Kenya Dig it? Yes We Can!

I read this article today about how Kenya is going to try and save its largest forest, Mau, by trading carbon units to be able to reforest and in turned earn billions of dollars a year for 15 years! Reading more about how important the forest is to a third of the country's population reminded me of a program I watch while at home.  The quote "Many local people understand the value of the forest" reminded me of the episode of Great Africans I watched on DSTV about the 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner, Wangari Maathai (who if you don't know about read up on her she is AMAZING!!!) the founder of The Green Belt Movement. In the program she talked about how when she was younger she remembers how she was taught which trees were to be cut for firewood and which were to be left like the Fig tree due to its long roots that keep the soil intact during the rains.  We Africans had such knowledge of our ecosystems and lived at one with the land but we have lost a lot of that.

I came across this quote today too from Mzee Jomo Kenyatta: "When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land.  They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. when we opened them, we had the Bible in our hand and they had the land." 

The above program talked about how the English came and cleared a lot of the land without thought due to the fertility of the land caused by the unique qualities of the Rift Valley and how this, as well as locals following suit, has caused Kenya to increasingly suffer from more and more droughts due to the fact that trees no longer form trapment areas for rain water. Even though Kenyatta made an crudely astute observation about how religion was used as a facilitator for colonialism, we need to start having faith in our own knowledge and make the decisions to revert back to some of our old practices while also embracing the knowledge we have also adopted.

What Kenya is trying to do is something that all African countries need to be doing. We need to exploit our resources in a productive not destructive manner.  And we need to be in control, especially with green issues as we are suffering from the brunt of the adverse effects climate change.  Which sucks really because we are not the main culprits.  But such is life, what can we do? What Kenya's doing that's what! :)

Leadership, Shopping And Recycled Wonders

Obama's Forum got me thinking about youth leaders and how it is important for not only Africa's young to start taking the helm, but for all the youth around the world to start thinking about what they can be doing to better their families, communities, countries, continents and ultimately the planet.  Even though our world has always been interconnected through shipping routes, the slave trade, and spices, never before have people been able to connect so easily and in a plethora of ways both physically and virtually.

This reminded me of Kimmie Week's initiative, Youth Action International, YAI.  He was not at the conference, I think they are trying to give other people who may not have the fame that Week's has a chance in the limelight.  Week's started his leadership journey very young.  At 17 he was already writing reports exposing the injustices of child soldiers!  And now his efforts not only help his home country Liberia, but also now extend to Sierra Leone and Uganda, other places on the continent where child soldiers have been deployed.

He moved to the US when the government set out to assassinate him, after his efforts to expose the wrongs in his country.  He took advantage of the opportunity to set up an international network and now has people volunteering from all over America through YAI Chapters based at universities.  He demands commitment from the people he allows to travel with him.  Every year 3 interns get to travel around Africa with him.  They have to have served an YAI chapter for at least year and they have to raise their own funds.  People who move with him are another level of "wanting to help out" - they are seriously dedicated.  Here is a video on their latest project:



You can find out how to get involved with YAI here.

Here is a video that, even though is not his full speech, really gives a good idea of the kind of person Kimmie is and why he is in demand as a public speaker, and also an inkling into who he is as a person and his passion for humanity:



This speech was for Humanity Uniting Brilliance, HUB, an organisation that provides a social enterprise platform to help those in need take ownership of their destiny through entrepreneurial endeavors, while learning from brilliant leaders around the world.  I took a look at The Global Marketplace, where the goods produced by the people they empower can be bought, and of course naturally gravitated to their African collection.  Unlike in my post about fair trade, ethical fashion, these products are available to a wider group of people looking to buy products that not only make them feel good, but also help the environment and people around the world trying to alleviate the poverty in their lives.  You can buy a bracelet for $8 all the way to a "Village in a Box" (hmmmmm as my sister would say) for $535.  The Box is intended to be used to get your family and friends to be as excited about HUB as you are by selling the items and using them to create events and things.

It is amazing what can be made from recycled paper, pata patas, and plastic! Right now the countries in Africa benefitting from this intiative are Mali, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Kenya.  The great thing about this is that it is a worldwide venture too.  You can get items from from all over such, as a wallet made from recycled tire tube from El Salvador if you want!! It just blows my mind what people can do with someone else's rubbish.  Reminds me of the Welcome to Lagos Series. If you haven't taken a gander, you can see the 3 episodes here, here and here.

"Welcome To Lagos"

Finally started watching the BBC Docu-miniseries Welcome to Lagos that BIMBO had told me about a coupla months back. Was a little apprehensive going in, wondering how the Western Eye was going to interpret the images and the lives of the people in the slums.  I was pleasantly surprised though.  They really highlighted the ingenuity, resourcefulness, entrepreneurial spirit, camaraderie and optimism of the Nigerians who are moving from the rural areas at a rate of 600,000 a year, to one of the world's megacities, Lagos.  Felt that the documentary kept riding the comparisons to the Western world a little - we get it, there is more that meets the eye, these people are diamonds in the rough once you get over the superficial.

I was happy to see that even though the focus was on the slums, images of the developed areas of the city were interspersed throughout the episode so as not to make Lagos seem like one big ghetto, as was done with Lusaka in the RED documentary. I also like how everything wasn't romanticised - we witnessed the daily city-wide power cuts and the lawlessness that happens in the dumps.  I also liked how the man with the family found a way to give his wife and children what they needed either by fixing things or finding a way to refurbish what the rich threw away.  It also shed light on how wasteful people get once they are not living from day to day and how many things that still have use get thrown away.  It showed how recycling is already a way of life in Lagos.  "Living Green" sometimes starts out of necessity.

I was really impressed with the cattle market. It showed how people apply their knowledge and are able to use every part of the cow, bar the hair, for something - horns for plastic, the contents of the cows digestive tract for fertiliser, blood for chicken feed and who knew you could eat the skin?! That and the fact that even in the slums there already is an transnational network with cattle herders travelling from Mali, Cameroun and Chad to come an trade.  The awareness of the world around them shows how the people realise we are all interconnected, like the man said as the dollar goes up and down, life in the slum is affected. When cattle were not able to come in from Chad prices skyrocketed.

Here are links to the first episode:

African Fashion: Green, Ethical, Trendy, Not For Africans?

Fashion model Liya Kebede, who has acted in The Lord of War and The Good Shepherd, is not only a UN Goodwill Ambassador, but also an African businesswoman.  In an effort to help local artisans, she created her fashion line Lemlem in 2007 "to inspire economic independence in her native country, [Ethiopia], and to preserve the art of weaving." Here are some lovely photos of the weaving process.  However, most of the clothes are for kids and all of the items are rather pricey. It is clear that this venture is not meant for African consumption, but to appeal to elite Western consumers.

This seems to be a trend - eco-chic and/ or ethical style.  Dressing is one of the easiest ways we can express who we are and what we stand for, and it seems fashion has no intention of not jumping on the green and ethical bandwagon.

Lauren Pierce is a line by designer Lauren Bush, that boasts one-of-a-kind pieces made from sustainable textiles dyed by DRC women with ten percent of the profits going to Women for Women International to help women in post-conflict areas. The targeted demographic is the natural, confident, vanguard, humanitarian, activist woman.  She also has to have deep pockets.

Yodit Eklund, an Ethiopian-American, created the line Bantu, that offers swimwear that intends to get Africa to be thought of as producing finished products, rather than the raw materials that are of less economic value. Vanity Fair sold it to the consumers Bantu was trying to reach as a way to save Africa.   Hmmmmm  :* (that is me kissing my teeth at the simplification of how to make a difference in Africa).  However, this sentiment sort of encapsulates the novel ways a certain conscious, proactive and ethical class of Westerners are got into helping our continent nowadays.

What makes me sad is that upwardly mobile Africans are not targeted too.  There are people in the diaspora and indeed even people across Africa who can afford to help their own.  And yet they are not marketed to.  They are not encouraged to take pride in dressing in fine garb designed and created by their own.  They are not at the forefront, being the trendsetters.  At the same time, why aren't we seeking out these avenues to contribute and to show what Africa has to offer with pride? Instead we will be the ones to ask our Western friend where they got their clothing from and they get to tell this great story of how fashion is doing its part to to move Africa in a positive direction both economically and culturally.

Colour Of The Day: Green!

I really hope that this initiative comes to fruition: "The Great Green Tree Wall of Africa!" that would span from West to East, from Senegal to Djibouti, to help curb the encroachment of the Sahara Desert. It is always a question of funding unfortunately.

The African Union have a Concept Note on the initiative that explains the reasoning behind it and why it is needed.  This would go a long way to helping with global warming that is said to most likely affect the continent the most.

I hope that leaders are able to come to some sort of consensus that revitalizes efforts to see this actually come to pass.