Story Summary:
- Nnimmo Bassey Receives 2024 Wallenberg Medal: The global environmental activist and Executive Director of HOMEF is honoured with the prestigious award by the University of Michigan.
- Historic Lecture: Bassey is set to become the first Nigerian to deliver the Wallenberg Lecture, titled “We Are Relatives,” focusing on love, humility, dignity, and respect for a sustainable future.
- Venue and Date: The award presentation and lecture will take place on Tuesday, September 10, at the Ross School of Business Robertson Auditorium.
- Background of the Award: The Wallenberg Medal honours humanitarians whose actions reflect the dedication of Raoul Wallenberg, a U-M alumnus who saved thousands of Jews during World War II.
- Notable Endorsements: Akinbode Oluwafemi of CAPPA praised Bassey’s global impact and noted that he is the first Nigerian and fifth African to receive this honour.
Global environmental activist and Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, will be honoured with the 2024 Wallenberg Medal today, Tuesday, September 10, at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business Robertson Auditorium.
Bassey will also deliver the 29th Wallenberg Lecture, titled “We Are Relatives,” focusing on themes of love, humility, dignity, and respect in his vision for a sustainable future. He will be the first Nigerian to deliver this prestigious lecture.
During the lecture, Urban Ahlin, the Swedish Ambassador to the United States, will reflect on the life of Raoul Wallenberg, the U-M alumnus and Swedish diplomat honoured by the medal for his humanitarian efforts.
The Wallenberg Medal, presented by the University of Michigan, recognises exceptional humanitarians whose work on behalf of the defenceless mirrors the heroic dedication of the late Swedish diplomat.
Wallenberg, a 1935 graduate of the U-M College of Architecture, is celebrated for his courageous rescue of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II. In 1944, at the behest of Jewish organisations and the American War Refugee Board, Wallenberg was dispatched to Budapest, where he issued protective passports and provided refuge to many Jews, ultimately saving over 80,000 lives.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), has congratulated Dr. Bassey on this notable achievement. In a statement released on September 10, Oluwafemi highlighted that Dr. Bassey is the first Nigerian and fifth African to receive the accolade, joining the ranks of South Africans Helen Suzman and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rwandan Paul Rusesabagina, and Congolese Denis Mukwege.
Oluwafemi remarked, “This award affirms global recognition of Dr. Nnimmo Bassey’s extraordinary impact. Bassey is renowned for his unwavering commitment to environmental justice and accountability, despite significant challenges, particularly in addressing the root causes of climate migration and the social and environmental impacts of extractive industries. CAPPA and environmental advocates worldwide celebrate this well-deserved recognition.”
Previous Wallenberg Medal recipients include the 14th Dalai Lama, Romanian-American Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, American civil rights leader John Robert Lewis, and Burmese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Bassey, an architect and director of HOMEF, is also a member of the steering committee of Oilwatch International, which opposes fossil fuel extraction in the Global South. He previously chaired Friends of the Earth International (2008-2012) and was co-recipient of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He was awarded the Rafto Human Rights Prize in 2012.
He holds honorary doctorates from the University of York (UK) and York University (Canada), and his published works include “To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction” and “The Climate Crisis in Africa and Oil Politics: Echoes of Ecological War,” alongside poetry collections such as “We Thought It Was Oil But It Was Blood,” “I Will Not Dance to Your Beat,” and “I See the Invisible.”
Share this
