Welcome to the second week of York St John Geography’s Black History Month blog posts, celebrating black landscapes, people, and histories in geography and the environment! This week, we are focusing on black landscapes…
Looking over Tanguieta. Rudi Verspoor, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.
Rivers in Yoruba belief: The Yoruba people predominantly found in southwestern Nigeria (but also in Benin and Togo) were among the most heavily targeted during the Atlantic slave trade. Today, there is a large concentration of people in Latin America (e.g. Brazil) and the Caribbean (e.g. Cuba) with strong connections with their Yoruba ancestry.
Traditionally, among the Yorubas, rivers hold important natural, cultural and spiritual values. They play a key role in different forms of divine worship and ceremonies. An important fact is the female gendering of the spiritual custodian of river landscapes in Yoruba belief. Oya, goddess of the River Niger, Oshun found east of Ibadan and Ovia at Benin. Susanne Wenger an Austrian-born Nigerian has contributed immensely to protecting the Osun river landscape.
One of the most popular river spirits is Yemoja, regarded as the mother of all deities and has significance in many Yoruba communities in Africa and South America. Yemoja is celebrated by millions of Afro-Brazilians every New Year’s Eve. The Olokun is the ‘owner of the sea’ and the Olosa the Lagoon goddess. Some notable personalities of Yoruba descent/ancestry include David Olusoga, Glenda A. Hatchett and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
MaVynee Betsch (Beach Lady) (1935 –2005) was an American environmental activist who gave up her wealth and her career as an Opera and dedicated herself to protecting the historic ‘American Beach’ which was found by her great grandfather. Before the enactment of the civil right act in 1964, the beach was a place where African Americans go to enjoy “recreation and relaxation without humiliation. However, after the decline in the beaches, MaVynee helped to maintain the beach environment.
Her campaign led to Beach’s highest dune (“NaNa Dune,” part of the tallest dune system of Florida’s Atlantic Coast) to be made an Ecological and Historic Preserve, and the beach added to the National Register of Historic Places, thus giving it protection. In 2005, she was posthumously honoured as an Unsung Hero of Compassion by the Dalai Lama. In 2014, American Beach Museum opened its doors, bringing one of MaVynee’s dreams to life.
Marina Silva was born into poverty but has risen to become Brazil’s (native Amazonian) foremost environmentalist recognised for her advocacy to protect the Amazon rainforest. Marina has been at the forefront of peaceful demonstrations to prevent the annihilation of the Amazon by protecting the rainforest from illegal logging and the expulsion of indigenous communities from their traditional land. Her work has helped establish over a 2-million-hectare reserve managed by traditional communities.
She was also instrumental to the establishment of the ‘Amazon Fund’ – a REDD+ mechanism created to raise money in efforts to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, as well as to promote the preservation and sustainable use in the Brazilian Amazon. She served as Brazil Minister of the Environment from 2003 to 2008 and was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her grassroot environmental activism.
Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995) is a Nigerian writer and television producer who in later life became an environmental activist by campaigning against the Royal Dutch Shell Company and the Nigerian government over the oil pollution of the land and water of his native Ogoniland. At the peak of his non-violent campaign, he was unlawfully arrested, detained, and executed by the Nigerian government with the complicity of Shell.
Rather than dampen the struggle his death raised international awareness of the devastating environmental impacts of oil companies in developing countries. It was Ken Saro Wiwa’s campaign that brought to the global reckoning the environmental degradation taking place in the Niger Delta, one of the world’s largest mangrove ecosystems.
After his death, lawsuits against Shell and other oil companies for the environmental degradation in the Niger delta have been successful in Netherlands and United Kingdom. Thus, making a success of Saro-Wiwa’s push to hold major oil corporations accountable for their operations that violate and degrade the environment. His activism has encouraged the decriminalization of environmental activism in many countries.
Credit: University of Michigan School for Environment & Sustainability
Robert Doyle Bullard is an American academic, environmental activist, a leading campaigner against environmental racism, regarded as the father of environmental justice. He has written several books on the subject and is known for speaking up against environmental racism. His first book ‘Dumping in Dixie’ describes how polluting companies are moved close to Black communities exposing them to higher-than-average levels of pollutants, compromising their health and well-being for generations.
Through his research and advocacy, he has served as a catalyst of environmental justice drawing the attention of decision-makers to the need for economic and political systems that ensure people irrespective of their race live in healthy and safe communities. He has taught at several American universities. He established the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. In 2018, he was named one of Newsweek’s thirteen “Environmental Leaders of the Century,” and in 2020, he was awarded the UN’s highest environmental honour as a ‘Champion of the Earth’.
For #BlackHistoryMonth, we at YSJ Geography are going to be publishing a blog post every weekday, celebrating black landscapes, people, and histories in geography and the environment!
Follow this blog via our Twitter and Facebook accounts to keep up to date.
Credit: National Park Service (US)
George Washington Carver rose from slavery to become a great American agricultural scientist and a global pioneer in promoting sustainable food production to feed a growing and impoverished population. A notable aspect of his work was with crop rotation (growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons to increases organic matter in the soil, improve soil structure and reduce soil degradation), encouraging farmers to begin alternating cotton crops with plantings of sweet potatoes or legumes, that subsequently restored nitrogen to their soils while simultaneously increasing cotton yields and providing alternative nutritious crops that are beneficial for human consumption.
He was also notable for developing hundreds of products using the peanut (which weren’t classified as a crop until Carver’s work), sweet potatoes and soybeans. George Washington Carver is celebrated for his significant impact on how farmers serve as stewards and conscientiously utilise the Earth’s natural resources.
For #BlackHistoryMonth, we at YSJ Geography are going to be publishing a blog post every weekday, celebrating black landscapes, people, and histories in geography and the environment!
Follow this blog via our Twitter and Facebook accounts to keep up to date.
For week 1, we are focusing on black environmentalists, starting with…
Wangari Maathai. Image credit: Oregon State University
Wangari Maathai (1940-2011): Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmentalist who founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM) which helped in countering deforestation and encouraged women to plant trees in their local environments to enhance their wellbeing and to think ecologically. Wangari saw tree-planting in a broader perspective which included democracy, women’s rights, and international solidarity. For her, the tree is not only important for ecological and environmental value but is also a symbol of democratic struggle. She promoted planting trees of peace to demand the release of prisoners of conscience, defend democratic rights and for conflict resolution. The Green Belt Movement has spread to other African countries and contributed to the planting of over thirty million trees. In 2004 Wangari received the Nobel Peace Prize “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”, making her the first African woman to receive the award. In the words of the Nobel Committee: “She thinks globally and acts locally”.
