Kumi Naidoo

- Activist / Humanitarian / Executive Director of Greenpeace Int. -

"Great struggles in history require decent men and women to put their lives on the line."

Kumi Naidoo was born in Durban, South Africa. Growing up during apartheid and witnessing inequalities of all sorts, Kumi felt a strong urge to fight for equality and freedom from a very young age. 
When he was 15, he joined the Helping Hands Youth Organisation and was expelled from high school due to his anti-apartheid involvement. He became active in neighbourhood organisation, youth work in his community, and mass mobilizations against the apartheid regime. Fighting for liberation, Kumi was arrested several times and police harassments eventually forced him to go underground at the age of 21. To get him out the country, certain progressive professors encouraged the young activist to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship in Oxford. “To be honest, I did not know much about Oxford. I was 21 years old and standing trial for violating the state of emergency”. The day Kumi heard his application was accepted, his home was raided. “For the next four months, until I fled to Oxford, I was basically on the run”. During the night of his arrival in the British university, it snowed and the next morning a friendly lady knocked on Kumi’s door and offered him breakfast; this was not the life he was used to. During his time at university, in addition to focusing on his academic work, Kumi was heavily involved in several student anti-apartheid organisations. Those years were a very repressive period for South Africa; Kumi’s thoughts never left his country. After the release of Nelson Mandela, he returned home to work on the legalisation of the African National Congress. Since then, he participated and held leadership positions in countless non-governmental organisations. He led a variety of initiatives in education, development, human rights, and social justice. In 1997, driven by his motivation to take action against the high rate of violence towards women in South Africa, Kumi organised the ‘National Men’s March Against Violence on Women and Children’.

Today, Kumi keeps on eagerly dedicating his time to activism and inspiring the younger generations; he is recognized internationally as a strong advocate for gender equity, human rights, and environmental protection. Atop many institutions, such as Civicus or the Global Call for Climate Action, Kumi serves as the head of Greenpeace International where his goal is to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.

Sources and more: Oxford Today, Rhodes Trust, Huffington Post, African Success

Why did you agree to become a part of amazers.org?

I believe that older generations of activists need to provide more support to young people and young activists. We need to make sure that we are investing in the acceleration of young people’s skills in campaigning and enable them to bring upon social change. As the current generation of adult leaders are failing to provide real leadership, I think we have an ethical imperative to show true intergenerational solidarity and dedicate time and resources to all young people out there who want to make a difference. This is why some of us who have been around and acquired certain skills in campaigning, activism and social change need to share those skills, knowing that a new generation of leaders will have to take on addressing humanity’s challenges moving into the future.

To which extent where your actions in life inspired by Nelson Mandela?

I was 15 years old when I first heard of Mandela. His whole public persona and personal history, even his face, were censored in the public domain. During the apartheid regime I participated in my first protest opposing inequality in education, fighting apartheid education. Over the course of our campaign questioning and opposing inequality in education, we first heard of the “Free Mandela” campaign.  Mandela became a major source of inspiration, because when he said that “the struggle is my life” I realized how powerful and true his statement really was. The struggle to eradicate climate, gender and social injustice take a lot of effort and time. As Mandela put it: the struggle for justice is a marathon, not a sprint. We all found inspiration and motivation in Mandela who was a model for all of us. Mandela also said that the struggle for justice is not a popularity contest and that injustice will carry on until decent men and women say enough is enough and no more, we are prepared go to prison, we are prepared to put our lives on the line if necessary. Even today, his words and actions remain an inspiration to young people everywhere.

Throughout your life, what were the driving forces that - in addition to human rights activities - lead you to focus on environmental issues, and ultimately join Greenpeace?

I grew up in Apartheid South Africa and used to think that environmental activism is the privilege of the rich. In the mid 90’s I started to realise that environmental issues cut across all other issues. For me, climate change is not only about the environment – climate change is an issue of survival, economy and equity. Because of that growing consciousness I started to volunteer for various environmental organisations. In my experience in the international development sector I saw how development projects that sought to address poverty and succeeded were rolled back because of  environmental degradation and climate impacts. I understood that the struggle to end environmental and climate injustice and the struggle to end social and economic injustice are two sides of the same coin. We have to ensure a balance between ecology, economy and equity. Greenpeace seemed like a logical place to make a contribution and there were two things about the organisation that really spoke to me. Greenpeace is an organisation that relies on millions of people around the world who contribute modest sums of money and help raise resources for our campaigns. We don’t take money from corporations or governments –and this gives us the independence to speak truth to power.  Secondly Greenpeace is drawing key lessons from history about how social change happens: those who profit from the status quo will not give up power unless there is a visible mobilisation. Greenpeace is committed to non-violent direct action and civil disobedience – we can only move forward in winning big struggles for justice when decent men and women stand up and say enough is enough and no more. Greenpeace is a life-loving organisation; nevertheless it does have that spirit of being prepared to take action.