Wangari Maathai

African Ecologist & Activist Wangari Maathai Awarded 2004 Nobel Peace Prize

Democracy Now
10 December 2004

Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004.

She is the first African woman and first environmentalist to receive the prestigious award.

Wangari Maathai rose to international fame for campaigns against government-backed forest clearances in Kenya in the late 1980s and 1990s.

She once said of the forest clearances "It's a matter of life and death for this country. The Kenyan forests are facing extinction and it is a man-made problem."

In 1992 riot police clubbed her and three other women unconscious in central Nairobi during a demonstration. She has been tear gassed, threatened with death by anonymous callers, and once thrown into jail overnight for leading protests