ACA ACTIVIST GUIDE LAUNCHED
27 February 2023
The African Climate Alliance (ACA), a youth-led group advocating for Afrocentric climate justice, has released the ACA Activist Guide. The guide is an accessible resource for intergenerational changemakers, aspiring and seasoned activists.
“Our aim is for the guide to be a living document,” said ACA programmes manager Mitchelle Mhaka, who also MCd the launch event at Bertha House, Cape Town on 22 February. “The guide exists to provide support on people’s journeys of contributing to a more sustainable and just world.”
The guide, which was curated by the African Climate Alliance team with contributing writers from around Southern Africa, is packed with accessible socio-environmental political education material which unpacks topics such as climate justice, environmental education, advocacy and movement building. Importantly, the guide provides practical tips for aspiring and seasoned activists of all ages to be put to use in a variety of contexts.
Contributing writer and panelist at the launch, climate campaigner Courtney Morgan said “If we’re really going to build a movement that reaches people we have to educate and not in a top-down teacher student kind of way… It’s about knowledge systems and meeting people where they are at.”
In addition to accessible information on a variety of climate justice related topics, the guide also includes prompts for notes and reflections. With this in mind, the ACA team plans to workshop the guide further, as well as have translation sessions where people who will use the guide can translate some key messages from it. “We want to have this as a movement building resource,” says Mitchelle, “where future iterations will be even more collaborative than this version.”
Contributing writer and launch event panelist, Xoli Fuyani, expressed the importance of a guide such as this: “often in these (civil society) spaces we use big jargon and acronyms and there is not an awareness of who we are leaving behind. It is so important that we speak in a way that is accessible and inclusive. That we ask ourselves how are we speaking about climate change? Are we still holding that polar bear narrative or are we centering people?”
The open source guide which aims to do just that is available for free on the African Climate Alliance website and printed copies can be purchased by emailing activistguide@africanclimatealliance.org
For more information:
team@africanclimatealliance.org
For launch event photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1teb3hBbL3cR6qqOOwYYRmwp6E-L3RWT9
