UTA-Do Conversations
Climate Emergencies in Africa and the Crisis of Imagination(s)
I co-organized this one-day event that took place just prior to the Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week in Nairobi in the lead-up to COP28. Part of the Royal Geographical Society’s international hub process and sponsored by the IJURR Foundation, the dialogue brought together grassroots activists, students, practitioners and academics to interrogate how Africa features in global theory on and policy practices of climate change and related phenomena, including the Anthropocene and “green transitions.” In particular, we foregrounded how the experiences within African cities can nuance these discourses and practices.
We aim for these conversations to be an antidote to the talk treadmill, challenging dominant narratives about African cities and unsettling rote talking points and buzzword checklists. And, most importantly, to ask ourselves uta-do?
Read the event summary for the IJURR Foundation written by Wangui Kimari