Pambazuka – ‘Africa has lost a Great Daughter’.

Wangari Maathai was an amazing person. I first met her in Kampala during the CODESRIA Symposium on Academic Freedom. She arrived a day after the symposium. I was informed of her presence and her need for accommodation. I went looking for her and found her in the lobby of the hotel with a small sack of her belongings she had taken with her. When I made the obvious point that [she was] too late for the symposium, she replied, with that great smile that was her trade mark: ‘I know, but I made it’…