From the 14th to 15th October, African Crossroads is hosting a hybrid event — Ecoexistence: A Collective Manifesto — that seeks to co-create content with Africans that thoroughly explores the ways in which individuals, and their environment, can interact to restore a mutually beneficial relationship between the two.
The event acts as a platform for activists, artists, the youth and all Africans interested in the restoration of healthy relationships between African citizens and the land of Africa, to discuss climate justice and think through solutions with the potential for positive and lasting impacts for our environmental future.
Through the examination of ideas and mechanisms that can build awareness for the urgency of climate action and facilitate the exchange of knowledge that can shape the future of Africa, Ecoexistence: A Collective Manifesto, will be a crucial start to co-authoring stories and methodologies that can engage Africans on practical strategies and systems that will transform connections between humans, nature and technology.
Through exploring movements in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, attendees can expect to witness or engage in conversations with Africans dissecting the ways in which people and the earth can interact to re-establish a symbiotic relationship.
Attendees can also discover how the youth of the continent are actively investigating local environmental issues to develop remedies rooted in the geo-political and historical contexts of the African continent. The Foundation Tunisie will also engage attendees by asking the pertinent question of “How to design a sustainable hub with NO green washing?”
What’s incredibly interesting about this event is the focus on determining how technology can impact the wellness and restoration of the environment moving forward. So often, ecological justice and action conversations centre the damage that technology has created, and emphasise the strained relationship experienced between technology and the earth.
However, regardless of all the injury and harm caused to the planet by technological advancement, technology is here to stay. The livelihood of many Africans is directly dependent on their access to technology, and furthermore, the ease of life offered by the evolution and growth of technology has made it difficult to separate human livelihood from technological access.
Through engaging with the topic of E-coexistence, perceptions of how technology affects the climate and physical spaces that support it, could usher in a shift of questioning how technology can be used to offer viable and practical solutions that positively influence climate justice and climate action. In this way technology’s use can be reprogrammed and reinterpreted to contribute to productive discussions of solutions for environmental damage.
Altogether, Ecoexistence: A Collective Manifesto, will be a collection of the voices of individuals from various industries spanning the continent to develop a “multifaceted portrait of African conditions of existence” where eco-justice and climate action is concerned.
African Crossroads have set up this event to be a new and refreshing way to investigate a range of African perspectives to identify solutions specifically suited for continental context. By boosting the voices of people from all over the continent, attendees can learn and expand on their own perspectives to reengineer their daily lives with realistic, locally grounded efforts that do not feel completely foreign and detached from their everyday African contexts.
Find out more about the event here.
