This podcast is the audio track of a presentation given in 2019 for the non-profit organization Science and Nonduality by Bayo Akomolafe, Nigerian philosopher/writer/activist, and executive director of Emergence Network. The full video version is available on YouTube — https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=xIr2hOMVhIc
Akomolafe poses some jarring questions:
What if the ways we think about the climate crisis are the crisis?
What if the feverish quest for "solutions" (which characterizes climate justice movements today) is getting in the way of radical transformation?
Introducing stories and myths from African tradition, Bayo extends an urgent invitation to notice climate change as the deconstruction of the human, and to approach demise and dying as abundant fields of surprise — a radical discontinuity.
“When my people say:
‘the times are urgent, let us slow down’
they’re not saying, be slow, like it’s a function of speed; they’re inviting a different kind of awareness. They’re helping us notice the insurgency of the invisible, that is, what we ... pushed aside and made a by-product of our exclusive search for progress. They’re inviting something different altogether ....
I invite you to notice that as well — that we will not come out of this intact; there is a de-fraction that needs to happen, a dying to self ... I mean all the conditions ... ideas that make us possible, permanent — this is the instability of the world. Maybe it’s time to let that go. We might find ourselves in a different mode of being entirely by adopting de-colonial ways of seeing, sniffing, noticing, of being in the world. We might find other ways of being alive.”
Africa's Changemakers
Through their voices, art or skills, these changemakers do more than dream of a brighter future for Africa, they take steps to create it
“ policymakers; they’re not rich nary men and women who do extraordinary things for one reason: to create change in their own communities.
These are people who will move mountains, rock by rock, to realize their vision for Africa. They are the real change makers – and they’re standing up to make a difference.”
How are you changing your world today?
Don’t miss viewing this inspiring video essay posted by UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. The focus of this current page is on changemakers in west & central Africa. https://www.unicef.org/wca/changemakers
There you’ll meet Amy Sow, a painter in Mauritania who uses her art work to end violence to women, & Aminu Ahmed Tudun-Wada, a polio victim who makes & sells tricycles in Nigeria so that children with disabilities can go to school, as well as Karima Grant who started Senegal’s first cultural & educational hub for children. And others from Gambia, Ghana & Burkina Faso.
MEET A CHANGEMAKER – Yemi Alade
Yemi Alade, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Her music is a mixture of Afropop, highlife, dancehall, pop and R&B, and has been of influence in several countries across Africa. She sings in English, Igbo, Pidgin, Yoruba, French, Swahili and Portuguese.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yemi Alade focused on the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on people without any social protections such as unemployment benefits or healthcare.
On 8 November 2024, Alade was announced as a nominee of the 67th Annual Grammy Awards. She earned this nomination for her song “Tomorrow” on the category for Best African Music Performance. The Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in the music industry. The awards will be announced on February 2, 2025.
CLICK to view an interview with her, December 2024, on CNN’s African Voices: “Changemaker” series as she reflects on her career and recent Grammy nomination. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/29/world/video/yemi-alade-grammy-tomorrow-african-voices-spc
On 23 September 2020 she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She is using that platform to gain support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on fighting inequality, promoting gender equality, and raising awareness of the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls.
Of climate change, she says,
“Women in developing countries, such as my homeland Nigeria, are particularly vulnerable to climate change because they are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihood.”
no poverty ... zero hunger ... good health & well-being ... quality education ... gender equality ... clean water & sanitation ... affordable and clean energy ... decent work & economic growth ... industry innovation & infrastruccture.. reduced inequalities ...sustainable cities & communities ... responsible consumption & production ... climate action ... life below water ... life on land ... peace, justice & strong institutions ... partnerships for the goals
Excerpts from Part One of a series on how the youth boom is changing the continent, and beyond.
New York Times 10/28/2023
“Old World, Young Africa”
Astonishing change is underway in Africa, where the population is projected to nearly double to 2.5 billion over the next quarter-century — an era that will not only transform many African countries, experts say, but also radically reshape their relationship with the rest of the world.
The median age on the African continent is 19. In India, the world’s most populous country, it is 28. In China and the United States, it is 38. More than a third of the world’s young people will live in Africa by 2050.
In 1950, Africans made up 8 percent of the world’s people. A century later, they will account for one-quarter of humanity, and at least one-third of all young people aged 15 to 24, according to United Nations forecasts.
The implications of this “youthquake,” as some call it, are immense yet uncertain, and likely to vary greatly across Africa, a continent of myriad cultures and some 54 countries that covers an area larger than China, Europe, India and the United States combined. But its first signs are already here….
Africa’s challenge is to manage unbridled growth. It has always been a young continent — only two decades ago the median age was 17 — but never on such a scale.
