The 32nd FESCAAAL hosts the sixth edition of Africa Talks titled Thinking Green. What are the environmental challenges for today’s Africa?, the special event organized and promoted by Associazione COE and Fondazione EDU dedicated to Africa and emerging aspects of the continent. This edition will focus on environmental and ecological issues, which have been at the center of public debate for several years but are less well known regarding the African reality.

Since 2017, the Africa Talks format has investigated trends and opportunities that are revolutionizing various sectors in Africa to actively contribute to the continent’s future economic development. Every year, the event features a round table discussion with international experts and speakers, followed by a special screening of a themed film selected in the FESCAAAL program.

The sixth edition returns to talk about Africa, this time focusing on the challenges that the continent is facing and must face in response to climate change.

The free screening of Aya (2021) directed by Simon Coulibaly Gillard will follow: the feature film tells the story of a joyful and carefree girl, Aya, and the transformations of a territory and the inevitable exodus of a community in the face of the inevitability of environmental changes.

How participate

The event will take place on Saturday, March 18, 2023, starting from 5:00 pm at Auditorium San Fedele in Milan.
The screening of the film Aya will follow at 7:00 pm. 19.00.

Admission is free until seats are filled. Please note that the film is only available in the cinema.

The Speakers

At Africa Talks 2023, four international guests will discuss the environmental impacts of climate change in Africa and strategies for protection:

Preserving heritage: socio-environmental challenges in Africa

VALERIO BINI, professor of Geography of Development at the University of Milan, will address the theme of environmental protection and the dynamics connected to resource management in Africa in its social components.

The curse of oil: a continuing struggle

NOO SARO-WIWA, Nigerian writer and journalist, will analyze the environmental and social context of the southern regions of Nigeria, where the country’s oil production is concentrated.

Unfair fishing: power imbalances in the continent’s fish market

CHRISTINA HICKS, professor of Political Ecology at the University of Lancaster, will discuss the environmental and social impacts of intensive fishing on communities in various countries in East and West Africa.

Youth for climate: the Fridays for Future movement in Uganda

PATIENCE NABUKALU, climate activist and co-founder of Fridays for Future Uganda, will offer insight into youth activism in the country and beyond.

Moderated by:

ILARIA SESANA, journalist and editor of Altreconomia

The Film

Aya by Simon Coulibaly Gillard, Belgium / France, 2021, 90′

Aya is growing up with her mother on the island of Lahou. Joyful and carefree, she enjoys picking coconuts and sleeping on the sand. However, her paradise is doomed to disappear under the water. As the waves threaten her house, Aya makes a decision: the sea-level may rise, she won’t leave her island.

What are the environmental challenges for today’s Africa? (by Ilaria Sesana)

Although Africa is the continent that has contributed the least to the climate crisis under way – it has been responsible for only 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the pre-industrial era to the present day – it disproportionately suffers the consequences of the increase in global temperatures and is already paying a very high price, in terms of reduced production of food, scarcity of water, and the loss of biodiversity and human lives. Extreme events such as floods and prolonged droughts are already having an impact on the lives of millions of people.

In addition to the climate crisis, there is the damage caused by deforestation: according to the estimates in the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 of the FAO, Africa recorded the highest annual rate of net loss of forests in the period 2010-2020, with 3.9 million hectares.

Preserving and protecting this resource as best as possible ought to be a prime objective not only for Africa but for all the countries in the world with the aim of fighting the climate crisis. Protecting the forest also means fighting the mining and extraction activities which threaten them.
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