Kumi Naidoo Biography

Kumi Naidoo is the Launch Director of the African Civil Society Center. Passionately involved in liberation struggles from a young age, he continues to speak truth to power across the range of social, economic and environmental justice campaigns around the globe. He is dedicated to engagement, dialogue and change and seeks a green and peaceful planet for all the world’s inhabitants.

Born in South Africa in 1965, Kumi Naidoo became involved in South Africa's liberation struggle at the age of 15 when he joined the Helping Hands Youth Organisation (an affiliate of the South African Youth Congress). He received his BA in Political Science, cum laude, from the University of Durban-Westville in 1985. After the Apartheid government imposed a State of Emergency the following year, Kumi was arrested numerous times, charged for violating provisions against mass mobilisation and civil disobedience. Police harassment eventually forced him to go underground before fleeing to the UK in 1987. Kumi spent his time in exile at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, where he holds a doctorate in political sociology.

After Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990, Kumi returned to South Africa to work on the legalisation of the African National Congress. He was founding executive director of the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), whose mandate is to ensure that the traditions of civil society continue to serve the people of South Africa. In addition, he held several leadership positions on a wide range of education, development, and social justice initiatives, including the 1997 National Men’s March against Violence against Women and Children, the adult education NGO sector and as the official spokesperson for the 1994 Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). He is a former board member of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, the Partnership for Transparency Fund, the Global Reporting Initiative and Earthrights International.

From 1998 to 2008, Kumi was the Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer of Johannesburg-based Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, which is dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. He has also been the founding chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty since its inception in 2004. Kumi currently serves on the board of 350.org and Global Greengrants Fund.

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