Biographies

Nnimmo Bassey is the Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria and the Chair of Friends of the Earth International. Bassey first became an activist after oil conflicts with the Shell Petroleum Development Company escalated into a massacre in 1990, leaving 80 people dead and nearly 500 houses destroyed in the village of Umu Echem. Since then, he has become one of Africa’s leading advocates for the environment and human rights. Bassey has stood up against multinational corporations in his country and the environmental devastation they leave behind for both people and the planet. For his efforts, he was named one of Time magazine’s Heroes of the Environment 2009 and in 2010, Bassey was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, otherwise known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.