Wangari Maathai: The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize

In 2004, the Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, a grass-roots organisation empowering local women to plant trees. It spread to other African countries and contributed to the planting of over 30 million trees. In 2016, Alex Last spoke to her daughter, Wanjira.

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(Photo: Wangari Maathai. Credit: William F Campbell/Getty Images)