Kenyan environmentalist and political activist Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, will visit the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Wednesday, April 26 for her presentation, "Sustainable Development, Democracy, and Peace: A Critical Link." The public portion of the program begins at 6:45 p.m. Seating is free, on a first-come basis.
Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize for her "contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace," is a globally respected environmentalist who has fought to preserve Kenya's natural habitats and establish sustainable, environmentally sound developmental policy. In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots environmental organization whose program, carried out primarily by women in the villages of Kenya, has planted more than 30 million trees to prevent soil erosion and improve the environment.
In addition to her charge for environmental responsibility, Mathaai has been imprisoned for demanding multi-party elections and calling for the eradication of tribal politics and political corruption. "Maathai stood up courageously against the former oppressive regime in Kenya," the Nobel committee wrote upon her selection. Added committee chairman Oje Danbolt Mjoes, "Maathai stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic and cultural development in Kenya and in Africa."
Maathai was elected to parliament in 2002 with an overwhelming 98 percent of the vote, and has served as assistant minister in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife since 2003the same year she founded the Mazingira Green Party of Kenya. In 2005 she was elected as the first president of the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council.
Maathai received her master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh before earning her Ph.D. in veterinary science the first doctorate awarded to an Eastern African woman at the University of Nairobi. In addition to winning the Nobel Peace Prize, she has been honored with the Edinburgh Medal ("for outstanding contributions to humanity through science"), the Petra Kelly Prize for Environment, and the U.N.'s Africa Prize for Leadership. She is the author of The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (1985).
Maathai's lecture is made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and support from the Roberts Environmental Center, the Office of the President at CMC, and the David E. French Lectureship Fund.
For more information: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/mmca/.