Nnimmo Bassey

Nnimmo Bassey is director of the ecological think tank Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and a member of the steering committee of Oilwatch International. He was chair of Friends of the Earth International (2008-2012) and executive director of Nigeria’s Environmental Rights Action (1993-2013). He was a co-recipient of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Noble Prize.” In 2012 he received the Rafto Human Rights Award. In 2014 he received Nigeria’s national honor as Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) in recognition of his environmental activism. Bassey is a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects and has authored books on the environment, architecture, and poetry. His books include two volumes of poetry—“We Thought It Was Oil, But It was Blood” (Kraft Books, 2002), and “I Will Not Dance to Your Beat” (Kraft Books, 2011)—as well as “To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa” (Pambazuka Press, 2012) and “Oil Politics: Echoes of Ecological War” (Daraja Press, 2016).