Words by Smiley Team
Since 2019, 27-year-old climate activist Fousseny Traoré has been working full-throttle to raise awareness about the climate crisis in his home country, Mali.
Shortly after Greta Thunberg caused waves of interest throughout the international media in 2018, Fousseny felt inspired by her to educate his fellow citizens about the escalating impact climate change is having on their lives.
Among one of the most climate-sensitive countries in the world, Mali’s fragile economy and geography put it at risk of social and political instability, flooding, and drought.
“Over time I’ve seen the environmental equilibrium transform,” Fousseny lamented. “As a curious and attentive individual, I noticed environmental imbalances developing in Mali, with the intermittent devastation by rainstorms.
“That’s when I decided to dedicate myself to protecting the environment. Greta Thunberg leads the combat for a catastrophe that mostly affects us Africans as the main victims of the climate crisis. While we are not even responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming, we’re the ones who feel the consequences of polluting countries in the West, countries we don’t even know.”
After realising the extent to which the climate crisis could impact his country, Fousseny took it upon himself to raise awareness through every means possible. He has co-founded and joined a multitude of movements. These include the environmentalist association for Mali’s climate (L'Association Écologique Citoyens Pour le Climat Mali), the group, Together for Bamako’s Climate, and the movement SAVE the Sahel (SAUVONS le Sahel), which comes under the hashtag #ActOnsahel, on social media.
Today he also represents the group Fridays For Future, Mali, the local group of the international student strike for the climate, triggered by Greta Thunberg’s initial sit-down protest in front of the Swedish parliament in August 2018.
But his first and foremost concern is to alert the population to the climate crisis through education.
He explained: “For me, environmental education is the best solution, above all in Africa because people don’t know about the consequences of climate change or they think that it’s something that only concerns the West, while actually, we’re on the front line.”
Every day progressively more groups and individuals get in touch with him as his campaign spreads across the country.
He added: “Young people must get involved in this. The future of our continent, of the world, of our planet, it’s our future. We must act and we must not let others make decisions in our place.”
To find out more about Fridays For Future or to join their movement visit fridaysforfuture.org.
