Alice Walker

After a warm introduction, Jay Naidoo, clad in a dress shirt and leather jacket, addressed a collection of about 100 students who gathered in the Bronfman Management Building on Thursday evening.

“What do you want to talk about? Well … OK, what does the future hold?”

At an event organized by the International Relations Students’ Association of McGill, this was one of several big questions that was asked by Naidoo, a former minister in Nelson Mandela’s post-Apartheid cabinet, current chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and human rights advocate. Rather than a lecture, Naidoo referred to the event as an “open house,” a forum in which he could respond to students’ questions and address what the audience was interested in discussing.

“He came to McGill for free,” said Lorenzo Garcia-Andrade, the speaker’s chair at IRSAM. “He said he considers universities ‘the nurseries of democracy.'” Garcia-Andrade’s position is a new one, having only been created this year. It is part of IRSAM’s drive to create a more externally oriented, but McGill-focused, portfolio within the student group.

Initially, Garcia-Andrade had envisioned a panel of speakers with different historical perspectives on apartheid. He quickly realized, however, that Naidoo “could [have] a whole conference on his own.” The range of topics Naidoo covered seemed to reflect the length and breadth of the entire International Development Studies curriculum. He discussed his own experiences in South Africa, the current upheaval in the Middle East, women’s empowerment, education, and grassroots organization, and the dangers of malnutrition for infants. Despite the talk’s broad range, the entire discussion seemed to go back to one important point: there are systemic challenges to global welfare. Naidoo believes that it’s up to the next generation to do something about these problems. “The system is broken,” he said several times throughout the discussion.

The charismatic Naidoo also occassionally elicited laughter from the audience with his commentary. “You all obey the rules here,” he said. “In Africa, a traffic sign is a bit of a guide. In Bangladesh there’s no guide, even. You just drive!”

For all his comedic timing, he made it clear that he is unwavering and serious about human rights issues. “It was offensive to have [institutionalized racism in South Africa] just like it is offensive to me today to see people dying of starvation,” Naidoo said.

In addition to his staunch advocacy for the union of pragmatism and humanitarianism, Naidoo emphasized the importance of human agency. “[This is] the question we have to ask ourselves: Are you going to fit in or are you going to change [the world]?”

The Egyptian revolution, he said, is another chapter in the never-ending struggle for a better world. Global solidarity, he said, in combination with democratic grassroots organizations and strong leaders succeeded in overthrowing South African apartheid. He added that any changes in the future will also require international pressure and internal agency.

Alia Jan, a U1 anatomy and cell biology and international development student, found Naidoo motivational, particularly with respect to his emphasis on students’ roles in development and his stance that female empowerment is key to development everywhere in the world.

A UQAM student attending the lecture said he’d come to the discussion already believing in activism and agency but that it was encouraging to hear that someone from an older generation still held to similar ideals. “In a sense I’m an old guy now,” Naidoo said. “I represent an old fight. I think the issue about you is what do you stand for? What is the value you see in the world?”

In the end, he said, the decade to come will be defined by the revolution of Arab youth seizing their future. “And that’s why I’m excited.”