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Strategic geopolitical position.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

The strategic asset of the United Arab Emirates finds its place in the broader security strategy of the United States.

In fact, the UAE, with its enormous resources, represents an important energy reserve and source of supplies. Therefore, from the geopolitical point of view, the ascent to success by the Gulf States is subject to the unavoidable condition of the possibility of the global order led by the United States, known today as globalisation, without which, those regions would end up at the mercy of the regional dynamic determined by Iran and Turkey.
To this end, the UAE has adopted a proactive posture with the aim of achieving margins of individual action that serve their particular interests as well as those of the United States which increasingly tends to disengage from the region. In doing so, the UAE has aimed chiefly at giving importance to its strategic position as a logistic hub bringing into play the strategy of the ‘Pearl Necklace’, meaning control of the ports of the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, Suez (the Egyptian port of al-‘Ayn al-Suḫna) and the Mediterranean (making use of the controlled terminals in Cyprus, Libya and Morocco).

Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed al-Nahyan and US President Joe Biden.

The UAE, in short, guarantees the United States a fortress in a strategically advantageous position taking the role of a privileged partner similar to that of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea where they extend their interests, but also the containment of Turkey, Iran and China. With regard to the latter, it is important to underline that the Emirates, thanks to their large logistics companies, such as DP World, offer the United States a valid alternative to Chinese companies, weakening them, in fact.
It is worth emphasising that, despite good commercial and diplomatic relations with Iran, due also to a favourable geopolitical coincidence determined by the fact that, in the Emirates, there is no important Shiite minority and the United States seeks to bring pressure to bear on Iran, this does not mean that the relationship between the two countries is not extremely fragile and ready to explode at any moment. Furthermore, on the regional level, the Emirates must also deal with the threats from Qatar with which it broke off relations in 2017.
Qatar represents the fortress of the Muslim Brotherhood in that area and, through its support for potentially subversive groups, its influence in the field of soft power and the Turkish military presence, constitutes a compelling threat to the Emirates.

Oil tanker. ©dikuch/123RF.COM

Then there is the area of the Red Sea where the Federation is extremely active in trying to create a series of relations of interest to all the Riviera states. In Yemen, in particular, the UAE has a military presence. Here, what is at stake is not only the proxy conflict between Arabs and Iranians but the control of Yemeni territorial waters that represent an essential waterway for the maritime routes towards the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and fifteen international undersea cables. Therefore, the control of the waterway, which will become increasingly important in the years to come, assumes an importance far superior to the hundreds of billions of dollars spent during the past six years and already partly amortised. Abu Dhabi, in fact, thanks to the advice given by high-level strategists, such as former MI6 director Will Tricks, has already managed to establish itself in the places of strategic interest to the country such as the port city of Mocha, the airport of Mukalla, the port of Aden, and also the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean. In particular, its presence on this island, due to its strategic importance, assumes hegemonic connotations that are in contrast with the posturing of Saudi Arabia which should also be the leader of the military coalition involved in Yemen. The latter concentrates most of all on the defence of the northern frontier and preventing its Iranian rival from prevailing.
Besides the Yemeni coasts, the Federation is extending its influence also to the Somali coast, stemming the influence both of Ankara and of Doha. Here the UAE is conducting a series of economic operations that serve the implementation of its strategy, using its companies to do so. Thus, through a subsidiary of DP World, a thirty-year concession contract was signed for the port of Bossaso, while the Emirati group TISL managed to take over the local airport.

In addition, almost half a billion dollars has been invested by DP World in the port of Berbera, in Somaliland, also giving political legitimacy to the rebel country. The UAE action also extends to Ethiopia (supporting the government in the Tigray war) and Sudan. Especially in Sudan, with the support of the 2019 coup, the Emirates, in addition to extending its influence, has ceded ground to Turkey which supported al-Bashir, traditionally close to Turkey and the Muslim Alliance. In addition, they have helped the country normalise relations with Israel by acting as guarantors of the Sudanese military junta. The Federation enjoys very good relations with Israel confirmed by the Abraham Accords, reached in August 2020, which made it possible to sanction a relationship that had already existed for some time. (Aerial shot of the Port of Jebel Ali, the busiest port in the Middle-East. ©moovstock/123RF.COM)

Filippo Romeo

Uganda. Bulungi Bwansi Brings People Together.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00
Written by: Fr.Carmine

In the past, it was community work in which everyone was involved in the Buganda kingdom. Today the major activity at the Bulungi Bwansi is planting trees to restore the forests.

Every clan in Buganda had an assignment in the King’s palace as well as within their own community. One of the assignments for the people of the kingdom was Bulungi Bwansi. This was community work that involved everyone in the Buganda kingdom.
Every village had its own day for doing the community work. Bulungi Bwansi was also a place where the young boys and girls of Buganda acquired informal education and the married couples received counselling; it was a place where people talked about their problems and found solutions. They also talked about their achievements.
Bulungi Bwansi had many categories which included cleaning rivers and wells, road repairs, digging trenches along the roads and villages, filling potholes in the village roads, cleaning villages, and cleaning markets. Everyone cleaned their surrounding areas to avoid snakes, other crawling reptiles, and dangerous insects.

The Kabaka or King Of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II with his wife Queen Sylvia Nagginda.

Every family was assigned a plot where they were supposed to work. They knew where they were supposed to work without being forced. They preserved the forest and land for cultivation during the Bulungi Bwansi by cleaning nearby forests.
On the day Bulungi Bwansi would take place the village chief would sound a drum with a tune like Saagalaagalamidde (I don’t want anyone sleeping). When the villagers heard the sound of that drum they would wake up or leave whatever they were doing and gather together, ready to receive their assignments for the day.
Penalties were given to people who would not participate in this community work. They were summoned to the village tribunal to face disciplinary action. In the tribunal, they had to explain why they did not join in the community work.
It was not all work at the Bulungi Bwansi. People would also have village meetings addressed by the chiefs or landlords of that particular village. The Bulungi Bwansi was purposely aimed at improving the livelihood of the people of Buganda.
It was also another way for people to come together after work. They would socialize and also share things amongst themselves like food harvested from gardens, and the local brew they made.

During these sessions, the girls would be taken to learn housework like weaving baskets and mats, and how to cook and take care of the home while the young boys would be taken to learn lumbering, making bark cloth or drums; some would be taught how to fish.
Discipline was emphasized during these meetings and community work. Every home had to observe discipline since all parents in the village were expected to help in raising the children in the village. Elders were supposed to discipline children whether they were biological parents or not, and children respected all the elders in the village. The elders were also supposed to act as mentors to the young children.
In Bulungi Bwansi, people would also come together and help each other. They called their gatherings Munno Mukabi (a friend in need) and these groups would be called upon when a person in the village had a problem like sickness, death, or marriage. The villagers would come together and collect food, firewood, water, and local brew (Tonto). Where a death occurred, they would also help bring burial clothes.

When there was a marriage or a traditional wedding, they would collect and look for food, local beer and would come together to celebrate the marriage. Today people in Buganda and the Kingdom are reviving Bulungi Bwansi, and the central government in Uganda has also adopted it. With local village councils in place, some villages all over the country practice it although they keep changing the name according to people
in that community.
Although Bulungi Bwansi was popular in the past, it is not so anymore due to its demand for discipline. Today the major activity at the Bulungi Bwansi is planting trees to restore the forests destroyed by the people.
Unlike the olden days, when the Kabaka (King) in Buganda had people working at his palace, today the Baganda come together and designate assignments according to the communities. They also visit the palace and do Bulungi Bwansi there.
The difference is that in the past people knew what to do and they were ready to do the work. But today, many people do not take community work seriously and few people join in the Bulungi Bwansi. (Open photo: ©mehmetozb/123RF.COM)

Irene Lumunu

Diversifying the Economy.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

During the past decade, the United Arab Emirates has brought to the fore an important process of diversification of its economic system aimed at freeing itself from dependence on hydrocarbons which nevertheless accounts for 30% of its GDP.

This process has made Dubai a nerve centre of business for the entire Middle East, and also a regional hub for companies wishing to enter both the local markets and those of Eastern Africa and South Asia.
The UAE is, today, one of the world’s largest producers both in terms of oil production and available reserves. Despite the ongoing process of diversification being well founded, the pandemic has dealt a grievous blow to the economy of the Emirates which has recorded a reduction in GDP from the pre-pandemic figure of 373 billion to a post-pandemic total of 354 billion, a loss of FDI income of around 1,764 million dollars. This was due in part to the collapse of the price of oil upon which the UAE depends to a considerable extent.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) HQ Building in Abu Dhabi.

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi which, of all the seven Emirates has the largest number of oil deposits and produces the largest amount of oil, is the one most involved in the process of diversification in which industrialisation, commerce, services, infrastructure, tourism, defence, nuclear energy, and the aerospace industry have become the new economic vectors of the new process.
In particular, with reference to nuclear energy, the Barakah installation (situated at Gharbiya, a zone to the west of the Abu Dhabi Emirate) has already activated one of its four energy-producing reactors, thus taking an important lead over the other Arab States.

The Barakah nuclear energy plant. (photo Pei)

In this regard, it is important to point out that the installation is the result of cooperation between the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) or South Korea and that, in the production of nuclear energy, the UAE has achieved the ‘Gold Standard’ from the United States with which it signed, in 2009, the ‘123 Agreement for Peaceful Civilian Nuclear Energy Cooperation’. This includes an agreement binding the Emirates federation to develop technology exclusively for peaceful purposes and, therefore, to renounce uranium enrichment and the reprocessing of plutonium. Washington, on its part, will provide assistance and nuclear material. Also in the field of aerospace, the UAE has made important progress in recent years and has taken the lead in various sectors over the other countries of the Gulf which have undoubtedly helped to modify the economic assets of the Emirates and create an image of innovation. An example of this is the launching of a probe to Mars in February 2021, a project on which more than 200 Emirate engineers worked for about six years. Another important asset of the economy of the federation consists in approximately fifty enclaves on Emirate territory.

Dubai International Airport. ©friday/123RF.COM

Among these we find Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Dubai. The latter, according to the Dubai Free Zones Council, contributed 31,9% to Emirate GDP in 2018. Furthermore, by means of the enclaves, the UAE has become the second-largest trading partner, after China, of Saudi Arabia, in terms of imports even though today, in this area, they have to contend with competition by the Saudis which have launched policies aimed at attracting foreign companies to their territory. This has moved the Emirates to propose a 94% reduction in taxes for foreign companies willing to invest in loco, to become even more attractive than their neighbours and maintain its advantage over them. Their advantage comes from what the UAE has to offer in terms of infrastructure services (transport), communications and a well-structured financial system. It is worth noting that, since 2016, in view of Expo 2020, important infrastructural investments have been made including those between the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad), the Dubai Industrial City which represents an important industrial hub for industry, the new urban area of South Dubai, the expansion of the Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (Dafza) and the creation of the new industrial centre at Al Saja’a in the Emirate of Sharjah. Such mega-investments fall within the plan of economic diversification of the country as part of the strategy to guarantee an economy based on innovation and to render the Emirates one of the main world centres for sustainable development. One of the projects in the pipeline is that of the underground transport system Virgin Hyperloop One, between Abu Dhabi and Dubai which consists of pods launched at high speed inside vacuum tubes, reaching their respective city destinations in 12 minutes.

People visit the Gold Souk in Dubai. ©langdu8x/123RF.COM

Saudi economic competition is also making itself felt in the field of tourism where Saudi Arabia is trying to grab a slice of the market in which Dubai is in the lead, seeking to enhance its natural heritage in the regions of the Red Sea and its archaeology of the city of Al-Ula, a UNESCO heritage site in the North-West of the Kingdom where there are a number of archaeological sites dating back to the time of the Nabateans. The other sectors that show potential for growth in the economic plan are: metallurgy (+5,8%), textiles (+6,2%) and jewellery (+12,3%). The last of these, in particular, has, in 2021, brought about the renewal of luxury exports with an increase of 52% after the 35% drop recorded in 2020.
Again, with reference to the jewellery industry, and consequently to the gold market, it must be said that Dubai represents a market square for the exchange of gold coming from countries in conflict.
It is a chaotic universe where criminal gangs operate freely and control the supply chain by taking the place of legal intermediaries, thanks also to links to foreign companies in search of easy earnings that, through the work of skilled traffickers, manage to cover their links with armed groups and place gold on the legal market. In October 2021, there was the inauguration of the Dubai EXPO whose main microtomes are Sustainability, Mobility and Opportunity.
It is the first-ever universal exposition hosted in the Middle East Region, Africa, or South Asia. A tangible sign of how the Emirates intends to proceed as it looks to the future. F.R.

Peru. The Maloca, a Large Communal House.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

Maloca means communal house, it represents the unity of the Asheninka community, an indigenous people living in the central forest of the Ucayali department in the Atalaya province
of eastern Peru.

The maloca is a large communal house inhabited by the indigenous of the Amazon. It is a traditional social unit which has cosmogonic and symbolic meaning. The maloca, in fact, represents the synthesis of the universe, it is a divine archetype, the womb of the mother earth, the house of the sun and moon and the receptacle of the celestial ray. That is why the person who manages the construction of a maloca must have knowledge of the symbolic meaning of this structure.
The structure and design of the maloca varies depending on the community, except for the four central beams which are the fundamental element of this large house. The methods of construction of the maloca have an origin in the legends and myths narrated within the communities, because according to the indigenous populations of the Amazon region, it was the gods who transmitted this knowledge to the first inhabitants of the Amazon.
The maloca is built in a place with fertile land and water where it is possible to cultivate cassava, rice, banana trees, corn, beans, and other products necessary for the livelihood of the community.

An indigenous houses in the Amazon river basin. Deserttrends/123rf.com

Once the place for the structure is found, the ground is cleared of climbing plants and weeds and the men in charge of the construction gather all the necessary materials for the construction of the maloca: pitchforks, slats, beams, ropes, palm leaves and other elements. In the highest part of the maloca is a space formed by four central beams, an area that represents the world of knowledge. This is the central area, representing the centre of the universe and a space reserved for male reflection. The second space joins the two smaller beams or pillars and is considered the world of music. The space between the smaller beams and the outer edge represents the world of the vultures. There is also an area reserved for rituals and dances and, although it is also intended for everyday activities of men and women, it is a male space. Between the lower beams and the outer edge, there is a space reserved for the male-female transition represented in alliances, that is, in the marriage of men with women of other malocas, of other ethnic groups.

Asheninka man.

Malocas are also a tool for measuring time; there is a profound relationship between time, space, everyday activities, and the cosmos according to the Asheninka. On the ‘dome’ of the maloca are located two triangular openings: one facing the east and the other facing the west. Its function is a solar clock. Each morning, the sun illuminates half of the upper part of the maloca and as it dawns, the sun’s rays descend and illuminate the bank of the owner, as well as the four main beams. When the sun reaches its highest, at midday, between the worlds of music and knowledge, the maloca darkens. But as soon as the afternoon begins to fall the light reappears illuminating the eastern side. On the outside, around the maloca are located the chagras (fields for cultivation) managed mainly by women, and then extends the jungle, which remains under the protection of the various spiritual guardians. These constructions also work as a solar calendar, guiding communities on the ideal times of each year to perform certain activities such as cultivation or rituals. Thus, and due to the movements of our planet, the sun changes its angle with reference to the equator 23.5 degrees to the north in the month of June, and 23.5 degrees to the south in December.

Asheninka family.

In March and September, the sun sets over the equator and this is the equinox time and the sun moves from the owner’s seat in the west and crosses the centre of the maloca to the entrance on the eastern side.
The interior of the structure is divided into two distinct areas, a masculine half and a feminine half, each area has its own exit; by going out through the door of the feminine and domestic part, one can reach the cultivated fields and the source of water. In the feminine part of the maloca there is a place for kitchen utensils, baskets, sieves, pots, firewood and the stove where women cook cassava, the casabe, a crispy flatbread made from cassava (yuca) flour and other foods. The door of the masculine area of the maloca faces the road from which visitors arrive and which takes to the river.
The elements that cannot lack in the area for men, are a pestle for tobacco, a ceremonial drum, and work tools.

The central part of a maloca, also called the ‘chest of the tiger’, is considered a sacred place. It is there where the sheripiari (healer) sits during rituals and communicates with the spirits of the ancestors. The masculine part of a maloca is therefore also the place for ritual dances during which men wear masks to recall historical events.
It takes between two to three months to build a maloca, depending on the size. When the work is finished the community celebrates by participating in sporting competitions, dancing, drinking masato (fermented yucca drink) and eating meat or river fish. The maloca, or the Asheninka communal house, is thus inaugurated. Open Photo. The Maloca. strelkov73/123rf.com

Jhonny Mancilla

Guatemala. Devotion to Saint Simón.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

He never existed, yet his faithful are many. Saint Simón is the fusion between the unrecognised Spanish saint and an indigenous god.

He is the primary saint in Guatemala, and you can see effigies of him everywhere, he is represented in the image of a man of means with a moustache, dressed in black, wearing a purple tie, with his cigar in his mouth, sitting in an old-style chair. Visitors in Guatemala can find one effigy representing Saint Simón in a small shrine in the municipality of San Andrés Itzapa, about 30 miles west of the Guatemalan capital, where every 28 October, the saint’s feast day, thousands of pilgrims arrive from all over Guatemala and neighbouring countries to worship the saint. Candles, flowers, personal objects, tablets, and plaques thanking Saint Simón for granted miracles fill the walls of the chapel. On that day you can breathe the typical atmosphere of fairs: people dance to the sound of marimba and mariachi, the music played by a live orchestra.

Guatemalan men take part in a traditional Mayan ceremony in Chichicastenango. ©kobby_dagan/123RF.COM

Participants in the event drink liquors while fireworks explode. You can see families eating grilled sausages, chicken meat, corn on the cob, tacos, and types of bread especially prepared for this occasion. Saint Simón is believed to be the protector of travellers and especially merchants, but also of prostitutes, homeless, alcoholics and drug-traffickers. Some pilgrims ask the saint for help, health, protection for their children, love, but also for aid with financial problems, and punishment for those who harmed them. Pilgrims bring food and drinks as offerings for the saint and the candle pertaining to their desire. They bring, in fact, candles of different colours, green for prosperity, red for love, yellow and white for the protection of loved ones, blue for good luck and money, pink for health. It is also said that some of those visiting the shrine bring black candles with them; these are people looking for revenge and for a spell against somebody.
Pilgrims hold spiritual ceremonies in honour of the saint, along with ‘limpias’ where devotees pay spiritual guides who perform cleansing rituals, in order to receive blessings and to increase the number of favours they may receive from the folk saint.

Guatemalan woman in a traditional Mayan ceremony. ©kobby_dagan/123RF.COM

During the celebrations of Saint Simón people dance, smoke, and drink alcohol. Saint Simón allows them to; he does not impose rules or prohibitions, and perhaps this is the secret of his popularity.
He did not have to go through the rigorous process of beatification and canonization that Catholicism requires to recognise a person as a saint.
Our idol never existed as a person, his effigies carved in wood are the result of the cultural syncretism that characterizes Guatemala and the fusion between elements of indigenous spirituality and those of Christianity; that is why many also recognize Saint Simón as, or sometimes confuse him with, Rilaj Mam, ‘the Great Grandfather’
or Maximón.

Shrine of El Maximon in Santiago De Atitlan. ©kobby_dagan/123RF.COM

The saint is also worshipped in Santiago Atitlán, where he is represented with his face covered with a wooden mask. In Zunil, a town in the department of Quezaltenango, he is represented as a young man wearing sunglasses and other trendy items, showing that not even Saint Simón can escape overwhelming commercialisation. But the truth is that this popular saint attracts a large number of national and Central American tourists every year, since his cult crosses borders. It is very easy to communicate with him, they allege, because he has such earthly tastes. He likes tortillas and guaro (cane brandy).

Pedro Santacruz

Nomads and Farmers, Old and New Fights in Africa.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

In the last years one of the different ethnicities that live on the continent was put under the spotlight in West and Central Africa due to the violence and turmoil that other groups attribute to it.
This ethnicity has several names (Peul, Fulani and Feulbe),
and several ‘surnames’ (Toucouleur, Mbororo, etc.), and
some related critical issues.

According to estimates, nowadays there are about forty million Peuls living in fifteen African countries. There are some common cultural and religious elements among the different clans and tribes spread in this huge area – elements that create the Peul identity or code of conduct (pulaaku, or feulbete).
The first of these common elements is the language, known as pulaar in West Africa and as fulfuldé or fula in other contexts. But on the ground the reality is different, and a Toucouleur living in Senegal is quite different from a Mbororo living in Central African Republic or Cameroon, even if they can both be considered as Peuls. And there are differences even within the groups.

A herder taking care of cows is clearly different from an aristocrat who owns those cows (nomadism and cattle breeding are among the elements of Peul identity) and both are different from a merchant. Speaking of different Peul groups as a whole is therefore correct but limiting. The diverse groups are adapting to the local conditions and in some way centuries-old customs are changing. As an example, in the last years in Central Africa Peul herders were forced to sell their livestock (to pay ransoms and the extortions they were subjected to) and become cattle dealers due to insecurity in their area.
There are common phenomena in West and Central Africa that influence at various levels and in diverse ways the life of this community. As an example, climate change and the growth of the population are having a deep impact on those African countries and are creating tensions between the different ethnic groups.

In many areas, Peuls are the target of recriminations and accusations. The real problem is that for parts of the public opinion of these countries – even those who are not affected by the quarrels between Peuls and other ethnic groups – all Peuls are jihadists. Extremist organizations (in some cases led by Peuls) are trying to exploit the grievances of the members of this community to recruit them.
And it is difficult to distinguish between Peul militias that use weapons to enforce a jihadist agenda, and bands of Peul herders that use firearms to defend their interests in the increasingly violent clashes between them and farmers. It is worth noting that in some areas, such as Central African Republic and Chad, Peuls are even chased by other groups
of herders (like Arabs).

Climate changes
Climate change is considered one of the causes of the increasing violence between herders and farmers in West and Central Africa. The rise of temperatures and the diminution of rains in recent years led to the decrease of the land that is fit for pasture. These dynamics, among other things, caused an aggravation in the competition between herders and farmers for the use of land and sources of water.
According to some estimates, in the last fifty years in Western Africa the cultivated land increased by 50%.
This caused the reduction in the corridors used by Peul herders during the transhumance, since farmers started to widen their plots without asking the permission or even informing Peul cattle breeders. The land sharing agreements reached between the communities became irrelevant and the conciliation more difficult.

This is not a new phenomenon. According to the French historian Bernard Lugan, due to the desertification Peul herders started to move southward and westward from the Sahara area 4,000 years ago. What is happening today is therefore a consequence of a dynamic that started centuries ago and that passed through distinct phases in the years. As an example, there were periods of drought interspersed with moments of ‘normal’ rainfall. The quarrels between herders and farmers took place also in the past, and in some cases led to clashes. After those clashes usually an agreement was reached, or a new status quo was created. What is different is the level of violence observed, due especially to the proliferation of firearms.
According to the witness it is now normal to see a Peul herder moving from place to place equipped not only with a stick but also with a Kalashnikov. Firearms are widespread between both nomads and settlers. And most of all, between bandits that are one of the causes of the cycle of violence. Some firearms are produced locally in African countries (as an example, in Ghana) and then sold in the region. Others come from outside Africa and are sold through illicit networks, while some are stolen from arsenals of security forces.

Due to the increase of violence in crimes against them (cattle theft, kidnapping, robbery, etc.), nomadic Peuls started to bring these weapons with them, also inspired by their warrior traditions. But those firearms can also be used in disputes with farmers, together with bladed weapons and sticks or stones, the weapons of the past (as well as the present). But the farmers started to reciprocate with the same level of violence, when possible. And they sometimes can rely on the help of security forces, security forces that are not able to stop the illegal flow of arms. In some cases, soldiers or police officers even sell firearms illegally.
These dynamics are the consequences more of demography than climate change. It is how peoples react to the changes of weather that can bring changes to customs, or to confrontation and violence. As seen before, in the past competing groups found diverse ways to coexist in the same territory. Therefore, it is possible for the people involved to find a new way of living together. This must not be taken for granted, since a social fabric can be torn apart by violence. I.P.

Peuls, as foreigners.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

Nomadism caused Peuls to move between different areas that, after the decolonization, became independent states. While normally the farmers developed links and attachment to the new states, many herders kept on moving between the borders thanks to the difficulties in controlling them. But, in this way, they were permanently perceived as strangers, even if they kept on coming to the same pastures.

This situation continued even if in many case Peuls became seminomadic or chose to settle in a location. Even if now, they are citizens of a state, they are still perceived as foreigners by some of their fellow citizens, also because Peuls feel attached to a transnational reality as pulaaku.
This discrimination is also the consequence of the different lifestyles and of short-sighted political leadership, especially at local levels. Since farmers live permanently on a territory, their opinions tend to weigh more than herders’ ones for politicians.
According to Lugan, Peul nomads tend to have fewer children since their resources are more limited, while farmers need more children to cultivate the fields. Since they are normally more numerous, they can express more votes in the ballots and hope to have a major influence the decisions of the political leadership – political leadership that sometimes comes from the farmers’ groups. If you consider these causes it is easy to see why Peuls are usually marginalised by other groups.

The growing tensions have a deep impact on the economy at a local level. Before the deterioration of the situation, the different ethnic groups exchanged their products and this, willy-nilly, created links between the communities. As an example, Peuls sold beef to farmers and bought food from them. But now, due to the increase of violence, both groups try alternative ways to stock up and the economic links between herders and farmers are fraying.
This makes the escalation of violence easier, because the two sides cannot find common ground anymore.
In some ways, also, history is against Peuls. They are proud of their past, and of the now defunct empires they created. Empires that were built on the exploitation of some of those ethnicities that now they are facing. They even enslaved them and sold them abroad. It seems paradoxical to someone, but colonization helped to stop razzias committed by Peuls against other groups. Groups that now are outnumbering Peuls and in some ways taking their revenge, thanks also to democracy, which is based on the principle ‘one man, one vote’.
This principle empowers bigger groups that can vote in a compact manner. And in many African political systems the protection of minorities, also through checks and balances, even when it is considered a relevant principle, is not enforced effectively.

Not that there are not Peul politicians. Some of them are even chiefs of state, such as Macky Sall in Senegal, Umaru Sissoko Embalo in Guinea Bissau, and Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria. But in many African countries they remain a minority. Political dynamics tend to influence ethnic dynamics and vice versa. One typical case of that was Guinea.
In the last ten years the political struggle at national level centred around two leaders, President Alpha Condé and his main opponent, Cellou Dalein Diallo. The rivalry between the two men was embittered by the fact that Condé is a Malinké (one of the ethnicities in Guinea) while Diallo is a Peul. Since Guinea was surrounded by countries where there are Peul politicians or chiefs of state (Senegal and Guinea Bissau, as seen before, but also Sierra Leone, where the vice president is a Peul) they pushed Condé to close the borders with those neighbours. He thought that foreign leaders were supporting Diallo in his effort to take power. The reality is that on 5th September 2021 Condé was ousted by a military coup led by a Malinké like him, Mamady Doumbouya, who comes from his region and who Condé himself had promoted and supported. I.P.

Africa on the Web.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

It is the new frontier of the Google and Facebook Web colossi that will invest billions of dollars in infrastructure to cable the continent. Possibilities and questions.

It is called 2Africa – but it is also known as Simba – this Facebook project whose aim is to cable the entire continent. It is expected to be completed between 2023/2024. Substantially, it involves the installation of one of the longest undersea cables in the world, 37,000 km, connecting Europe, the Middle East and 16 African countries.
The purpose of this installation is to support the growth of 4G 5G and constant access to broadband for millions of people and businesses. The system of cables will connect the eastern and western coasts of Africa, using the most advanced frontline SDM (Spatial Division Multiplexing) technology available today for undersea cables, capable of a more than 50% increase in depth while avoiding disturbances and guaranteeing maximum levels of service.

The producer of this mega cable which will, in fact, circumnavigate Africa, reaching the Middle East and Africa, is Alcatel Submarine Networks. The project of this company plans to have a board of national and international partners such as Telecom Egypt, which will provide new routes crossing the globe and provide a new, uninterrupted fibre optic pathway between Eastern Africa and the continent of Europe. Cost: a billion dollars or more.
This is a similar amount to that declared by Google for its Equiano (a former 18th century slave and abolitionist of Nigerian origin). The Google plans involve five years of activity and ambitious targets: to increase internet speed by a factor of five and reduce the cost of a data connection by up to 21%.
The historically evocative cable will have three contact points: starting in Lisbon, it will follow the west coast of Africa to connect with Nigeria and South Africa, calling at the island of St Helena and Namibia. Google already has about ten investments of this sort, but this will be the first cable reaching from Europe to Africa. The first stage ought to be completed before the end of this year. Alcatel Submarine Networks has also been engaged to create a cable capable of ‘incorporating the optic commutation at the level of fibre optics, rather than the traditional approach of communication on the level of bandwidth’.

The other digital such as Microsoft, which also has its undersea cable in the Atlantic, or Amazon with its broadband satellites, are engaged in technological investment in Africa. It is clear that, in a continent where the distribution of Internet – the percentage of each 100 inhabitants – stands at only 11% and where less than half the population is connected, investment in this sector seems essential.
Finance, education, health, information: all these use the Web. In other words, the use of the Web for these services facilitates the life of individuals (at least this ought to be the aim).
The Davos World Economic Forum recently indicated five ways in which universal access to the Internet could transform Africa: by increasing the productivity of crops (in a continent where agriculture employs 65% of the workforce and earns one third of GDP; encouraging e-government (by automating the registration of fiscal income, for example; guaranteeing access to health structure and consultations online (also e-learning to tackle the shortage of health workers), and educational systems, universities and cultural centres; by reducing the sociocultural gap; and providing financial services to remote areas.
To these advantages we may add the reduction in corruption levels (requiring documentation or other services online would avoid the obligation of kickbacks so common in public offices).

A student studies her books in candlelight during a blackout in her house in Tripoli, Libya. Photo IOM

Lastly, greater connectivity would favour the decolonisation of culture. The more the connection and interaction there is with Websites that ‘speak African’, newspapers that speak of what is happening in the continent from within and with their own voice, the more space becomes available to facilitate the new narrative on Africa that is so badly needed.
Nevertheless, the risks and obstacles associated with such investments are considerable. To avoid them, for the most part, the intervention of African governments is required. For example, one of the reasons that, until now, has prevented or delayed the use of the Web in African countries is the unreliability of electrical power (there are frequent blackouts and drops in voltage). It has been calculated that more than 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa have no access to electricity. Another obstacle is the economic question. Even though the Chinese brands have brought in low-cost cellphones and smartphones (some models cost less than $100), we must not forget that more than 40% of the Sub-Saharan population still live below the poverty level, meaning they earn less than two dollars per day. Consequently, even though these projects aim to reduce distances by reaching remote areas and reduce the cost of surfing, the inequality between urban and rural areas must be faced on the economic and socio-cultural level.

Silhouette of african woman making phone call in internet café. Zlikovec/123RF.COM

This is not all. It begs the question as to who stands to gain by these projects. Will the companies that connect the more than 700 million non-connected Africans guarantee the neutrality of the Web? Will there be greater freedom of expression? Or will African governments continue to impose censures and make use of ‘coordinated disinformation’ to influence citizens to their own advantage and suppress opposition? In addition, a far from secondary question is who will acquire the value of the data (a more precious resource today than oil) gained from African users? The African governments will also have to start acting on this front to guarantee the privacy of their own citizens, just as it is important that the citizens are openly informed as to how, by whom, and for what reason, their data could be used. The big companies have already invested in this field. Microsoft was the first of the large companies of public cloud to open data centres in Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg) and AWS (Amazon Web Service) is expected to open one, also in South Africa. It is to be expected that Google will follow suit.

Antonella Sinopoli

Synodality. The Whole Church in creative journey of faith.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

Pope Francis transforms the Synod of Bishops from an ‘event’ to a ‘process’, with the People of God at the centre.

The synod will comprise three phases, the final one – a fundamental step – being the celebration of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023. The articulation of the different phases will help to make possible a true listening to the People of God to ensure the participation of all. A synod is not just an event, but also a process that involves in synergy the People of God, the Bishops and the Pope.

The diocesan Phase
The objective of the diocesan phase (October 2021 – April 2022) is to consult the People of God, “so that the synodal process is carried out through listening to all of the baptised, who are the subject of the sensus fidei (sense of the faith on the part of the faithful), which is infallible and always growing”.
The General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops has sent a Preparatory document, accompanied by a Questionnaire and a Vademecum, with proposals for consultation in each particular Church, “to facilitate the first phase of listening to and consulting the People of God in the particular Churches, in the hope of helping to set in motion the ideas, energy and creativity of all those who will take part in the journey, and to facilitate the sharing of the fruits of their commitment”.

In each diocese, each bishop should have already appointed a diocesan contact person (and possibly a team) for the synodal consultation (the deadline was October 2021). “They will be a point of reference and liaison with the Bishops’ Conference, and will accompany all stages of the consultation process in the local particular Church”.Similarly, each Bishops’ Conference should already have appointed a contact person (and possibly a team) “responsible for liaising both with diocesan officials and with the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops”. Consultation with the People of God in each particular Church will conclude with a pre-synodal meeting, which will be the culmination of diocesan discernment. After the conclusion of the diocesan phase, each particular Church will submit its contributions to their Episcopal Conference, after which a period of discernment will begin for Episcopal Conferences gathered in assembly meetings.
The synthesis will be sent to the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops along with the contributions of each of the particular Churches before April 2022. By September 2022, the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops will proceed with the drafting of the first Instrumentum laboris (working paper).

Second and Third Phase
The second phase will take place from September 2022 to March 2023. In September 2022, the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops will publish and release the first Instrumentum laboris.
Before that date, each Episcopal Conferences will appoint a contact person to liaise with both the Episcopal Conferences and the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops.

The criteria for the participation of the residential bishops and other members of the People of God is to be established. The Assemblies will conclude with the drafting of a final document to be sent to the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops by March 2023.
The Synod will enter the third and final Universal Church Phase in October 2023. The General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops will send the second Instrumentum laboris to the participants of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The celebration of the Synod of Bishops will take place in Rome in October 2023.

Preparatory Document – To concretely accompany the organisation of the work, the Preparatory document has been proposed, attached to a methodological Vademecum, both available on the dedicated website, which offer “some resources for deepening the theme of synodality; including the speech for the Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, delivered by Pope Francis on 17th October 2015, and the document Synodality in the life and mission of the Church, prepared by the International Theological Commission and published in 2018.
“The Church of God is convened in Synod”; is the incipit of the Vademecum, following Pope Francis’ invitation to question herself on a decisive theme for her life and mission: “Precisely the path of synodality is the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium”.

Accurate Analyses – The Preparatory document contains precise analyses of human situations described in concise but powerful language. “A global tragedy such as the Covid-19 pandemic has indeed aroused for a time the awareness of being a world community sailing in the same boat”, but, at the same time, “has made the already existing inequalities and inequities explode”.

There is no shortage of specific complaints about human right violations. One of them stands out: “The tragic condition faced by migrants in all regions of the world shows how high and strong the barriers dividing the single human family still are”.
The challenge for the Church, therefore, is “to accompany people and communities to re-read experiences of mourning and suffering, which have unmasked many false securities and to cultivate hope and faith in the goodness of the Creator and his creation”.
On the hand, the Preparatory document says: “We cannot hide from the fact that the Church herself must face lack of faith and corruption even within herself”. In particularly “the suffering experienced by minors and vulnerable people due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons”.
“We are continually challenged, as the People of God, to take on the pain of our brothers and sisters wounded in the flesh and in the spirit…For too long, the cry of the victims has been a cry that the Church has not been able to hear sufficiently. These are deep wounds that are difficult to heal, for which forgiveness will never be asked enough and which constitute obstacles, sometimes imposing ones, to advancing in the direction of ‘journeying together’”, says the text.

The document continues: “The whole Church is called to deal with the weight of a culture imbued with clericalism that she inherited from her history, and with forms of exercising authority on which the different types of abuse (power, economic, conscience, sexual) are grafted”.
Conversion is called for: “It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of the People of God: together let us ask the Lord for the grace of conversion and the inner anointing needed to express, before these crimes of abuse, our repentance and our decision to combat
them with courage”.

Signs of Hope – Among the signs of hope that have blossomed in the Christian community, there is “the desire of young people to take a leading role in the Church, and the demand for greater appreciation of women and spaces for their participation in the Church’s mission… The recent institution of the lay ministry of Catechist and the opening of access to those of Lector and Acolyte to women move in this direction”.
“Synodality is much more than the celebration of ecclesial meetings and assemblies of bishops, or a matter of simple internal Church administration; it is the specific modus vivendi et operandi of the Church, the People of God, which reveals and gives substance to her being as communion, when all her members journey together, gather in assembly, and take an active part in her evangelising mission”.

Finally the document states: “The consultation of the People of God does not imply the assumption within the Church of the dynamics of democracy based on the principle of majority, because, at the basis of participation in every synodal process, there is a shared passion for the common mission of evangelisation and not the representation of conflicting interests”. Among the objectives of the synodal journey, there is also that of “examining how responsibility and power are lived in the Church, as well as the structures by which they are managed, bringing to light and trying to convert prejudices and distorted practices that are not rooted in the Gospel”.

Franco Moretti

Morocco. The Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute of Theology in Rabat.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

The Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute of Theology in Rabat, created at the initiative of the only two officially recognised churches in Morocco, the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church, wants to be a unique experience of ecumenism in the midst of the Islamic community.

The Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute of Theology is located in Hassan, one of the central and distinguished neighbourhoods of Rabat, not far from the Catholic cathedral of San Pedro.
The Institute is a place for theological training, reflection, and intercultural and interreligious dialogue, in a country with a Muslim majority – 99% of the population – but it is its ecumenical origin that makes it a unique centre of its kind in the entire world.
After the independence of Morocco in 1956, the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church in the country began to lose adherents, who were almost exclusively Europeans.

At the end of the 20th century, it even seemed that the two Churches were destined to face permanent closure, but young Sub-Saharans began to arrive in Morocco to study, as well as immigrants travelling the routes to Europe. Some of them were Muslims, but others were Christians of different confessions who revitalized and gave new life to the Christian Churches of the country. These renewed Africanized, multicultural, and multiethnic Churches felt the need to offer a formative path to the newly arrived faithful, who were mostly young people under 30 years of age. But there were very few Catholic priests and Protestant ministers, so together, Catholics and Protestants decided to join forces and create the Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute of Theology, which means ‘the agreement’ in Arabic.
The project of the creation of the Institute was born from the friendship between the then Archbishop of Rabat, Monsignor Vincent Landel, and the president of the Evangelical Church in Morocco at the time, Pastor Samuel Amédro. During their frequent dialogues they understood that they shared the same pastoral challenge and that it would be impossible for them to manage an institution like the Al Mowafaqa separately. They therefore joined forces and the Institute was created in 2012. In February of the following year it opened its doors to the first students, and in September 2014 it was officially inaugurated.

The centre was built on the site of the earlier Library de la Source. This documentation centre of the Catholic Church had been inaugurated in 1981 by Fr. Jacques Levrat and played a fundamental role in the history of Morocco because for years it was the only point of reference for researchers. When the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco was created in 2008, King Mohamed VI requested that the funds of the Library de la Source be returned to the Moroccan people; this initiative was implemented during a symbolic ceremony. Four years later, the Al Mowafaqa Institute was built where the Library once rose.The Moroccan authorities have had an ambiguous attitude towards this project up to now. Although several ministers were present at its inauguration, the Institute has so far not been administratively recognised. Its creation was made possible by a decree in the 1980s issued by King Hassan II authorizing the Catholic Church to open schools in the country.

Theological training
Cameroonian pastor Jean Koulagna, a biblical scholar, has been the director of the Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute of Theology since July 2018. He told us: “Two French universities, the Catholic Institute of Paris and the Protestant Theology Faculty of Strasbourg, supervise our centre, draw up the study program and award official degrees. The same programs are taught by the same professors to Catholics and Protestants, and students are evaluated through same exams, although later the students receive different degrees”.
There are currently about twenty students attending the four-year formation course in Theology. They are mostly Sub-Saharan Africans, future priests and pastors, but also some lay people and pastoral assistants sent by the Catholic Archdiocese of Rabat.The teachers who are Europeans, Moroccans, Sub-Saharan Africans, and people from the United States and Canada teach study programs in the French language.

Interculturality
Between the months of January and May, the Institute organises study programs for the Certificate for the Dialogue of Cultures and Religions. This is an interdisciplinary training course which includes 60 hours of study of Arabic and subjects related to Islamology.

Cameroonian pastor Jean Koulagna, is the director of the Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute of Theology.

The course is complemented by other subjects such as Intercultural Pedagogy, History of Religious Facts in Africa, Sociology of Religions, and Introduction to Contemporary Judaism. One of the objectives of this special study program is to facilitate the insertion of students into the Muslim context of Morocco, which is why it also includes visits to different significant places of Moroccan religiosity and culture. Most of the participants are priests, Catholic nuns, Protestant pastors and other pastoral agents, mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa, who offer their service in one of the two Catholic dioceses of Morocco, Rabat and Tangier, or in the Evangelical Church.

Open Doors
Al Mowafaqa also organizes courses in biblical languages, and in classical Arabic and Dariya, the popular Moroccan Arabic. Although every year, a 10-day course of Islamology takes place, among others, the Institute is much more than an ecumenical training centre, it is a place that opens its doors to intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
Every year around twenty conferences, colloquiums and study days are organized on very diverse topics, as well as cultural visits throughout the country. While Muslims are not allowed to enroll in training cycles, anybody is allowed to participate in non-academic events, regardless of religion or origin.

Cardinal Cristobal Lopez Romero SDB, Archbishop of Rabat with young people.

The Franco-Moroccan citizen Myriem Khrouz is in charge of the organization of this program about intercultural and interreligious dialogue: “Since the 2000s, Morocco has become a welcoming country. Europe has closed its doors and so, many people from different countries have decided to settle down here, although not always by choice. I consider the religious, ethnic, and national mix we are experiencing in Morocco as an immense enrichment which must be preserved by helping people to get to know each other in order to learn to live together and avoid tensions. I believe that the Al Mowafaqa Institute plays a very important role in this regard and is called to grow along these intercultural lines”.

Enrique Bayo

Strategies for Mining Advocacy.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

“Mining activities have huge impacts on the lives of the local communities and indigenous people in Brazil. I come from a country where mining has caused immeasurable disasters from colonial times to today”. A Comboni Missionary talk about his involvement
in mining advocacy.

The largest open-pit iron mine operates in the land where I worked for ten years in the Amazon Region. It is located in the heart of the Amazon Forest. Mining in the Amazon Region is increasing and threatening the indigenous lands and the protected natural areas. The indigenous people are fighting for their collective land rights and protected natural areas, which leads them to conflict with the mining companies.

One of the most dangerous effects on indigenous lands and fractional communities is the illegal extraction of gold. The Indigenous Missionary Council of Brazil recently made a report in which they filed many complaints about gold mining.

For that reason, in 2011, the Latin American Bishops Council Salam wrote a pastoral letter about integral ecology. It defined extractivism as an unbridled trend of the economic system to convert in the capital the goods of nature. We understand that the massive climate and environmental crises are rooted in this capitalist system trying to convert everything to mining.

Studies show that the extractive industries are indeed connected to climate change. The global annual emissions from fossil fuels mining are estimated to be between 90 and 140 million tons of Sulphur Dioxide, which is equivalent to 40 percent of the total. And the consequence we know is the greenhouse effect. So, there is a direct connection between mining extraction and climate crisis.

What strategies are we applying to defend the communities and support their struggles? First of all, we support local communities’ resistance in their territories. In our conviction, the determination and lives of the local communities are above every kind of other interests and the most crucial support we can offer the communities to defend their territories. In this regard, we tried to echo their claims. That’s why it’s essential to develop our ability to communicate and network with our religious groups and faith-based organizations to amplify their claims.

Another strategy is to organize legal reporting and increase capabilities for self-protection defense. As you can imagine, the threats against local leaders and communities are enormous, especially in these conflict regions where there is a conflict of interests between, for example, mining and extractive projects, agribusiness, and things like that. These conflicts have caused life threats of human rights defenders and the deaths of our community leaders.

Furthermore, we bring the issue at the global incidence. So, for example, we try to follow the production chain starting from mining up to the products sold in the international markets. We try to forcibly boycott all these productions destroying the Amazon region – soybeans, meat, mining petrol, which is being taken away from indigenous sacred lands. And another international strategy is to support the legally binding treaty on business and human rights.

Finally, we do a campaign on divestment from mining. Based on the local communities’ claims, the Church and Mining Network took the initiative to carry out a divestment campaign from mining. We believe it is vital to find and show the connection between the investors and the mining companies, particularly the most dangerous and biggest mining companies that are destroying our territories.

So, we are making these community-based studies and then pointing out the critical impact of these companies conquering our continent. We are also trying to show who is financing them. We encourage religious congregations, dioceses, and also ethical banks to verify if this money is in some way causing this channel of destruction. (Ore mining near Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Photo: ©helderpc/123RF.COM)

Fr. Dario Bossi

The New African Climate Leaders.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022 8:00

A new generation of climate activists is emerging on the continent. “We will be the decision-makers of tomorrow; it is now that we must take the lead.”

Ayakha Melithafa from South Africa, 20, wants to be the voice of people of little, people of colour and small farmers, those who are the first to be affected by climate change but who are never heard. This young woman became aware of the problem in 2017, when the threat of water scarcity in Cape Town, where she lives, made headlines around the world.

A year later, her mother, who owned a small farm in the Eastern Cape Province, struggled with drought while white farmers a stone’s throw away drilled boreholes on their large farms. She decided to act. She organized people and helped them to understand the situation and demand the government fulfil its commitment on climate change.

In December 2020, she became the youngest member of the presidential climate commission to build a “social compact” around a “just climate transition” in South Africa, the world’s 12th largest emitter of greenhouse gases, whose energy is more than 80% dependent on coal. Today, she is one of the most important figures demanding a clear policy for “clean energy”.

Activist Adenike Oladosu in Nigeria: there can be no ecology without feminism since women are, according to her, almost always the first victims of climate change.
The 27-year-old recalls that desertification and the disappearance of natural resources inevitably generate instability and violence with immediate consequences for the lives of the most vulnerable, such as the women in the Sahel forced to walk for miles to fetch water.

Adenike Oladosu founded the ‘I Lead’ climate campaign to bring the voice of young Africans to international bodies. This climate justice activist advocates in particular for the restoration of the resources of Lake Chad’s the area of which has reportedly decreased by 90% since the 1960s. Some 30 million people live in the Lake Chad Basin, and an estimated 2.4 million people have already been forced to leave their lands and homes.
It is also in this region plagued by violence by jihadist groups that 276 high-school girls were captured in 2014 in Chibok, in North-Eastern Nigeria, by the Boko Haram group. “I see this as a consequence of the climate crisis facing Nigeria. It is this disruption that creates the conditions for such horrors,” says Adenike Oladosu, proudly claiming to be the “first eco-feminist in Africa”.

Vanessa Nakate, a 25-year-old Ugandan climate activist has become one of the world’s most compelling voices on climate. Speaking during the COP 26 last November she said: “after 25 of these Cops, emissions are still rising”. She pointed out that the largest delegation was not from any country but from the fossil fuel industries. She warned that a rise of 2 degrees Celsius would lead to temperatures in the south that the human body cannot endure.

She dismissed the pledges and promises made at the gathering, saying: “We are drowning in pledges; commitment will not reduce CO², promises will not stop the suffering of the people, pledges will not stop the climate warming only immediate and drastic action will pull us back from the abyss”. Finally, she said to the world leaders: “We do not believe you. We are desperate for you to prove us wrong”.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is a defender of her Peule Mbororo ethnic group, of the Sahel, which is under increasing threat from environmental damage in Chad. She started her activism in 1999 at the age of just 15, when she founded the Association of Indigenous Peule Women and Autochthonous Peoples of Chad (AFPAT). Since then, Hindou has been relentless in fighting for the protection of her community, many of whom are cattle herders directly relying on the natural environment for their survival. The increasing impact of climate change, including desertification, droughts, changing grazing lands and battles over territory, are threatening their livelihood.

“Indigenous people manage much of the world’s nature, including many of the healthiest and most carbon-dense ecosystems. We are just 5% of the population, yet we protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity. There cannot be a solution to combat climate change if it does not include us,” she said during COP26

She is Co-Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change and represents the body at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and she is the chair for recruitment at the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).

Born in the Seychelles, Angelique Pouponneau is a young environmental lawyer specialising in natural resources and the Law of the Sea. She co-founded the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Youth AIMS Hub Seychelles, dedicated to preserving the environment and promoting sustainable development.

She led the campaign ‘Seychelles Free From Plastic Bags’ to draw attention to the harmful effects of plastic bags on the environment and instil a sense of environmental responsibility in young people. Her dedication to the environment inspired thousands of young people not only across Africa, but the whole world, to demand better deals and action from global governments during COP26.

As an advocate for tackling climate change, agricultural development and women’s rights, Ndoni Mcunu from South Africa, was appointed Bilateral Engagement Lead for the Adaptation Research Alliance, a project officially launched at COP26, the alliance consists of an international coalition of adaptation actors, seeking to drive investment in climate change research and innovation.

She recently co-authored the Greenpeace International report on ‘Extreme weather events and climate change in Africa’ and is passionate about making scientific research accessible and readable for non-scientific media platforms and audiences.
She set up Black Women in Science (BWIS), where she remains the CEO, as a charity to deliver capacity development interventions that empower young black women scientists and researchers.

For Senegalese Djiby Niang, it all started when he had to move to Dakar for his studies. “I went from the nature of Casamance, where I grew up, to a big city where concrete dominates. I decided to participate in greening the capital,” explains the 34-year-old activist, who in 2013 became head of the Senegalese branch of the association Jeunes volontaires pour l’environnement.

Created in Togo, this movement supports young people to take ownership of the challenges of climate change. In Senegal, “in the face of deforestation, we have carried out reforestation and agro-ecology actions,” explains Djiby Niang.
Another area of action is waste management. The association fought for a law against plastic to be passed in 2020 and is now mobilizing against rampant coastal urbanization.
The activist recognizes that the commitment of young people has been growing over the past ten years, with the multiplication of associations for the defence of the environment. “We will be the decision-makers of tomorrow who will have to solve these problems, it is now that we must take the lead,” he claims.

In Kenya, Elizabeth Wathuti grew up in central Nyeri County, the most forested area in the country. A place that has nourished her “connection with nature”, as she gladly points out, recalling that she planted her first tree at 7 years old. In this country, which has been badly damaged by deforestation, she founded the Green Generation Initiative in 2016. Objective: to green schools and provide environmental education for children to bring out the activists of tomorrow. With about forty volunteers, this organization is pleased to have already planted more than 30,000 trees.Winner of various awards, Elizabeth Wathuti is now a regular guest at international climate events. (Ed.by C.C.)

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