Annie Lennox Pays Tribute To Wangari Maathai

Annie Lennox has paid tribute to Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, who passed away last week.

“Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, sadly passed away earlier this week,” she wrote on her blog. "She was exceptional, visionary, courageous and inspiring, and I’d like to share a small part of her message to the world, in honour of her legacy.


“She tells a simple story about a humming bird, but the philosophy behind it is powerful beyond measure. Watch, and be inspired.”

The video can be watched here.

Wangari Maathai of Kenya was the first East African woman to earn a doctoral degree, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Over 30 years ago, she established a tree-planting initiative in Kenya to promote empowerment of women, peace and conservation. The Green Belt Movement helped Kenyan women plant over 30 million trees, and is now a worldwide campaign that aims to plant a billion trees in the next ten years.

According to Bill Clinton, in his book Giving, “In the last few years, Maathai also launched initiatives to promote waste reduction and increased recycling, to protect the endangered Congo Basin forest ecosystem, and to use conservation to help achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.”