Women of Africa Speak Up at Live Earth Johannesburg

Live Earth Johannesburg began its concert line-up with the Grammy-winning Saweto Gospel Choir and singer Danny K. The venue was at the outdoor amphitheater in The Cradle of Humankind UN World Heritage Site, Maropeng, Setswana, which mean "the place where we once lived" (so-called because of hominid fossils). The backdrop was the Live Earth thematic background of red and silver circles arranged to depict the continents and oceans of Earth, the first in red, the second in silver.

About mid-way through a most engaging concert featuring mainly African groups, which more than know how to make music rock and feature jazz-style solos, three African advocates took the stage. The two women were resplendent in their native costumes, one with a prominent elaborate neck adornment and the other with prominent face jewelry.

These Kenyan women and one Zulu man each gave a heartfelt and emotional description of their lives and desires in the face of the climate change problems they are facing today. At some moments they spoke with fire. At some moments they spoke with heart-heavy sorrow. At some moments they spoke with empassioned determination. At all moments they spoke with truth derived from the events of their daily lives.

I have transcribed their speeches from the MSN video of the event. I have missed a word here or there, but otherwise, the transcripts are just as they spoke from the stage in Maropeng at Live Earth Johannesburg. The transcripts follow. Anything I'm unsure of or I missed is bracketted [ ]:

First Woman:
"My name is [Zouwae Laminahat Sdodahaleia].
I come from the northern Kenya, from [Dukana] District
A part of the world most of you think of as a desert.
Since time immemorial, we have lived from running our livestock by moving from place to place as rains fall.
We have our own ways of organizing grazing, predicting rain through the stars, through the movement of the [ ], and appearace of flowers.
Our whole lifestyle was organized around these cycles.
Life has always been hard and draughts has always been with us.
But before there was enough time for our herds to recover between the worst draughts.
We were in tune with environment.
For more than 20 years now, we have had series of almost continuous draughts.
We gave the worst names, like Most of our animals died because of the draught.
Families have become destitute.
And without any livestock, we lose our social status, our digity, our sense of purpose, as well as our livlihoods.
Young men who used to graze the animals have no purpose.
Women struggle to feed their families.
Children go hungry.
Our lifes are underrate."

Second Woman:
"Africa, (cheering) why are we here? Africa, why are we here? (cheering)
As Turkana, as Masai, as poor and marginalized communities in Africa we have a right to live.
We have a right to sustainable livlihood.
We have a right to development, education, roads to access the towns, hospitals for our children.
We have a right to a market for our [labours...].
And so we have this message to the developed world:
That our communities, that Africans have a right to life, that culturalist communities have a right to sustainable development, (cheering)
We are calling the developed world and we are telling them to recognize the draughts, the floods, the starvation and the destitution that is sweeping our communities today.
We are calling to the leaders of the development world to form policies, to be committed to the reduction of greenhouse gases.
We are calling for this developed world to pay for their share of the destruction of our environment (great cheering).
We are culturalists.
We are Africans.
We have not contributed to this (voice breaks) destruction of this environment.
We have not contributed to this problem facing us today.
It is so unjust that we are the first to pay the price of your actions and your choices.
We are calling to YOU, the developed world, that you ANSWER THE CALL (spoken sternly).
Thank you (to the audience...not to us...)." (great cheering)We got to give shelter to this Mother Earth by acting individually and humanly collectively. Act...like human beings, not like preditors."

Zulu Man:
"Our sisters from Kenya remind us that even though Africa and the rest of the developing world has done the LEAST to contribute to climate change, we are the ones that are suffering the most, and this is an injustice that must be reversed (cheering).

While we from the global culture [in] action against poverty are strugling to end the injustice of poverty, we want to send a message to the most powerful political leaders in the world that the struggle to end global poverty is one and the same struggle to end climate change (wild cheering).

We want to send this very special message today to President Bush (wild cheering)...The message, the message is a simple one: If all the ordindary people in the world have the WISDOM (emphasized) to understand that we must answer the call to action, we will not accept your and the other powerful leader's failure to act.

If you can find 300 billion dollars for a war in Iraq that is illegal and not just, SURELY YOU CAN FIND (spoken with emotional emphasis) the money to end global warming to end climate change.

The reality is that all of us as individual citizens are prepared to do our part. As Africans we are prepared to do our part. But to answer the call, if all of us as individual citizens anwer the call, but if the political leaders who have the most power have not yet woken up and smelled the coffee, then we have a serious problem.

So, in conclusion, to make sure that we understand that the struggle against poverty and the struggle against climate change is one and the same struggle, let me ask you to join us all in sending a message to the White House, to the G8, to all those that have power in the corporate sector. The message that we sent here in the struggle against apartheid said, "Power to the people" since it is ours. And please join us, "Amandla! Awethu! Amandla! Awethu! Amandla! Awethu!" [Tsia Montak, Zulu, Asantak Sana]. Thank you very much."

***

There you have their own words. (Argue with them if you dare.) "Amandla! Awethu!", which means "Power to the People" (later used by hippy protestors), was the cry that rallied the South Africans who resisted and fought against apartheid (legal separation of white and non-white races) during the years that the Africaaner Boers were in power starting with the Africaaner-dominated National Party in 1948.

The call sent by Johannesburg Live Earth to the developed countries--and most particularly to the United States, which has the luxury to debate scientific interpretation of events--is that we in the West should understand that it is not "THE environment" that is changing: It is THEIR environment that is changing. Since the changes are by way of floods, draughts, loss of fertile land, loss of ariable land, it is indeed--beyond debate--environmental climate change.

So, the compelling question seems to many people to be: What is the cause of environmental climate change? Is the change caused by the introduction of industrialization about a hundred and fifty years ago? (Well, what else could it be? What else has been introduced into the universe that exists within the bounds of Earth's magnetosphere during this time period?) Is the Western industrialized lifestyle the cause? There are three possible answers: Yes, No, and In Part.

If the answer is Yes, then the West has an enormous practical, ethical, and moral responsibility to do whatever can be done toward recompense and restitution and reclaimation.

If the answer is No, then the West has an enormous practical, ethical, humanitarian, compassionate, and moral responsibility to stem the tide, alleviate continued human suffering and stop the progressive damage that will one day--and maybe soon judging by Katrina and the fires rocking the country--knock at our very doors and destroy our very herds and leave destitution in our very homes and families in place of lifestyle, dignity and purpose.

If the answer is In Part, then the West has an enormous practical, ethical, humanitarian, compassionate, and moral responsibility to make restitution to those whom our partial neglect and irresponsibility have hurt and to the Earth that our partial selfish blindness has helped to wreck.

Three possible answers. Only one possible response.

A comment made in an MSN interview by Angeliqua Kidjo, who also performed at Live Earth Johannesburg, summarizes the message of the spirit behind Live Earth Johannesburg: "We got to give shelter to this moteher earth by acting individualyy and humanly collectively Act...like human beings, not like preditors."

Live Earth Johannesburg Concert: "Joss Stone: Introduction Speech Live Earth (icon #27)." MSN Live Earth. URL: http://entimg.msn.com/i/ExperienceData/p1-7/us/x.htm?sh=LiveEarth&ep=le_johannesburg