About Nirvana Africa

In memory of Eugene Cussons (1979 to 2026)

Eugene Cussons was born on 6 July 1979 in South Africa's old Transvaal, into a family long involved in African conservation. He grew up around wildlife and flying: in his own words, flying was "our family pastime", a tradition passed from father to son.

He studied business management and economics at the University of Pretoria and began in the corporate world, writing software for financial trading. He did not want a desk job for life, so he returned to the family game reserve to combine his management skills with his love of the outdoors.

That path led to chimpanzees. In 2006 Eugene opened Chimp Eden, South Africa's first chimpanzee sanctuary, in collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute at the Umhloti Nature Reserve near Barberton in Mpumalanga. He became its managing director and Rescue Director of the Jane Goodall Institute in South Africa. He rescued chimpanzees from war zones and illegal trafficking, going into places such as Sudan and Angola to bring them home. His rescues were featured in the Animal Planet series Escape to Chimp Eden, which he hosted from 2008. He wrote Saving Chimpanzees: A Man on a Rescue Mission, published by Penguin in 2011, and founded Generation Now Africa, which trains young people to protect wildlife.

Flying was his other great passion, alongside skydiving, scuba diving, rock climbing and sailing. He flew fixed-wing aircraft and paramotors and loved being a bush pilot over the African landscape. He founded Nirvana Africa and served as Director of Nirvana North America/Africa, as a PPG instructor, as Nirvana and Dudek test pilot and as a national race pilot. He finished on the podium in all three Icarus races he flew, and in 2021 he won the first three Speedrun Cup races on a Nirvana F-light 200 XC with a Dudek Warp wing, each by more than 20 minutes.

He also put the machines to work for wildlife. By his own account he spent years using them on conservation observation and anti-poaching flights, over varied terrain and in changing weather, taking off in difficult places and landing in unprepared ones, including flights for park authorities.

His belief was simple: flying should be taught properly, by people who actually fly and bring real-world experience, so that students gain "warranted confidence". In fixed-wing flying, he wrote, there are no second chances, so he only flew a machine he could trust, and he taught that ethos.

Eugene died on 23 May 2026 in a paramotor accident near Hartbeespoort Dam. He is remembered by the paramotor community and by everyone who worked with him, in the sky and on the ground.

Eugene started the initiatives you see on this site. Jean-Pierre Seger, who learned to fly and to instruct under him, has taken them over, in the knowledge that these are big boots to fill. Nirvana Africa and Nirvana Aero Academy continue Eugene's legacy, and are run in his memory.