African Women, Religion and climate

Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal

Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa

Author(s): Filomina Chioma Steady

Source: Race, Gender & Class, Vol. 21, No. 1/2, Race, Gender & Class 2013 Conference

(2014), pp. 312-333

Published by: Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43496976

Accessed: 26-04-2020 15:34 UTC

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Race, Gender & Class: Volume 21, Number 1-2, 2014 (312-333)

Gender & Class Website: www.rgc.uno.edu

Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa

Filomina Chioma Steady Africana Studies

Wellesley College

Abstract: Women in Africa have been among the first to notice the impact of climate change and its effects on the agricultural cycle, human and animal life; food production and food security. As major custodians and consumers of natural resources, the lives of women in rural areas are profoundly affected by seasonal changes, making them among the most vulnerable to climate change. Their pivotal role in any measure aimed at mitigation and adaptation is indisputable. Despite Africa's minimal emission of green house gases, it is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change and climate variability and is prone to ecosystem degradation and complex natural disasters. (United Nations Environment Programme, 2006). This article examines women and climate change in Africa as an aspect of Africa's environmental problems. It is argued that the ideologies that drive the exploitation of the earth's resources are linked to the legacy of colonialism and its aftermath of economic globalization. Both have important implications for continuing oppression of the environment and people, with important implications for race, gender and class. Particular attention is given to women in rural areas in Africa, who are the main custodians of environmental conservation and sustainability and who are highly threatened by environmental degradation and climate change. Yet, they are often marginalized from the decision-making processes related to solving problems of Climate Change. The paper combines theoretical insights with empirical data to argue for more attention to women's important ecological and economic roles and comments on the policy implications for Climate Change. It calls for liberation that would bring an end to economic and ecological oppression through climate justice and gender justice.

Keywords: Africa's vulnerability; women; natural resources; colonial legacies; hazardous waste dumping; land grabs; biofuels; mining, deforestation; liberation, gender justice, climate justice.

Filomina Chioma Steady is Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College, specializing in gender and development studies. She was the Special Advisor on

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 313

Women, Environment and Development to the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro by the United Nations. Her research interests include women and development studies, environmental justice, medical anthropology; gender theory, gender justice, Africa and the African Diaspora.

Address: Africana Studies (Gender Studies, Environmental Justice), Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02781. Ph.: (781) 283-2565, Fax: (781) 283-3672, Email: [email protected]

Climate emission challenge Change of of green the is twenty house probably first gases, century. the it most is one Despite important of the Africa's most environmental vulnerable negligible challenge of the twenty first century. Despite Africa's negligible emission of green house gases, it is one of the most vulnerable

continents to climate change and climate variability and is prone to ecosystem degradation and complex natural disasters (United Nations Environment Programme, 2006). The gender implications of climate change are being increasingly appreciated since women's economic and social roles bring them into a total relationship to the ecology in African societies. At the same time, gender- based discrimination marginalizes them from environmental benefits, training and decision-making. This article examines women and climate change in Africa as an aspect of Africa's environmental problems. It is argued that the ideologies that drive the exploitation of the earth's resources are linked to colonialism and its aftermath of economic globalization which have important implications for continuing oppression on the basis primarily of race, gender and class. Particular attention is given to poor women in rural areas in Africa, who are the main custodians of environmental conservation and sustainability and who are highly threatened by environmental degradation and climate change. The paper combines theoretical insights with empirical data and comments on their policy implications for women in Africa. It calls for liberation, namely, an end of economic and ecological oppression through climate justice and gender justice.

As early as June 8th 1977, when the first trees were planted in Kenya by Wangari Maathai and a small group of women, the link between deforestation, desertification and climate change were made in Africa. This was long before the world caught on to the idea of the dangers of climate change and held world conferences in Rio in 1992 and later in Kyoto and Copenhagen. Environmental concerns became linked with issues of gender equality, peace, security, democracy, justice and liberation. The Nobel Peace Committee in 2004 recognized the broader social and political links with the environment as well as the gender dimensions when it granted the Nobel Peace Prize to the late Wangari Maathai of Kenya in 2004.

The connection between women and the environment were highlighted in the 1 992 Earth Summit in Rio, particularly in Agenda 21: The Program of Action from Rio , of which Chapter 24 is titled: "Global Action for Women towards Sustainable and Equitable Development." Some of the gender dimensions and the broader social and political links with the environment were recognized by Wangari

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314 Filomina Chioma Steady

Maathai in her acceptance speech for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize:

Throughout Africa, women are the primary caretakers, holding significant responsibility for tilling the land and feeding their families. As a result, they are often the first to become aware of environmental damage as resources become scarce and incapable of sustaining their families.... Using trees as a symbol of peace is in keeping with a widespread African tradition. (From Wangari Maathai's Nobel Lecture, delivered in Oslo, 10 December 2004.)

Women and the Environment in Africa

As in many parts of the world, gender relations in Africa are largely structured around dealings with the environment. This is particularly true is rural areas where agriculture is the dominant mode of production. In 1 970 Boserup's landmark study emphasized the devastating role of colonial rule on women in African agriculture and its reinforcement and introduction of new forms of inequality in the gender division of labor in African agriculture. Women were marginalized and their labor expropriated, a factor that led to the degradation of the environment.

Agriculture

Women in Africa provide the bulk of the labor in agriculture and are major resource managers in rural areas of Africa. They are overwhelmingly responsible for subsistence food production, procurement of water, fuel and animal husbandry, involving small animals. On account of these activities, women have acquired a wide array of indigenous knowledge about farming and local resources that has been passed down from one generation to another. Based on the division of labor by gender, tasks involving the clearing of land or forest and preparing the beds for planting are done by men Women typically do the sowing of seeds, planting of tree cuttings, watering, weeding and harvesting. As a result, women spend more time on agricultural work and are responsible for the more long-term, routine and tedious aspects of the work.

Colonial rule introduced cash crops which were cultivated mostly by men. Women's workload in subsistence agriculture increased and often also involved providing labor for the weeding, watering and harvesting of cash crops. Increase in women's workload and gender-based discrimination usually marginalizes women from participation in training programs; in the development of agricultural policies and derived little of the benefits of new agricultural knowledge or inputs. Recognition of these discrepancies has received growing attention in the development literature and have played a role in some of the changes in agricultural policies and practices towards greater gender sensitivity and equality (FAO, 1985; Sontheimer, 1991; Jommo, 1993; Timberlake, 1985).

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 315

Forests

Trees and forests have important ecological functions that go beyond serving as carbon sinks to absorb the excessive carbon emissions, primarily from industrialized societies. For people for whom forests form the basis for their livelihood, deforestation can be devastating. Loss of tree cover increases the burden of obtaining forest resources and water, increases soil erosion and decreases agricultural productivity (Williams, 1993). Many people living in rural areas in Africa depend on the forests for subsistence resources including food, firewood, fiber timber, material for crafts, animal fodder, medicinal herbs and so forth. In many African societies, it is women who collect forest resources for the subsistence needs of their households. Men are usually involved with tapping trees for rubber and palm wine and for harvesting palm kernels and coconuts that involved climbing. Men were also responsible for cutting down of trees and tend to care for large trees in general. Over the last three decades or so, there has been recognition of the social diversity of forest users which include traditional forest dwellers, farmers and pastoralists (Williams, 1992, 1993; Chavang, 1988; Lewis, 1990).

Women's roles in community forestry has been amply documented as well as the role of women in using and managing forest resources. As a result, many forestry projects in Africa have sought to include women's participation for reasons of forestry development but also as a way of mitigating the impact of deforestation on Climate Change (Mathai, 1 988). In Kenya, the Greenbelt Movement has planted trees as a response to deforestation and their activities have expanded to include other countries in Africa. A study of eight countries in Africa examined constraints to women's participation in forestry and strategies were developed to overcome these constraints. Women are essential for community forestry and agriculture in Africa. As Williams points out:

In Africa, most farmers are women. Declining agricultural yields increase women's workload, as they must work more to obtain enough yields to feed their families. Where women raise small stock, decreases in woody vegetation make it more difficult for women to feed their animals. Declining agricultural activity directly affects household nutrition and incomes (Williams, 1993:179).

In many countries of Africa, such as Zanzibar, Sudan, Cameroon, Kenya and Mali, deforestation is affecting household livelihoods. For an example, in Zanzibar, trees were cut down to make room for clove tree plantations. As a result, women work greater distances to get firewood and poor households spend up to 40% of their income on fuel. Although women and children collect an estimated 60 to 80 percent of all domestic firewood supplies in Africa, it is now well documented that women do not cause deforestation since they usually collect firewood from branches and dead wood. Most deforestation in Africa results from clearing land for agricultural, commercial or construction purposes (FAO, 1988; Williams, 1 993 ; Khatibu & Suleiman, 1991; Lewis, 1990; Jommo, 1993).

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316 Filomina Chioma Steady

Water

There is growing evidence that there will soon be a shortage of water that will affect all regions (Myers, 1991). The Global Consultation on Safe Water and Sanitation noted that some 80 countries, supporting 40% of the world's population already suffer from serious water shortage and water scarcity is accelerating (Yoon, 1993). It is a well know fact that Climate Change affects fresh water supplies as a result of the pollution from increasing floods; acidification from sea level rise; increased shortage of fresh water and an increase in water-borne diseases, such as cholera (International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, 2012). By 2020, between 75 and 250 million of people are projected to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change.

By 2020, in some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%. Agricultural production, including access to food, in many African countries is projected to be severely compromised. This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition (Yoon, 1993).

Scarcity of clean fresh water is a problem for women in many areas but is particularly acute in arid and semi-arid areas such as in the Sahel and where drought is a constant threat, such as in parts of East and Southern Africa. According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) arid and semi-arid land areas in Africa are increasing. By 2080, an increase of 5 to 8% of arid and semi-arid land in Africa is projected under a range of climate scenarios (International Panel on Climate Change Report, 2012).

Women's role in the management of household water supplies as well as their roles as agricultural and fisheries workers are key factors in the ecology of water resources. They are also critical in the control of water pollution in relation to household use and in agriculture and fisheries. Women's economic and social roles brings them into a total relationship to the ecology and not just to domestic water supply. In most African societies, women play a dominant role in collecting fresh water for household use, aided by children. For centuries, they had drawn water from the rivers or other sources and carried it home in buckets or jogs on their heads or backs, walking long distances, sometimes up to twenty kilometers (Yoon, 1993). WEDNET and women's indigenous knowledge.

The Women, Environment and Development Network (WEDNET) in Africa stated approach starts with a critique of development in Africa and emphasizes that "far from bringing the expected widespread benefits, postcolonial development strategies in Africa have only resulted in socio-economic crisis; a seriously compromised resource base and environmental degradation." (Jommo, 1 993 ; With regard to the faulty colonial policies in Africa, see Dumont, 1966, 1980, French agronomist who wrote several books about the dangers of environmental degradation in Africa resulting from colonialism and its legacies.) The fact that women's multiple domestic roles places a double burden on them in confronting environmental degradation is compounded by the context of poverty in which the majority of the rural population in Africa lives.

As a result of the division of labor based on gender women are allocated tasks

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 31 7

requiring continuous, sustained, time-consuming labor and environmental oversight to a greater extent than men. It is no wonder that women are among the first people to notice environmental degradation, sound the alarm, and try to mitigate or adapt to the consequences. In addition, women have been the most vocal activists in challenging environmental violations. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the 2002 Rio plus 1 0 Conference on Sustainable Development in South Africa, women from all countries in Africa, as members of Non Governmental Organizations such as Women, Environment and Development Organization (WEDO,) Development Alternatives for Women in a New Era (DAWN) and Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD) against international economic policies such as Structural Adjustment; the dept burden and economic globalization that are resulting in destruction of the environment; impoverishment and that threaten the social fabric of society. They also called for access for women to fertile land, clean water and other resources (NGO collaborative meetings and consultations with UN officials at the Earth Summit of 1992 and Rio plus 10 of 2002).

Land

Some of the challenges of agriculture, forestry and water are linked to access to land, a factor that has gender implications. In most patrilineal societies, which are prevalent in Africa, men control the distribution and access to land. Women have to work on land usually allocated to their husbands, fathers or sons. As a rule, land is communally owned in most rural areas but access to land may be determined by patrilineal rules of descent, a major factor in social organization. Usually men and women work on the land together according to the gender division of agricultural labor. With the introduction of cash crops, primarily cultivated by men, women took on the major task of subsistence agriculture with an increase in their workload. They may also work, without much benefit, on lands where cash crop is produced. Where land is scarce it is not unusual for women to practice intercropping by planting food crops in between trees. Privatizing land that was previously owned communally owned can have an impact on water resources. Shifting communal land ownership of water resources into private hands has significant implications in terms of access, preservation, conservation and accountability (Boserup, 1989; Jommo, 1993; Dixon-Mueller, 1985).

Africa's Environmental Problems, Colonialism, Economic Globalization, Climate Change and Liberation

The link between environmental degradation and Liberation is not as fully recognized as it should be. Much of Africa's environmental problems can be traced to colonialism and the legacy of its policies that included extraction of resources for export that devastated the land. Other environmental consequences include deforestation, desertification, drought, shortage of fresh and clean water, shortage of biomass for fuel, loss of soil fertility, loss of biodiversity and the impact of

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318 Filomina Chioma Steady

climate change. Colonialism had a devastating effect on African women as many studies since Boserup's classic study shows. Colonial agriculture subjugated African women and appropriate their labor for exploitation (Boserup, 1975; Fall, 1999; Steady, 1981, 2002 among others).

Shiva's critique of the patriarchal ideologies affecting colonialism credits' Boserup's astute observation of how women's impoverishment increased during colonial rule and notes the inevitability of patriarchal domination in the colonies:

Those rulers who had spent a few centuries in subjugating and crippling their own women into deskilled, de-intellectualized appendages, disfavored the women of the colonies on matters of access to land, technology and employment (Shiva, 1993).

According to Walter Rodney in his book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa: "Africa is well endowed with natural resources but the situation is that Africa has

not yet come anywhere close to making the most of its natural wealth, and most of the wealth now being produced is not being retained within Africa for the benefit of its people.... Colonialism was not merely a system of exploitation, but one whose essential purpose was to repatriate the profits to the so-called 'mother country'. From an African view-point, that amounted to consistent expatriation of surplus produced by African labor out of African resources. It meant the development of Europe as part of the same dialectical process in which Africa was underdeveloped." Rodney's compelling explanatory thesis that colonial Africa fell within that part of the international capitalist economy from which surplus was drawn to feed the metropolitan sector resonate loudly with the environmental challenges in Africa today (Rodney, 1981:20.

Economic globalization, the successor to colonialism, has been a mixed blessing and has led to a 'race to the bottom' for most of the countries of the Global South. It is the unfettered flow and accumulation of capital t the global level, irrespective of the historical and territorial rights and constraints of nation states. The key players are multinational corporations who have a stronghold on national economies. They dominate economic production and distribution by controlling capital and financial decision-making. The result is destruction of the environment. Globalization, through Structural Adjustment Policies removes state subsidies for the poor and increases marginalization and impoverishment in the Global South, especially Africa (Dembele, 2002). Corporate globalization has its antecedents in the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism. It also continues to create wealth

for the few elites of the Global North and Global South and to promote the negative aspects of patriarchy and capitalism in producing marginalized racial groups, with important gender implications, especially for poor rural women in Africa who have played important roles in ensuring environmental sustainability (Steady, 1993; Fall, 1999; Dembele, 2002; Pheko, 2002).

There is overwhelming evidence that corporate globalization, through its exercise of economic power and domination has reinforced polarization between and within countries along socio-economic, racial and gender lines. The Global

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 319

North/Global South divisions are among are among the most dramatic and are manifested in policies affecting the environment, trade, immigration and refugee policies, domestic migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers. Ordinary women and men, especially poor women in rural areas, pay the social and human cost of globalization, especially those who historically and structurally have been racialized and gendered into a subordinate position by the powerful ideologies of racism and patriarchy, with destructive consequences for humans and the environment (See Sen & Grown, 1986; Fall, 1999; Sethi, 1999; Center for Women and Development Studies, 2000; Steady, 2002 among others).

The struggle for Liberation continues. Africa is faced with a number of problems that are directly related to the unequal and exploitative nature of the historical and current global political economy. The legacy of resistance that was widespread during colonialism continues through challenges to corporate globalization, structural adjustment programs and environmental devastation by Multinational Corporations. Examples include 1) oil mining in Nigeria; 2) female work in export processing in agro-industries; 3) deforestation and 4) International dumping of hazardous waste.

1. Oil Mining

Oil mining companies, like Shell, operating in the Niger Delta of Nigeria have been destroying the environment with impunity as they exploit the wealth of that African nation (Adeola, 2009). In trying to attract foreign investments African governments, including Nigeria, have not been enforcing the laws governing these corporations. On the contrary, these companies are given incentives and tax holidays without due regard to the damage to the environment and the resource base on which people's livelihoods depend. Oil leaching into the soil and streams as well as oil flares, are common, and pollute and destroy marine life, the main source of animal protein for these communities.

Nigerian women have been at the forefront of protests against oil companies for their exploitation and destruction of the environment. These protests sometimes result in the shut down of operations for considerable periods (Adeola, 2009).

2. Female Work in export processing in agro-industries

Female work in export processing industries has been increasing in Africa. This is because multi-nationals move their export processing operations to Africa from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean where female labor has become more expensive. Women are the majority of the labor force in agribusiness dealing with food processing, flowers and in textile and garment industries, because their labor is cheap and unprotected. In general, they experience long working hours, unsafe and unsanitary working environments that are violations of conventions of the International Labor Office and a violation of their human rights. In the flower industries in countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Zambia women provide the major labor force and use pesticides and other chemicals that result in spontaneous

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320 Filomina Chioma Steady

abortions, miscarriages, infertility and other reproductive problems.

3. Deforestation

The deforestation rate in Africa is four times the world average, due mainly to logging activities that include commercial ventures and shipping timber to Europe to make furniture for Europeans. Countries like the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Liberia have seen major losses of their forests. The case of Liberia is particularly alarming. Two thirds of the forests of Liberia have been ceded to foreign logging companies with no benefit to the people, despite promise of building schools, clinics and providing employment. Although most African governments have environmental legislation to halt deforestation, the problem continues at an alarming rate. The efforts of the late Wangari Mathaai and the Greenbelt Movement of Kenya to halt deforestation were often met with resistance from the state and environmental female activists were often victims of police brutality.

4. International Dumping of Hazardous Waste

In September 2006, an oil tanker "Trafigura" based in the Netherlands secretly and illegally dumped a considerable amount of toxic chemicals, mostly hydrogen sulphide and components of organochlorides in various locations in the Ivory Coast, resulting in deaths and injuries to hundreds of people, despite the Basel Convention and the Bamako Convention against such actions. The practice of what has been termed "Toxic colonialism" whereby countries of the Global South, especially those in Africa are used as dumping ground is not new and sometimes occurs with the complicity of the governments of Africa (Reed, 2009). As Gbadegesin notes: "The dumping sites of toxic waste from Western nations can be found throughout Africa. Some of these activities, like the Trafigura dumping are clandestine and others are due to weak enforcement mechanisms and some are carried on in complicity with the governments. Western companies are motivated by the low cost of disposing of waste in African countries. The materials deposited vary from non nuclear industrial waste from North America to uranium mining wastes from Colorado and chemical and industrial waste (PCB) from Italy" (Gbadegesin, 2001:189).

A defense for dumping in countries like Africa was presented by Summers when he was an economist at the World Bank. He agued that the logic of dumping a load of toxic waste in a lowest-wage country was impeccable (Westra, 1993). African scholars have described the dumping of nuclear waste on their continent as "Toxic Terrorism." According to Gbadegesin, this racist inspired terrorism is of the worst kind because, rather than being motivated by the need to avenge an injustice, it appears to be driven by economic motive (Gbadegesin, 2001). Another menace is e-waste dumping of computers and other electronic material in Africa because of the low cost to the countries of the Global North; lack of accountability and weak monitoring and enforcement rules by Africans. Children often play around these dumpsites, which expose them to pollution and toxic poisoning.

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Women , Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 321

Africa and Climate Change

As pointed out earlier, climate change has been a concern of African women long before it became fashionable to the world. This is a result of their role in the gender division of labor where women relate more closely and with greater frequently with the environment and are responsible for its conservation and protection. The 1992 Earth Summit marked an important international recognition of the threat of Climate Change, and governments agreed on voluntary measures to reduce greenhouse gases. The Framework Convention on Climate Change warns of 'serious and irreversible damage' to the environment. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), climate change refers to a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (International Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992; United Nations, 2013).

In 2012, the UN Conference to mark 20 years of the 1992 Earth Summit, "Rio plus 20" adopted a weak document titled "The Future we Want" as a blueprint for promoting sustainable development and halting environmental degradation and climate change. The governments affirmed that climate is one of the greatest challenges of our time and expressed profound concern that green house gases continue to rise globally. All countries, particularly developing countries are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change and are already experiencing changing rainfall patterns, storms and floods, ocean acidification and sedimentation, persistent drought and extreme weather conditions, sea-level rise and coastal erosion This further threatens food security and efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. In Africa, it is projected that sea level rise will affect low-lying coastal areas with large populations and the cost of adaptation could amount to at least 5 to 10% of Gross Domestic Product (IPCC, 2007).

According to scientists, the phenomenon of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases forcing climate change is due primarily to human activity. This has resulted in the world becoming consistently warmer, and temperatures rising higher than it has been for 600,000 years. It is now fairly well known that by the next century, the earth's temperature would be 5 degrees higher, and temperatures will remain high for 1000 years longer because of the persistence of carbon in the atmosphere (International Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992; United Nations, 2013).

For the vast majority of the world climate change would have negative results, leading to damage to people, property and the ecosystems. Some of the worst effects will be felt in countries that rely heavily on agriculture and where the vast majority of people live in rural areas, like African countries, since climate change will decrease agricultural yields. The planet and ecosystem will suffer. There will be further loss of biodiversity. Sea levels are already higher than the 1880s. Migratory patterns of fish will affect fishing communities and food security. By 2050, it is predicted that there will be 200 million climate change refugees. The people most vulnerable to environmental disasters and climate change are the poor,

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Women, Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 323

especially poor women. There are already more than one billion people in the world living in poverty, hunger and in slums. Poor women are carrying the burden of climate change at the cost of their own development. The divide between the rich and poor will be even wider as climate change brings about social and humanitarian problems of great magnitude.

According to scientists, sub-Saharan Africa will suffer the most from Climate Change, although it produces less than 4% of the world's greenhouse gases. In over 150 years only one African country, South Africa, made it to the list of greenhouse emissions, and that was by just 1% as the figure above shows.

The energy use of the whole African continent is the same as that of the city of New York. The United States of America emits 1000 times more carbon dioxide

per person than someone in Chad. The continent's diverse climates and ecological systems have already been altered by global warming, and will undergo further damage in the years ahead. Widespread flooding would affect the East African low-lying islands and coastal area, and cause some cities like Lagos, built on a lagoon, to disappear over time. Coastal fisheries would be damaged if higher sea levels push salt water inland and destroy freshwater estuaries and coastal farmlands. The changes are producing stronger and harsher droughts that last longer. Changes in seasons affect the agricultural cycle that adversely affect farmers, many of whom are women who provide 80% of the labor in agriculture (UNCED, 1992).

Gender and Climate Change

Climate change has gender implications because of the differential impact on women and men. Gender hierarchies result in unequal access to power, strategic resources, education, employment and information. Due to the gender division of labor, women's spheres of economic activities are more connected with the environment, and are more directly affected by changes in weather pattern. The decrease in food supply affects women's ability to feed their families, and results in a loss of income and livelihood.

Climate Change can contaminate the water supply, increase pests and diseases, and decrease biomass fuel available for household use. In addition to increasing women's workload, these changes add to women's care-giving activities and dependency burden. Women also have specific vulnerability and are often among the majority of environmental refugees. They have a harder time escaping from floods because of the likelihood of their inability to swim, and their tendency to look behind for the children (UNIFEM, 1992).

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has produced negotiations reflected in the 1 8th Conference of the Parties (COP) processes agreed that vulnerability, adaptation and mitigation are important social issues in climate change. It also adopted a decision on promoting gender balance and improving the participation of women in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations of parties in bodies established pursuant to the Convention or the Kyoto Protocol (United Nations,

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324 Filomina Chioma Steady

1992; United Nations, 2007; United Nations, 2013).

Vulnerability

The International Panel on Climate Change considers vulnerability as exposure to the negative effects of green house gases that will have devastating effects on populations, resources and property. This has important implications for women, who addition to their own susceptibilities to diseases are usually the main caregivers for their families. As stated by Hippocrates, "whoever would study medicine must consider the effects of each of the seasons of the year and the difference between them.... In seasons which are regular, and furnish the productions of the seasons at the seasonable time, the diseases are regular, and come readily to a crisis; but in inconstant seasons, the diseases are irregular, and come to a crisis with difficulty" (Hippocrates, 2009. Also Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.www.com).

Climate change will alter the seasons and cause an increase of parasites like the tsetse fly and parasitic diseases such as malaria, as regions outside the malaria zone become hotter and drier. Malaria is the single greatest killer of African children, and imposes a $12 billion annual drain on African economies through death, medical costs and lost productivity. The threat of cholera epidemics is also greater with climate change, as the bacterium that causes cholera is very much related to temperature. The epidemic tends to follow natural disasters like floods, tsunamis and hurricanes (Roundtable of Scientists at Radcliffe Institute's Conference on Climate Change, April 14, 201 1).

Poverty increases vulnerabilities to environmental destruction for everyone, especially women and children. It is now well recognized that there is a synergistic relationship between poverty and environmental degradation. According to estimates, one fourth of the world's population lives in poverty, the majority of whom live in developing countries (Durning, 1989). Poverty has been defined as "that process which deprives people , particularly women and children, of the basic needs of attaining livelihoods, and that undermines their physical, cultural and spiritual well being." About 20% of the poor live in marginal and fragile land (UNCED, 1992). Of this group, it is estimated that 80% in Latin America, 60% in Asia and 5 1 % in Africa live in areas of low productivity with a high degree of susceptibility to environmental degradation (UNCED, 1992).

According to the International Panel on Climate Change, by 2020, between 75 and 250 million of people in Africa are projected to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change. By 2020, in some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%. Agricultural production, including access to food, in many African countries is projected to be severely compromised. This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition. Towards the end of the 21st century, projected sea level rise will affect low-lying coastal areas with large populations. By 2080, an increase of 5 to 8% of arid and semi-arid land in Africa is projected under a range of climate scenarios which would greatly reduce the arable land available for food production and increase

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poverty and food insecurity (United Nations, 2007). It has been severally noted with alarm that the global economic system

generates poverty and degrades the environment as a result of policies that are fuelled by neo-liberal ideologies of economic globalization. Shiva has argued that the erosion of the resource base for survival is increasingly being caused by the demands for resources in the market economy, which is dominated by global forces, creating inequality and poverty through ecologically disruptive economic activities (Shiva, 1 993). Consequently, the economies of many countries of the Global South are oriented towards production for the benefit and consumption of the wealthy nations of the Global North rather than for the benefit of those most in need within

their own borders. In many cases, these countries are trapped in an unworkable world economic system and have few alternatives open to them.

The drive to increase exports and the push to achieve growth at all costs, explains the dilemmas that governments face as they makechoices between immediate economic gains, and longer-term environmental degradation (Women's Feature Service, 1991).

Women are particularly vulnerable to poverty. The Human Development Report indicated that poverty has a gender bias.

Global environmental problems have an unavoidable significance for gender relations because they almost always have a differential impact on women. Gender, as a major organizing principle of society, has almost universally endowed women with responsibility for the critical areas dealing with the use of natural resources and women play a critical role in the day to day management of these resources and have preserved and transmitted knowledge about the sustainable use of these resources. The effects of poverty on women are more lasting because of their greater dependency burden and responsibility for children. Globally, women head about one fourth of households and can be as high as 60% of households in some countries of the South, such as Botswana in Africa (United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM), 1 992). In general, women are harder hit by poverty than men, who tend to have greater mobility and can migrate or run away from conditions of environmental degradation as has been reported in the case of floods in countries such as Bangladesh (United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), 1992).

Adaptation

According to the International Panel on Climate Change, adaptation is the adjustment in natural and human systems to a new changing environment. Women are well positioned to make some important adaptations to climate change. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization reports that, as a result of gender-differentiated roles in agro-biodiversity management, women often have greater knowledge of indigenous plant varieties with important nutritional and medicinal values (FAO, and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2008). Echoing these findings, Shiva has pointed out how

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326 Filomina Chioma Steady

women's environmental roles are being threatened by economic policies that negatively affect the environment. She notes that "nature's economy, through which environmental regeneration takes place, and the people's subsistence economy, within which women produce the sustenance for society through invisible unpaid work are systematically being destroyed to create growth in the market economy (Shiva, 1993:50-51)."

As keepers of seeds, women often possess knowledge of a variety of genetic resources to adapt to varying climate conditions such as resistance to drought and pests (FAO, 2008). A research project by the Women, Environment and Development Network bears this out. The project on women's indigenous knowledge about the environment and local resources involved eight countries, namely Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Sudan, Zaire (DRC,) Zambia and Zimbabwe. The study found that not only do women have a keen knowledge of their local environments, they are also prepared to deal with floods and other environmental catastrophes when they occur because of the coping mechanisms that they have developed and their abilities at adaptation to environmental degradation (Jommo, 1993).

Other examples of women's adaptation includes switching to alternatives. When firewood is scarce as a result of deforestation, Williams has recorded how rural women tend to look for alternative fuel, change their cooking methods that conserve fuel or cook fewer meals a day. Women also often organize and lobby politicians and development officers to get access to resources, such as land for communal agriculture, water and fences to protect their farms. They also devise strategies to minimize insect, pest and animal damage to their crops and trees. In her study of women and forestry in Africa, Williams further observes that in some rural areas of Africa, women decide on their own priorities, such as choosing tree species, technical assistance and training that best suits them (Williams, 1993). In spite of their knowledge and creativity at adaptation, gender often determines who receives inputs from adaptation strategies and, too often, new agricultural technologies and extension services tend to bypass or minimally involve women farmers (See James, U., 1995).

Mitigation

Mitigation is defined as policies and measures designed to reduce green house gases and enhance carbon sinks (United Nations, 2007). Since women are the main managers of natural resources in Africa, they play important roles in mitigating climate change. The Greenbelt Movement of Kenya is famous for that. It has planted over 30 million trees, not only in Kenya but in other countries in Africa to enhance carbon sinks undermined by deforestation. In Zanzibar, many women rural women have gained social status and recognition by their tree planting activities. These activities have also provided them with incomes and increased their economic independence. In Somalia, some refugee projects have involved women in growing and managing trees and have thus challenged male domination of the forestry sector (FAO, 1989; Williams, 1993; Jommo, 1993; Dankleman &

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Davidson, 1988). Another example of mitigation relates to water. KWAHO ( Kenya Water for

Health Organization,) a community based organization in Kenya recognizes that women are the latent force for change in local communities and are most affected by lack of adequate and clean water (Mwangola, 1993). Their programs are aimed at mitigating the catastrophic effect of lack of clean water as a result of the impact of climate change on fresh water supplies. Climate change can cause sea level rise, resulting in acidification and pollution of fresh water.

The Kochogo/Kakola Community Water and Sanitation Project in Kisumu district, Western Kenya is a successful women's initiated and managed water and sanitation program in rural Kenya, supported by KWAHO. The project is located in a flood-prone that is susceptible to environmental problems, such as soil erosion, pollution and contamination of the water supply. This project contributes to mitigating some of the environmental problems in this area (Mwangola, 1993).

Biofuel Plants in Africa: Neo-colonialism and the

Need for Liberation

One alarming development in Africa is the planting of biofuels for automobiles in the Global North as is illustrated in the figure below. It is estimated that by 2020, 20% of fuel for automobiles will come from biofuels, much of which will be grown in Africa. East and southern African countries are being targeted. Growing biofuels in Africa is highly profitable, and Western companies competitively and aggressively seek to acquire vast stretches of African land to meet their biofuel needs in the face of rising oil prices. This has been regarded as a "gold rush mentality" that resembles another form of economic colonialism. The organization "Friends of the Earth" urges an end to "land grabs" for biofuels, and calls for an end to the European Union's target to produce 10% of all transport fuel from biofuels by 2020, and to ban cars using fossil fuels by 2050.

Another organization, Action Aid, has warned that European biofuel targets could result in up to 1 00 million more hungry people due to increased food prices and landlessness ( The Guardian, 20 1 0, August 30). One report claims that biofuels have driven up global food prices by 75%. Kenyan critics claim that the country does not have enough land to feed its people, yet the land is being used to feed cars in the West. President Takana Kikwete of Tanzania warned that "Energy plants cannot be an alternative to food production." According to former World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, "What we are witnessing is not a natural disaster - a silent tsunami or a perfect storm. It is a man-made catastrophe, and as such must be fixed by people (Spiegel, www.spiegel.de/international.com)."

A number of the plants being grown are energy plants, like Jatropha curcas, sugar cane, oil palm, soybean and maize. The companies most involved in this disastrous adventure are Sun Biofuels of Britain, Proken of Germany, and Biofuel Africa from Norway. Proken plans to have 494 acres, an area about the size of Luxemburg, under cultivation in Tanzania. Thousands of small-scale maize and

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328 Filomina Chioma Steady

rice farmers were evicted to make way for sugar cane and jatropha plantations. Other examples include the following:

- In Ghana, a single firm plans to plant one million hectares of potentially toxic jatropha with government support.

- In Mali, millions of hectares of fields and forests are switched to jatropha and sugar cane to produce biodeisel for export.

- In Ethiopia, there is a government drive to open up lands to biofuel investors threatens 85$ of population who are subsistence farmers.

- In Uganda, the government attempts to destroy half of Mabira rainforest to make way for ethanol plantations was halted after protests from environmental activists.

- In Zambia, thousands of 'out growers' are bound into dept in 30 year contacts to grow biofuel feed jatropha for big investors.

- In South Africa, biodiversity disaster looms in Eastern Cape as millions of hectares are earmarked for ethanol production. (Biofuel Production in Africa Usurping Land for Food Production in a Hungry Continent. http://todayinsocial http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com/20 11/01 /challenge-number-5 .html)

The Problem of Complicity of African GovernmentsNot all countries involved in biofuel production in Africa are included on this list. Others include Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and so forth and more are being brought into the life threatening process of undermining food production and rendering millions of people landless.

As can be seen from the illustrated examples, the post-colonial reality in Africa is one in which African leaders are in complicity with Multinational Corporations and biofuel companies. One is reminded of Pablo Freire's treatise on oppression and liberation in this book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which have implications for oppression on the basis of class, race and gender, in which the oppressed identifies and is in complicity with the oppressor. The causes and consequences of climate change are deeply rooted in the legacy of colonialism and economic globalization, its successor which seek to destroy the environment for profit by cooptation of the oppressed. Freire provides some valuable insights that can be applied to the dilemma faced by many African governments:

The conflict lies in the choice between being wholly themselves or being divided . . . between spectators or actors; between acting or having the illusion of acting through the action of the oppressors (Ibid, p. 48)..

This role of the intermediary is best expressed by another philosopher Franz Fanon in his book, The Wretched of the Earth. He notes that the post-colonial leaders of Africa do not consider transforming the nation into true independence, but instead of being the transmission line. In so doing, they become the business agents of neo-

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Women , Climate Change and Liberation in Africa 329

colonialism (Fanon, 1963).

The Future and Uncertainty

When it comes to Climate Change, we still face a future of uncertainty but unlike other uncertainties, Climate Change can have life threatening consequences for all living things and the planet itself. It is generally assumed that scientists will produce answers and solve all problems related to nature and the environment. Today's scientists are more cautious. At a recent conference at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute, scientists admitted that it is likely that we will discover that much of the system is not predictable, and that science can tell of possible outcomes but cannot predict these outcomes with certainty. As a result, uncertainty is likely to increase rather than decrease in the face of enormous challenges of climate change. Scientific knowledge has not always worked to protect the environment, mainly because it is not always in tune with our economic and development models, which has not always captured the wide variety of human and planetary-centered values (Radcliffe Conference on Climate Change, April 14, 201 1).

The feminist critique of science is coming home to roost. Ecofeminists like Mies, Shiva, Diamond and Orenstein have offered powerful critiques of the dominant model of development. Mies and Shiva insist that the greed of industrialization for limitless supply o resources led to excessive exploitation of nature that was endorsed and made respectable by modern sciences (Mies & Shiva, V., 1993. See also Diamond & Orenstein, 1990). Although there is no scarcity for critiques of ecofeminism because of its essentializing tendencies, no one can seriously question the essentializing proclivities of global economic processes that target Black poor women for the worst form of impoverishment and disenfranchisement. Economic globalization essentializes particular groups thereby confirming the continuing relevance of essentializing in theory building. Regardless of the criticisms of ecofeminists, they have inspired the development of ecological theories along feminist lines. According to Gaard: "Recuperating ecofeminist insights of the past thirty years provides feminist foundations for current liberatory theories and activisms." (Gaard, 201 1 :26).

The Continuing Need for Liberation Through Climate Justice and Gender Justice

The ecofeminist quest for liberatory theories is still relevance and resonates with well established theories of liberation against domination of all kinds, especially on the basis of race, class, gender and so forth (See Rodney, 1981; Amin, 1977; Fall, 1999; Dembele, 2002; Meis & Shiva, 1993; Steady, 1981, 2002; Collins, 1990, among others). In relation to the environment, there is continuing need for liberation in Africa from global and local economic policies that destroy the

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330 Filomina Chioma Steady

environment and the social and economic fabric of society. The legendary African economist, Amin has referred to the process of corporate globalization as "Global Stratification," and the impoverishment of peoples from the Global South, especially Africa.

It is a continuation of the legacy of colonialism, which extracted Africa's resources and is continuing in the new gold rush for land grabs for the cultivation and extraction of biofuels all over Africa. It is clear that in addition to other

features, such as class, renewed colonialism continues to exhibit a strong racial and gender components that impacts negatively on people of Africa and the African Diaspora. "Global stratification" is a system in which the economically and politically powerful states are able to shift or impose the environmental burden on weaker states. The same is true of the dumping of hazardous wastes and toxic chemicals in neighborhoods inhabited by people of color and poor people in the United States, who are constantly fighting for liberation through the Environmental Justice Movement (Bullard, 1993,1997; Steady, 2009; See also Jean Ait Belkir & Charlemaine, 2012).

A Note of Optimism

An optimistic conclusion would be predicated on complete climate justice and complete liberation, especially liberation from oppression on the basis of race, gender and class. In his book The Souls of Black Folk Dubois writes:

. . ..in any land, in any country under modern free competition, to lay any class of weak and despised people, be they white, black or blue, at the political mercy of their stronger, richer, and more resourceful fellows, is a temptation which human nature seldom has withstood and seldom will withstand (W.E.B. Dubois, 1903).

As stated in the introduction, there is a need to link environmental issues with notions of gender equality, peace, security, democracy, justice and liberation. But this stage of liberation has to operate at a higher level and be more complete. As Angela Davis puts it: "We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society" (Angela Davis, 201 1)

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