Science

Wangari Maathai

From a Kenyan farming village to the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to an African woman.

Born: 1940 · Nyeri, Kenya
Roots: Kikuyu; rural central Kenya
Family: Working class; Farming family; studied by kerosene lamp in a village school.
Education: Kennedy Airlift scholarship to the US → University of Nairobi (PhD)
Started with: Scholarship; Selected for the 1960 Kennedy Airlift program that sent East African students to US colleges.
Affiliations & societies: None documented.; Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1960 · age 20
Kennedy Airlift
One of some 300 Kenyan students flown to study at US colleges.
1971 · age 31
First woman doctorate in East and Central Africa
PhD in veterinary anatomy, University of Nairobi.
1977 · age 37
Founds the Green Belt Movement
Pays rural women to plant trees; tens of millions planted over time.
1992 · age 51
Beaten and jailed
Repeatedly arrested under the Moi government for pro-democracy and land protests.
2002 · age 62
Elected to parliament
Wins her seat with 98% of the vote as the regime ends.
2004 · age 64
Nobel Peace Prize
The first African woman laureate.

Sources

Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.