Wangari is from the Kikuyu word for **"leopard"** in the totemic clan system of the Kikuyu people of Kenya. **Wangari Maathai (1940-2011)** was the **Kenyan environmental and political activist** who founded the **Green Belt Movement**, planting over 30 million trees across Africa. **The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (2004)**, the first East African woman to earn a PhD, and a member of Kenya's parliament.
Subject of the documentary *Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai* (2008).
Wangari reduces to five — the number of Kenya's Nobel laureate.