African feminists stand in their power to reclaim green at COP27
ECO is happy to share this part of our publication with the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) to help amplify their voice. This article reflects the views of the WGC.
Green, a colour long recognized and embraced by African people as a symbol of the abundant and natural wealth of Africa, and symbol of her sovereignty and unity across the continent. Green is also the colour of nature’s boundless forests and landscape.
Yet today, without a sense of irony, those who have led the destruction of our environment, through greed and plunder, are the ones who claim to care about it the most. Positing false and dangerous solutions as progress, hiding their ongoing exploitation and accumulation with green logos, green empty press statements, and green taglines.
It is in this spirit of reclamation and resistance, that African feminists have come to COP27 to affirm our place and stake in the future that we want. To reclaim our green: to say no to false solutions that displace our communities that rely on unproven and harmful technologies, and that sell us an “industrial revolution.”
Today we wear green to make one thing clear: we have real solutions that must be scaled and resourced, and we must stop greenwashing false ones. Especially when we hear phrases like “this is an implementation COP,” we are taking back our green, our dignity, our sense of being, our identity, and our life.
In this COP we are “Standing in our power!” reaffirming the words of sister Wangari Mathai.
“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.”— Wangari Maathai