Professor Wangari Maathai Passes Away
Kenyan born Prof. Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize, died on Sunday night from cancer. She was 71 years old.
A statement from the Green Belt Movement website:
“It is with great sadness that the family of Professor Wangari Maathai announces her passing away on 25 September 2011, at the Nairobi hospital, after a prolonged and bravely borne struggle with cancer. Her loved ones were with her at the time.”
(Planting a tree in Nairobi 2006 with the visiting Senator for the state of Illinois, current president of the US, Barack Obama)
Maathai has accomplished a lot from an early age. After winning a scholarship to study in the United States, she returned to a newly independent Kenya, and became the first woman in eastern and central Africa to get a PhD. Maathai was also the first female professor at the University of Nairobi, where she taught veterinary medicine.
She has left 3 children, a grand daughter, and an Incredible legacy.
(Paul Martin, former prime minister of Canada, Ban ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, and Wangari Maathai.)
My she Rest In Peace.
RIP
RIP