Wangari Maathai, African Environmentalist and Nobel Laureate

A Call For Peace
Maathai answers the October 8, 2004 phone call congratulating her on winning the Nobel Peace Prize in the Kenyan village of Ihururu. Working steadily to promote women's rights, through the National Council of Women of Kenya through 1987, as well as holding leadership positions with organizations like the Red Cross and the UN, she continued to promote the link between environmental destruction and the overall development of Kenya and other countries. She famously protested commercial development in Kenya's Uhuru Park, and led a 1992 hunger strike that freed political prisoners by the beginning of the next year.

• The Legacy of Wangari Maathai, Nobel Environmentalist