Vanessa Nakate's fight for climate justice

Brut America

She’s been called the “Greta Thunberg” of her country. But for Vanessa Nakate, climate activism shouldn’t be embodied by just one person ...  She told Brut about her fight for climate justice in Uganda and beyond.

Transcript

00:00Climate justice will only be possible, it will only be justice if everyone is included.

00:14I think the climate movement has millions of faces, you know, not just one face,

00:20not just two faces, not just three faces, it has millions of faces from different parts of the

00:26world. And the moment we start seeing it that way, it will be much easier to listen to,

00:32you know, the people from the most affected areas.

00:43I was seeing how communities were being impacted, how families were being impacted through the loss

00:51of lives, the loss of their homes, the loss of their farms, the loss of their businesses.

00:58And it was really at that time that I, you know, I decided that I had to do something about it.

01:06Historically, Africa is responsible for only 3% of global emissions, and yet Africans

01:13are already suffering some of the most brutal impacts of the climate crisis.

01:22Some of those comments were, you know, being called a prostitute and, you know, being told

01:44that I'm doing prostitution, but I am disguising it as activism, because I'm standing on the streets

01:51with a placard and some of the comments were, I was taking, you know, weed. These are some of

02:00the comments that really kept coming in when I started activism. And I think about what a young

02:11or a young woman or any woman would feel after reading such comments.

02:32I was seeing how the climate strikes were organized in Europe and the United States,

02:40and just seeing how many people were joining the strikes, which wasn't possible for us. You can't

02:46just, you know, make students walk out of school. Education is something that is really respected

02:55in our countries. Many parents really have to work really hard to ensure that their children

03:03go to school. It meant speaking to the principal of the school and asking for permission to go

03:12into the school, speak to the students, educate them about the work that I was doing, and educate

03:19them about climate issues, and, you know, doing chants with them, and striking with them, and

03:25sharing that on social media. So that's how the, you know, the climate movement has really been

03:31evolving in my country.

03:34I was

03:59I really emphasized the importance of listening to activists from different parts of the world,

04:23because there are very many young people speaking up, not just in Europe, but in Africa,

04:28you know, in Asia, generally across the globe south. So when I saw the article and photo, I was

04:34surprised, because it just felt like, wait, I just talked about this, and this has now happened. When

04:41you erase someone's, you know, picture, it's not just a picture. You're erasing their story,

04:48you're erasing their experience, you're erasing what their communities are going through.

05:02When the floods happened in Germany, many people, that is when many professors say, you know, things

05:08like climate change is actually real, and yet we've been speaking up. Again, this is why it's

05:14important to listen to every voice. So people need to understand the urgency of the climate crisis,

05:20but they need to understand it not just when it happens in, you know, a country in Europe,

05:27but to look at it when it happens in any country in any part of the world.

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