Kumi Naidoo was born in Durban, South Africa, in 1965, of Indian descent, and considering he was expelled from high school aged 15, he has ended up leading some of the world's most notable organisations, all before the age of 55.
Early life:
Influenced by Mandela and Gandhi, Naidoo was heavily engaged in anti-apartheid activities, even as a teenager, largely through the Helping Hands Youth Organisation. His expulsion from his high school at 15, was a result of his heavy engagement with a range of activities, including neighbourhood organisation, community youth work and mass mobilisation against the apartheid regime.
He was arrested on several occasions, for violating the state of emergency and for illegitimate mass mobilisation of protesters. Despite this, he gained a BA in Political Science from the University of Durban-Westville in 1985. But following an arrest in 1986, he took himself into self-imposed exile in England, where he eventually became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. This ended up being interrupted though - he returned to South Africa in 1990 following Nelson Mandela's release from prison - and it wasn't until the late 1990's that he finally finished his PhD in Political Sociology.
On returning to South Africa in 1990, Naidoo was keen to help those who had become disenfranchised under the apartheid regime. He helped out with literacy campaigns and with voter registration schemes, to ensure that all those who had missed out before, did not do so again.
Greenpeace: 2009-15
Naidoo was attracted by Greenpeace's commitment to direct action, but was ultimately only persuaded by his daughter, Naomi, to take the top job there. When he became the International Executive Director in 2009, he became the first African to take that role. He became known as an alliance builder and an agent for change. He saw connections between environmental justice and women's rights and human rights.
He was involved in civil disobedience in the Arctic, especially protesting Shell and Gazprom plans to drill in the melting Arctic ice. In June 2011, Naidoo was arrested in Greenland for scaling an oil platform owned by Cairn Energy. He was deported to Denmark, before eventually being released back to Amsterdam. Similarly, in 2012, he occupied a Russian oil rig in the Barents Sea.
He has been critical of the World Economic Forum (WEF) for not going beyond, "system protection and maintenance." He believed that the global business and financial systems needed a complete overhaul, and eventually came to use WEF to help him amplify environmental messages to big business and political leaders, and to help lobby for greener business practice and a transformation in the energy sector.
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| Naidoo, at the WEF Annual Meeting 2011 (photo: Wikipedia) |
Greenpeace scandal:
His time at Greenpeace was not without issue though.
His philosophy for Greenpeace was based on, "[the] need to create an understanding in the developing countries that we will lose our planet if they follow the example of the industrialised nations." This saw a new direction, with more action being devolved to the developing countries, but this involved huge effort and cost.
Then in 2013/14, a series of financial decisions were made by someone in the Greenpeace finance team that was to have serious knock-on effects. The person involved thought they could protect Greenpeace money, and reduce risks, by signing forward a significant amount of money (around €38 million) into other currencies. This play with the markets backfired, and they lost money, and ultimately this proved to be a major PR disaster for an organisation based on strong ethics and transparency.
It also highlighted some criticism of Naidoo, and his management style. He was accused of not managing the organisation very well, of spending no time on finances or the minutiae of running a large organisation; and beyond that, many Greenpeace supporters were not keen on his co-operative approach, and his broad brush of mixing environmental and social justice together, as this moved away from the single-issue PR triumphs that had made Greenpeace's name in the past.
Other involvements:
But that should not detract from some of the incredible work this man has put in over the last 40 years.
His campaigning to end poverty, and to protect human rights has also seen him act as Secretary General of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and also for Civicus, a Johannesburg based international alliance for citizen participation, from 1998 - 2008.
He has also been a leader of the Global Call for Climate Action, which brings together environmental aid, religious and human rights groups, labour unions and scientists - organising mass demonstrations around climate negotiations.
Amnesty International:
Then in August 2018, he was appointed as Secretary General of Amnesty International, succeeding Salil Shetty as the 9th incumbent of the role. On getting the appointment, Naidoo said, “I have been an activist and campaigner all my life, so I am excited to be joining the world’s largest people movement for human rights at a time when we need to counter increasing attacks on basic freedoms and on civil society around the globe. This means adapting to a fluid fast-changing global environment with urgency, passion and with courage.”
Research:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumi_Naidoo
https://www.amnesty.org/en/profiles/kumi-naidoo/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/12/kumi-naidoo-next-amnesty-international-secretary-general/
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/bios/kumi-naidoo/
https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/greenpeace-financial-scandal-how-the-organization-lost-millions-a-976868.html
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