Nobel laureate Prof Wangari Maathai - (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011).
In 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. Prof Wangari Maathai was an environmentalist. She started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources for cooking and clean water. She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability.
“You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.”
She realized that behind poverty and environmental destruction were deeper issues of disempowerment, bad governance, and a loss of the values that had enabled communities to sustain their land and livelihoods, and what was best in their cultures. The planting of trees became an entry-point for a larger social, economic, and environmental agenda.
Green to her death, her coffin was made of water hyacinth and papyrus reeds with a bamboo frame and draped with the Kenya national flag. On top of the coffin, which was on a raised platform inside the hearse that had large windows, was a poignant reminder of what she campaigned hard for, a green plant.
Farewell to a fallen Green world heroine who had waged a campaign to protect the environment.
“We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!”
