prise in this area.
Wangari Maathai died in 2011 of ovarian cancer.
