Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize, died on Sunday night of cancer. She was 71. Maathai was a pioneer from an early age and in many spheres. After winning a scholarship to study in the US, she returned to a newly independent Kenya, becoming the first woman in east and central Africa to obtain a PhD. Maathai was also the first woman professor the University of Nairobi, where she taught veterinary medicine.
