2004 — Wangari Maathai Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

In Oslo, Norway, on October 8, 2004, the Nobel Committee made history. Wangari Maathai of Kenya was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman to receive a Nobel Prize. A biologist and teacher, Maathai had watched deforestation strip rural Kenya, forcing women to walk miles for firewood. So in 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement: plant a tree, heal the land, empower a community.

By the award, her movement had planted more than 30 million trees across Kenya and given work and dignity to tens of thousands of women. For Maathai, trees were never only trees: they were democracy and peace. A daughter of Nyeri showed that one seed can change a nation.