News
Linda Norgrove
You Can Take Her Life but You Can Never Take Her Spirit
IDPM staff and students have been deeply saddened and shocked by the death of Linda Norgrove in Afghanistan on 9 October 2010.
Linda had completed a PhD at the Institute between 1999 and 2003 and was well-known – for her academic work, her support for friends and colleagues as well as roller-blading, mountain walking and long distance cycling. Her death is a sad loss for all of us and our condolences and thoughts go out to her parents and family who have suffered so much and are devastated by these terrible events.
Linda was working on local development schemes in a remote, rural area in East Afghanistan when she was kidnapped while travelling back from inaugurating a new small scale, irrigation scheme. After two weeks of negotiation, and strong efforts by local leaders to have her released, an attempt to rescue her failed.
As the media coverage has pointed out in detail, Linda was highly regarded by her Afghani and expatriate colleagues – she had the analytical and practical skills to get things done on the ground (in the most difficult of environments), was committed to improving the livelihoods of villagers in the country, had learned the local language, was known to be very sensitive to local social and cultural norms and never expected or asked for special treatment (she experienced the extreme heat and cold of Afghanistan without complaint and ate whatever local colleagues were eating). As everyone from local leaders to UK Ministers has pointed out she was one of the few people in the world who have the values, and have developed the skills, to help improve living standards in such difficult contexts. She fully understood how dangerous this work was – but, someone had to try to help rural Afghanis improve their livelihoods and she was prepared to take the risks.
Linda’s life has been tragically and unfairly shortened – but, what a life it was.
Born in the Highlands she moved at an early age to the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides and that became the ‘home’ she loved throughout her life. She studied Biology at Aberdeen (no surprise she got a ‘first’), Rural development at Wye College (no surprise, a distinction) and then went to work on a community conservation project in Mexico. My first contact with her was when she wrote from Mexico to enquire if I would be interested in supervising her PhD. I was impressed with her academic track record, focus, experience and energy. Once I received a reference from Aberdeen I knew I wanted to be her supervisor – it praised her academic ability and said: “you don’t get many students who cycle across the USA at the end of their first year…you never expect to get one who cycles across Tibet to Nepal at the end of their second year”. Linda was blessed with extraordinary energy and organizational skills – she ran projects with great efficiency in difficult environments, cycled across continents and trekked across mountain ranges in her gentle and relaxed style. She was never in a hurry but things got done and complex plans fell into place in a very short time.
I had the privilege of spending time with Linda at her PhD field site in Mount Elgon, Uganda where she was analysing the shift of the National Park from a ‘fines and fences’ approach to ‘community conservation’. What a field site – 5-hour long climbs up steep, muddy paths to isolated villages where she stayed in a widow’s home (leaking grass roof and bamboo walls) and ate the local diet – matoke, matoke and matoke (plantains). In that visit I had many insights into Linda’s brilliant fieldwork skills and also her personal philosophy – not because she preached about it but just because you just had to ask questions.
- Why had she chosen to live in a poor quality hut when at her field site rather than something more weather and vermin proof? Because she wanted her rent payments to go to someone who was poor and had no other opportunities (and she did not want to give charity to poor people).
- Why was she eating meat when I had thought she was a vegetarian in Manchester? Because humans are omnivores and she would only eat animals that had been treated well during their lives – so Mount Elgon’s free ranging chickens were OK but the factory farmed meat of Europe was not.
At the end of my stay we trekked up Elgon and I wondered whether we would fail to reach the top as it looked like the rains were coming in strongly on the last day. Linda explained that for her this was not a problem – the trek was great and we had been walking through an amazing environment with superb landscapes – you do not have to get to the top…if the weather stops you then that is just the way it is.
On the completion of her PhD Linda had the opportunity to move into academic life with a two-year fellowship at the University of Santiago looking at community conservation in Chile. She chose, however, to move into operational work and moved to Peru to become WWF’s project officer for the Peruvian Amazon – a lawless area experiencing illegal logging and pitting her against the interests of a powerful local elite. From Peru she moved on to Afghanistan as UNEP’s officer trying to re-establish the country’s national parks in a way that would generate jobs and incomes for local residents. She fell in love with the country and the people and, after a spell in Laos, returned to work on rural development projects in remote rural areas. While her kidnapping must have been a terrible ordeal I can think of few other people as personally well-equipped to deal with being a hostage in an isolated and mountainous area. I suspect that as she was moved from village to village she still marvelled at the landscape and the way people made a living from it.
There is one message I am sure Linda would have had for the world during her last fortnight. It is that these terrible events must not be ascribed to the people of Afghanistan in any general sense. Those who kidnapped and killed her may be prepared to do wicked things but the people of Afghanistan are just like you and me – trying to make a living, improve things for their kids and do no harm to other people. Linda was trying to help them do that – she may have died but her spirit continues as strong as ever – a life well-lived.
Professor David Hulme
If you'd like to post a comment on this page in remembrance of Linda, email idpmweb@manchester.ac.uk.
Comments
Linda
Though I haven't been able to see you, but surely you will continue to live (in the lives of people who knew you, who heard about you and who will hear about you) and contribute through your passion and the work you started. What I have heard about you is a long life and bright future cut short. Your works of making a difference in hard situations is an eternal testimony of your passion and uniqueness.
Mayeso Undi - Postgraduate student
I read on the UK newspapers about Linda Norgrove's death in Afganistan. So I would like to send my condolences and thoughts to her family and friends at the University and elsewhere. As a colleague at the PhD programme in Manchester, during the time we were in the preparation of our PhD Theses she had always some good word for everybody. And she was so happy to get a job in the field (it was first in Peru). So she was focused on helping people from other countries to set up natural parks and to make a living from their natural environment. It is very sad for us. But we can assure that her parents and friends must be proud of her short career because it was driven by kindness, and it has been intense and plenty of very good achievements for her and for the whole of humanity.
Jose Maria de Oliveira, Ph.D.
Linda... I can't believe you are gone nor accept the tragic way a beautiful life has been cut short. For the last few days I have been remembering over and over again the many lovely times we shared in Manchester. You were one of my first friends there and together I experienced different Manchester....even when the sunless..rainy days were just too much for a tropical person like me. I will never forget your pictures of Afghanistan....where rather than the violence and warfare you showed us beauty and simplicity. Too often we only see the 'bad' sides and not enough the positives and commonalities that should bring us together rather than tear us apart on meaningless issues of colour, religions and languages. Your work and dedication inspires me to keep trying to make a difference. I am proud to have known you.
Marisa Fernando - Sri Lanka
I heard from a colleague of late Dr. Linda Norgrove and about this tragedy in
Kabul, and as a citizen of Afghanistan I want to send my condolences and
thoughts to her family and friends at the University and elsewhere.
Personally, I did not have the chance to see her in Afghanistan, but please let me say that there are many people here that want to share their condolences with you including my family. Unfortunately Afghanistan still remains one of the poorest country in the world and faces serious challenges in regards to INSECURITY, international terrorism and etc. I want to ask all foreign experts/aid workers to please NOT travel to the insecure areas of my country, especially in rural areas on the border with Pakistan, because most of these areas are controlling by the Taliban and other armed oppositions.
Most of the time we can NOT go to such places in order to help the needy people.
May God bless Linda,
Reza Kateb - Aid Worker and postgraduate applicant to Manchester University for 2011
entry, Kabul-Afghanistan