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Nnimmo Bassey

{{Short description|Nigerian architect and activist (born 1958)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Nnimmo Bassey

| image = Right Livelihood Award 2010-award ceremony-DSC 7916.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1958|6|11}}

| birth_place = Nigeria

| occupation = Nigeria architect, environmental activist, author and poet

}}

Nnimmo Bassey (born 11 June 1958) is a Nigerian architect, environmental activist, author and poet, who chaired Friends of the Earth International from 2008 through 2012{{cite web |url=http://www.eraction.org/news/139-nnimmo-bassey-elected-chair-of-friends-of-the-earth-international- |title=Nnimmo Bassey elected chair of Friends of the Earth International |accessdate=2009-12-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122075338/http://eraction.org/news/139-nnimmo-bassey-elected-chair-of-friends-of-the-earth-international- |archivedate=2010-11-22 }} and was executive director of Environmental Rights Action for two decades.{{cite web|title=The Right Livelyhood Award: List of Laureates: Nnimmo Bassey 2010|url=http://www.rightlivelihood.org/bassey.html|publisher=Right Livelihood Award Foundation|accessdate=22 March 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140422190832/http://www.rightlivelihood.org/bassey.html|archivedate=22 April 2014}} He was one of Time magazine's Heroes of the Environment in 2009.[https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1924149_1924153_1924211,00.html Time] Time - Heroes of the Environment 2009 In 2010, Nnimmo Bassey was named a Laureate of the Right Livelihood Award,{{Cite web | title = Right Livelihood Award: 2010 - Nnimmo Bassey | url = http://www.rightlivelihood.org/bassey.html | accessdate = 2010-10-28 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20140422190832/http://www.rightlivelihood.org/bassey.html | archivedate = 2014-04-22 }} and in 2012, he was awarded the Rafto Prize.[https://archive.today/20130222233511/http://www.vl.no/samfunn/article401376.zrm «Raftoprisen til Nnimmo Bassey»], Vårt Land, 27. september 2012. He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of York, England, in 2019. He serves on the advisory board and is Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, an environmental think tank and advocacy organization.{{cite web | title = Health of Mother Earth Foundation | url= http://www.homef.org/ | accessdate= February 11, 2014}}{{cite web|title=We Need to Overturn the System|url=http://www.homef.org/article/%E2%80%9Cwe-need-overturn-system%E2%80%9D-nnimmo-bassey|publisher=Health of Mother Earth Foundation|accessdate=22 March 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303224614/http://www.homef.org/article/%E2%80%9Cwe-need-overturn-system%E2%80%9D-nnimmo-bassey|archivedate=3 March 2016}}

Early life and education

Nnimmo Bassey was born on 11 June 1958. He studied architecture, practiced in the public sector for 10 years and thereafter continued in private practice. He was active on human rights issues in the 1980s when he served on the Board of Directors of Nigeria's Civil Liberties Organization. In 1993, he co-founded a Nigerian (Non-governmental organization) NGO known as Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria) in order to advocate, educate and organize around environmental human rights issues in Nigeria.{{Cite web |url=https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2020/03/7-top-african-environmental-climate-activists-sustainable/ |title=Archived copy |access-date=2023-03-26 |archive-date=2023-09-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929235954/https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2020/03/7-top-african-environmental-climate-activists-sustainable/ |url-status=dead }} Since 1996, Bassey and Environmental Rights Action led Oil watch Africa and, beginning in 2006, also led the Global South Network, Oil watch International, striving to mobilize communities against the expansion of fossil fuels extraction.{{cite web | url=https://www.devex.com/organizations/environmental-rights-action-era-113168 | title=Environmental Rights Action (ERA) | Devex }}{{cite web | url=http://www.ejolt.org/2011/09/era/ | title=ERA - Environmental Rights Action | Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade }} Bassey has served in the committees of both Oil watch International and the regional arm, Oil watch Africa since inception. Oil watch Africa has membership in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Congo Democratic Republic, Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Togo, Kenya, Swaziland, Mozambique, Mali, Sudan, South Sudan and others.{{cite web | url=https://www.oilwatch.org/oilwatch-in-africa/organisations-in-africa/ | title=Organisations in Africa | Oilwatch }} Membership of Oil watch International spreads across South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.{{Cite web |title=Oilwatch in Africa {{!}} Oilwatch |url=https://www.oilwatch.org/oilwatch-in-africa/ |access-date=2022-03-12 |language=en-GB}} The Network works to resist destructive oil, gas and coal extraction activities. It demands an urgent shift from the dominant petroleum-fueled civilization. In 2011, Bassey founded the Ecological think tank, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation promoting environmental climate justice and food sovereignty in Nigeria and Africa.{{cite web|title=Nnimmo Bassey Biography|url=http://www.foei.org/en/media/resources-for-journalists/nnimmo-bassey-photos/nnimmo-bassey-biography/view|publisher=Friends of the Earth International|accessdate=22 March 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413021305/http://www.foei.org/en/media/resources-for-journalists/nnimmo-bassey-photos/nnimmo-bassey-biography/view|archivedate=13 April 2013}} At the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Bassey - despite being accredited - was "physically kept out" of a meeting.{{cite web | url=http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/17/a_naked_form_of_blackmail_naomi | title="A Naked Form of Blackmail": Naomi Klein on Secretary of State Clinton's Proposal to Set up $100 Billion Climate Aid Fund for Developing Countries | website=Democracy Now! }}{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Career

Bassey led Friends of the Earth International from 2008 to 2012 and for two decades, was the executive director of Environmental Rights Action.{{Cite web |title=Nnimmo Bassey |url=https://corporateaccountability.org/staff/nnimmo-bassey/ |access-date=2024-09-04 |website=Corporate Accountability |language=en}} He is the director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation and have served on the

  • To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa{{Cite book |last=Bassey |first=Nnimmo |url=https://www.socioeco.org/bdf_fiche-publication-160_en.html |title=To cook a continent. Destructive extraction and the climate crisis in Africa |date=January 2012 |publisher=Pambazuka Press;several African countries |language=en}}

Other books by Bassey include:

  1. Patriots & Cockroaches (Poems) 1992
  2. Beyond Simple Lines: the Architecture of Chief G.Y. Aduku and Archcon (with Okechukwu Nwaeze) 1993
  3. The Management of Construction [1994]
  4. Poems on The Run (Poems) 1994
  5. Oil watching in South America (Environment) [1997]
  6. Intercepted (Poems) 1998
  7. We Thought It Was Oil But It Was Blood (Poems), 2002
  8. Genetically Modified Organisms: the African Challenge (2004)
  9. Living Houses (Architecture), 2005
  10. Knee Deep in Crude, ERA Field Reports, ed (2009)
  11. The Nigerian Environment and the Rule of Law, ed (2009)
  12. I will Not Dance to Your Beat (poems), Kraft Books, Ibadan. 2011
  13. We Thought It Was Oil But It Was Blood- Resistance to Military-Corporate Wedlock in Nigeria and Beyond. (TNI/Pluto Press, 2015)
  14. Oil Politics – Echoes of Ecological Wars (Daraja Press, 2016).{{Cite web |date=2016-03-03 |title=Trade and human rights in the Niger Delta {{!}} Pambazuka News |url=https://www.pambazuka.org/governance/trade-and-human-rights-niger-delta |access-date=2022-03-23 |website=www.pambazuka.org |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Bassey |first=Nnimmo |url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/12863822 |title=Oil politics: echoes of ecological wars |date=2016 |publisher=Daraja Press |isbn=978-0-9952223-1-1 |location=Montreal, Quebec}}
  15. I see the Invisible (Poems) (Daraja Press, 2023).
  16. SHELL'S FPSO poses serious dangerhttp://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/sarticles/shell_and_its_dirty_tricks.htm

Awards and recognitions

  • 2009 Times Magazine's Hero Of Environment{{Cite web |last=Schjørlien |first=Publisert 02 10 2009 av Kay Asbjørn Knutsen |date=2009-10-02 |title=Nnimmo Bassey - Hero of the Environment 2009 |url=https://naturvernforbundet.no/international/news/nnimmo-bassey-hero-of-the-environment-2009-article9122-191.html |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=naturvernforbundet.no |language=no |archive-date=2020-09-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921152129/https://naturvernforbundet.no/international/news/nnimmo-bassey-hero-of-the-environment-2009-article9122-191.html |url-status=dead }}
  • 2010 Laureate Right Livelihood Award winner{{Cite web |title=Nnimmo Bassey |url=https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/nnimmo-bassey/ |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=Right Livelihood |language=en}}
  • 2012 Rafto Prize winner{{Cite web |date=2012-10-02 |title=The 2012 Rafto Prize awarded to Nnimmo Bassey |url=https://humanrightshouse.org/articles/the-2012-rafto-prize-awarded-to-nnimmo-bassey/ |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=Human Rights House Foundation |language=en-US}}
  • 2019 Honorary Doctorate, University of York, England{{Cite web |date=2019-07-23 |title=Nnimmo Bassey bags York varsity honorary degree |url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/07/nnimmo-bassey-bags-york-varsity-honorary-degree/ |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=Vanguard News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2019-07-28 |title=Bassey bags University Of York's doctoral award |url=https://t.guardian.ng/sunday-magazine/bassey-bags-university-of-yorks-doctoral-award/ |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News |language=en-US}}
  • 2024 Wallenberg Medal winner{{cite web | last=Odeh | first=Nehru | title=Nigerian writer Nnimmo Bassey wins 2024 Wallenberg Medal | website=P.M. News | date=2024-02-14 | url=https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2024/02/14/nigerian-writer-nnimmo-bassey-wins-2024-wallenberg-medal/ | access-date=2024-09-04}}

See also

References

{{reflist|35em}}

External links

{{Commons category|Nnimmo Bassey}}

  • [https://naomiklein.org/copenhagen-where-africa-took-obama/ Copenhagen: Where Africa Took On Obama By Naomi Klein - December 8th, 2009]
  • [http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/8/nigerian_environmentalist_nnimmo_bassey_the_global Article from Democracy Now]
  • [https://www.greengrants.org/2005/08/15/interview-with-nnimmo-bassey-greengrants-advisor/ Interview in Global Greegrants Fund]
  • [http://www.eraction.org/ Environment Rights Action, Friends of the earth in Nigeria] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050810081722/http://www.eraction.org/ |date=2005-08-10 }}
  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ltX3F02aXE Video of Nnimmo Bassey during the COP15 by The UpTake (Naomi Klein)]
  • [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/21/the_most_important_event_in_the Video: Nigerian Environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey on Bolivia Climate Conference]
  • [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/7/nigerian_environmental_activist_nnimmo_bassey_wins Nnimmo Bassey Wins Right Livelihood Award] - video report by Democracy Now!

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bassey, Nnimmo}}

Category:1958 births

Category:Living people

Category:Nigerian environmentalists

Category:Nigerian activists

Category:Friends of the Earth

Category:20th-century Nigerian architects

Category:21st-century Nigerian architects

Category:21st-century Nigerian people