Earning a PhD has been on the rise over the past few years, not only worldwide but also across the African continent. As the highest level of qualification offered by a university, a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) has attracted many scholars, despite various challenges.
Earning a PhD requires a significant investment of time, resources, careful monitoring, and diligence.
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Although the number of PhD holders in Africa has grown considerably in recent years, achieving such a distinction in past decades was rare, with one woman in Kenya standing out as the first ever in East and Central Africa to earn a PhD.
Times Digital Kenya explores the lady who holds this honorable record, a feat that would have been difficult for most to achieve a few decades ago.
Who was the first woman in East Africa to earn a PhD?
It was the late Professor Wangari Muta Maathai. According to an article by the University of Nairobi, Maathai became the first woman in all of East and Central Africa to receive a doctoral degree.
Prior to this remarkable achievement, Wangari Maathai earned a Grade One in her Primary Exams in 1951 before proceeding to Mathari Intermediate School, where she sat for the Kenya African Preliminary Examination (KAPE) and passed with Division One in 1955.
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After completion of junior school, a young Wangari Maathai joined Loreto High School and after 4 years sat for Cambridge School Certificate yet again obtaining first division.
Maathai not only achieved First Division at Loreto High School but was also celebrated for topping all subjects throughout her four years at the school.
How many honorary degrees did Wangari Maathai receive?
Wangari Maathai’s academic excellence in high school earned her a scholarship to study at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, USA.
The determined Wangari Maathai remained focused at university, graduating in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology after four years of study.
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Immediately after her graduation, the young woman joined the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a Master of Science in Biological Sciences in 1965.
After returning to Kenya, she joined the University of Nairobi, where she earned a PhD in 1977.
This momentous achievement made her the first woman not only in Kenya but in all of East and Central Africa to earn a PhD.
