During the latest episode of the Decolonization in Action Podcast, I interviewed Black and African people who dedicate their creative practices and activist work to climate justice and sustainable futures. While the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) is taking place in Madrid, I discussed the climate crisis with Rebecca Abena Kennedy-Asante from BLACK EARTH – BIPoC Environmental & Climate Justice Kollektiv Berlin, and Antoinette Yetunde Oni, an architectural designer and artist based in Lagos, Nigeria.
The episode begins with Antoinette Yetunde Oni, a Lagos-based artist who was a 2019 fellow at ZK/U, Center for Art and Urbanistics in Berlin in cooperation with the Department for Art and Culture Berlin-Mitte, Galerie Wedding, SAVVY Contemporary Berlin, and the Arthouse Foundation Lagos. Antoinette talks about her recent exhibition, New Commons Lagos to Berlin, in Berlin at Galerie Wedding and her commitment to activating design and African sustainable practices as ways to combat the climate crisis. She also connects how extractive capitalism and colonialism are not only the underlying causes of increased flooding in Lagos but are also directly related to racism and the exclusion of BIPoC activists within climate movements in London and Berlin. To prevent the climate crisis from continuing, she discusses how people need to come before profit.
In the second part of this episode, Rebecca Abena Kennedy-Asante from BLACK EARTH – BIPoC Environmental & Climate Justice Kollektiv Berlin contextualizes the recent Fridays for Future Climate Strike in Berlin within the country the emits the most carbon pollution in Europe: Germany. In order to confront the climate crisis, she talks about the importance of understanding how this crisis itself arose, which is the story of colonialism, industrialization, and violence that has lasted over 500 years. She also links current climate justice movements with centuries of anti-colonial struggles, discussing how protecting land rights has always been about also protecting the environment, while also talking about how the BLACK EARTH collective brings Black and Indigenous as well as non-cis, trans, intra, and non-binary perspectives to the climate justice movement in Berlin.
As always you can check out the episode on iTunes, Spotify, and Soundcloud.
Here are some resources that you can consider
taz, an article by Imeh Ituen and Rebecca Abenda Kennedy-Asante (November 18, 2019): “500 Jahre Umweltrassismus: Kolonialismus und Klimakrise.”
ak: analyse & kritik, an interview with Rebecca Abena Kennedy-Asante (October 10, 2019): “Fridays for Past, Present, and Future: Rebecca Abena Kennedy-Asante erklärt, warum die Klimakrise jetzt schon vor allem Schwarze, Indigene und Menschen of Colour trifft”
Climate Strike (Berlin, September 20, 2019): BIPoC Environmental & Climate Justice Kollektiv Berlin and the Black Kids Block
Mit freundlichen Grüßen Podcast, Episode 5, an interview with Imeh Ituen by Amina Azia (Supernova, September 19, 2019): “Umweltrassismus: Warum die Klimabewegung so weiß wirkt.”