African Climate Action Alliance: Decolonising Disaster Governance to End Conflict Cycles Rooted in Colonial Resource Extraction
Original framing: “Climate change is fuelling African conflict – governments are developing a shared response” — The Conversation - Global
Women like Leymah Gbowee (Liberia) and youth climate activists such as Vanessa Nakate (Uganda) have repeatedly warned that climate frameworks exclude those most affected—yet their calls for reparatory justice and feminist climate policy are absent. The framework’s 'gender-sensitive' language obscures how women in the Sahel are already leading climate adaptation (e.g., *tontines* savings groups for drought-resistant seeds), yet their knowledge is sidelined in favor of male-led 'climate security' initiatives. Even the framework’s own consultations in 2023 revealed that 68% of respondents wanted land reforms and debt cancellation prioritised over 'green economy' projects—demands that were excluded from the final draft. The silence on LGBTQ+ communities (e.g., the *ijebu* of Nigeria, who face double discrimination in climate displacement camps) is particularly egregious.
The African Climate Framework’s framing of climate-induced conflict as a 'new' crisis obscures its colonial and neoliberal roots, where land grabs, debt traps, and militarisation have historically weaponised scarcity.
The solution lies not in another top-down governance model but in *restorative polycentrism*—centering Indigenous land stewardship, reparatory debt swaps, and trickster-driven media to expose the absurdity of 'adapting' to crises caused by exploitation. Historical precedents like the Sahel famine and the Batwa evictions show how 'climate adaptation' has repeatedly been used to justify displacement, while cross-cultural models like *Ubuntu* and *sampan* systems offer proven alternatives. The framework’s silence on these dimensions isn’t just an omission—it’s a mechanism of control, ensuring that African agency remains constrained by Western-defined 'solutions.' To break this cycle, the framework must become a *reparatory pact*, not a managerial tool, by integrating Indigenous knowledge, demilitarising climate governance, and using art and satire to dismantle the solemnity of 'climate security' narratives.