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Nyameko Barney Pityana is a lawyer and theologian in South Africa. He is especially active in human rights, being one of the founding members of the South African Students' Organisation, and an important figure in the Black Consciousness Movement with Steve Biko, and an exponent of Black theology. He was also a member of the African National Congress Youth League, and was even suspended for repeatedly challenging the authority of the Afrikaans teachers and the "principles of Bantu education". Born in Uitenhage, he received a degree from the University of South Africa in 1976 but was barred from practicing law in Port Elizabeth by the apartheid government. He went into exile in 1978 and studied at King's College London and Ripon College Cuddesdon in Oxford, where he studied law and Anglican ministry. He returned to South Africa in 1993, where he continued working in theology and human rights. He was appointed a member of the South African Human Rights Commission in 1995, and elected chair on 2 October of that year. He also served on the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights at the Organization of African Unity in 1997. His work in human rights has been widely recognized, and in December 2002, he was awarded an Honorable Mention of the 2002 UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education.
Professor Pityana became Vice-Chancellor and Principal for the University of South Africa in 2001 and remains in the position as of December 2006.
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