Wangari Maathai has died. If you don’t know who she is, everything you could possibly want to know can be found here. I’m moving beyond her biography and just focusing on why I’m not crying.

She was an AIDS conspiracy theorist, believing the affliction to have been developed by white men to ravage the African race.

Shortly after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she was reported by The Stardard to believe AIDS, “was deliberately created by Western scientists to decimate the African population”.

Under the international spotlight at the time, she denied ever saying as much and denounced the claim.

But then in an interview with Time magazine in October 2004, we got this from her own lips:

YOU’VE SAID AIDS IS A BIOLOGICAL WEAPON MANUFACTURED BY THE DEVELOPING WORLD TO WIPE OUT THE BLACK RACE. DO YOU STILL BELIEVE THAT? I have no idea who created aids and whether it is a biological agent or not. But I do know things like that don’t come from the moon. I have always thought that it is important to tell people the truth, but I guess there is some truth that must not be too exposed.

WHAT ARE YOU REFERRING TO? I’m referring to aids. I am sure people know where it came from. And I’m quite sure it did not come from the monkeys. Why can’t we be encouraged to ask ourselves these questions?

Just like the whacks insisting the 9/11 attacks were plotted by the United States government, she’s just “asking questions”. Of course, she’s hoping people will come to a specific conclusion — which is why she packs in the conspiracy crap.

Notice she talked about “who created AIDS” before insisting it came neither naturally from the universe (“the moon”) nor from evolution (“did not come from the monkeys”). It was created by somebody. Someone had a reason to create it, and the “truth” exists out there.

She later issued another statement insisting:

I have warned people against false beliefs and misinformation such as attributing this disease to a curse from God or believing that sleeping with a virgin cures the infection. These prevalent beliefs in my region have led to an upsurge in rape and violence against children. It is within this context, also complicated by the cultural and religious perspective, that I often speak. I have therefore been shocked by the ongoing debate generated by what I am purported to have said. It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive.

And yet she told Time magazine that someone created the affliction and suggested the “truth” is being suppressed. Conspiracy mongering — as quoted by two separate, credible publications. Only to be denied in a statement later after criticism.

As Jamie Kirchick noted on Twitter, these “ideas” end up killing people. I’d mourn her loss as I mourn the loss of any human being. But I won’t be shedding a tear or canonizing her as others certainly will.