Maguette Ba, a younger local weather activist, advocates for a clear setting in her residence nation of Senegal. At 23, she needs to guard pure assets, increase consciousness amongst younger individuals and suggest options suited to African realities.
She’s younger, however as she jokes, “my title means previous girl”. Nonetheless, the paradox is just obvious as a result of “in my tradition, it displays knowledge, attentiveness and dedication to at least one’s family members”, she explains.
This interpretation of her first title has change into a philosophy of life: though she is younger, she acts with a stage of dedication and imaginative and prescient that transcends her age. Her dedication to the setting can be a tribute to this inherited knowledge. By taking motion to guard the planet, Maguette honors not solely previous generations, but additionally these to return.
A dedication born in class
On the age of 15, Maguette found the urgency of local weather change. A course on the impacts of local weather change, accompanied by a documentary, marked a turning level. “I spotted that one thing severe was occurring and that we needed to react,” she recollects.
She then joined an environmental membership at her highschool and have become concerned in an ecological administration mission. This initiative, supported by companions such because the European Union, impressed different colleges to undertake comparable practices. “It was from there that I wished to increase my dedication past the varsity,” she says.
The setting has change into Maguette’s focus. “In Dakar (Senegal’s capital), in December, we not have the coolness we used to know. The adjustments are seen.”
She additionally cites the salinisation of land in southern Senegal, which is impoverishing the soil and which- amongst many different social and financial penalties, will increase the chance of younger ladies being compelled into early marriage. As agricultural lands are progressively misplaced to salinisation and crop yields dwindle, households are compelled into survival methods, together with giving their daughters’ fingers in marriage to suitors who, as social expectations, go, are to take higher care of them and their households.
She additionally mentions plastic air pollution and the rubbish that invades seashores, regardless of a nationwide regulation banning single-use plastics. “With out concrete options or political will, this regulation stays a lifeless letter”, she says.
For her, the answer rests in getting younger individuals extra concerned. “If we give them the mandatory instruments, they won’t solely be capable to discover financial options but additionally take part in defending the setting.”
Working with UNICEF: a life-changing expertise
In 2022, Maguette was appointed as a Youth Advocate by UNICEF Senegal. This function gave her a platform to talk out on essential points, such because the impression of local weather change on ladies’ schooling. Talking on the United Nations in New York through the Summit of the Future in September 2024, she shared the story of a Senegalese teenager who misplaced her life fetching water within the Ferlo area, Senegal’s essential arid area marked by restricted water assets and uncommon, unpredictable seasonal rains.
“I see it as a possibility to enhance my abilities. I hope that sooner or later, our experience might be higher valued”, she provides.
Maguette has needed to take care of cultural resistance in her work. She tells the story of a household head within the Matam area within the north of the nation, who objected to the planting of timber within the household yard as a result of the timber’ survival potential was larger than his personal life expectancy. “These beliefs present the significance of going out into the sector, listening, and elevating consciousness with concrete examples,” she explains.
She stresses the significance of a respectful, academic method. “Generally we have to present how different international locations, and even close by areas have overcome these challenges whereas respecting our personal native beliefs.”
Maguette aspires to see the emergence of an African environmental activism indifferent from Western fashions. “We’re usually in comparison with Greta Thunberg, however our realities are completely different. For instance, we have now the solar and land wealthy in potential, however we lack the assets to use them sustainably.”
She is working with different younger activists to develop options tailored to native contexts. “We wish an African mannequin that displays our realities and priorities,” she asserts.
A legacy for future generations
Maguette’s motivation comes from her want to go away a legacy. “I haven’t got youngsters but, however I need them to have the ability to benefit from the timber I’ve planted. It is a method of exhibiting them what I used to be doing with my time and galvanizing them to do the identical.”
In 2024, she launched an environmental communications company known as Kéw Gi Company.to supply coaching and assist in company social duty. “This 12 months, the concept is to create a standard narrative for environmental safety: to federate and promote inexperienced actions and initiatives,” she says.
By way of her dedication, Maguette exhibits that tackling environmental challenges is feasible whereas inspiring younger individuals to behave. Her imaginative and prescient is obvious: to create a future the place pure assets are protected, native beliefs are revered, and African youth are positioned on the heart of optimistic change.
