Wangari Maathai

Kenyan environmental and political activist, the first woman in East or Central Africa to earn a doctorate, who founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to organise women to plant trees against deforestation and soil loss. Her activism repeatedly put her in direct conflict with the government of President Daniel arap Moi, and she was beaten and jailed more than once for opposing land seizures and unconstitutional rule. She was elected to Kenya's Parliament in 2002 and served as an assistant minister for the environment, and in 2004 became the first Black African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.