☀️ Climate change is everyone’s business: you can be young or old, living in a developed or developing country, you can be white, Black, or any color of the rainbow. Climate change does not discriminate. I’m on the frontline of the climate fight because I was born an activist. And because I come from a community that lives and depends on nature. These are the words of Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim @hindououmar, a Chadian environmental activist with a unique perspective. Hindou, a Mbororo woman, is a member of an Indigenous nomadic Mbororo People within the wider Fulani People. She is the founder of the Association of Peul Women and Autochthonous Peoples of Chad (AFPAT), a group that actively participates in international climate and biodiversity negotiations. Last year, speaking to the #culturescapes Artistic Advisory Board member Yarri Kamara, she said: “I think women are the masters of the environment. They are knowledgeable about the details, the knowledge that we tend to neglect. When I do the participatory mapping, I am struck by how men give you the bigger reference points. They know where the rivers are, where the sacred forests are, where the mountains are. But when you ask the women, they will tell you exactly from where they collect food and water during droughts, where they shelter their children during a flood, they know which kind of medicinal plant can heal a specific illness. Women are also the ones who transmit knowledge to the generations, just through talking with their own children. That’s how I learned from my grandmother: “Do you know this plant?,” she would ask. “No, I don’t,” I would reply. “It maybe looks the same as this other one, but the difference is ABCD and you can use it for this, for that.” It is just a chat, but at the same time you are also learning knowledge that can be helpful for your entire life”. ☝🏼Read the full interview via link in the bio. 📸 Salma Khalil, courtesy of Terre Indigène. #environment #climatechange #climatejustice #africa #indigenous #activism #culturescapes2023sahara #culturescapesmemories
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