{"id":50260,"date":"2021-11-27T07:42:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T06:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=50260"},"modified":"2024-06-13T12:42:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T10:42:54","slug":"from-crafting-headlines-to-influencing-them-greenpeace-africa-head-of-communications-decade-of-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/50260\/from-crafting-headlines-to-influencing-them-greenpeace-africa-head-of-communications-decade-of-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018From Crafting Headlines to Influencing them\u2019: Greenpeace Africa Head of Communications\u2019 Decade of Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRaise your voice for Climate Justice\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

It\u2019s time for all of us to assert our rights, demand climate justice, and a dignified way of life.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Take action\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t\n

My love affair with Greenpeace Africa started in January 2011 when I joined the organisation as a full-time employee, though I had flirted with the organisation as a volunteer for a while. I was fresh out of the newsroom in Cameroon, when I traveled to South Africa and took up my Masters studies. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Greenpeace Africa Head of Communication Mbong Akiy Fokwa Tsafack<\/em> (left) reflects on her highlights at Greenpeace over the last decade<\/em>
\u00a9 Theo Mosienyane, Shane Robinson, Pape Diatta Sarr <\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

After a five-year run in broadcasting as a news anchor and a reporter, I was convinced that nothing could beat the adrenaline of prime time news, the pulse of the opening jingle, and the intensity of the headlines. Yet Greenpeace went beyond offering an opportunity to craft the headlines; it offered an endless supply of opportunities to inspire them, to change long-held narratives, create new ones, and change the world as we know it \u2013 the ultimate adrenaline rush.<\/p>\n\n

Choosing highlights from a long list of inspiring and impactful moments is difficult, but here is my attempt to name a few.<\/p>\n\n

Dakar, Senegal (2011): How Africa is Feeding Europe<\/em> Report Launch <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

My baptism of fire in Greenpeace Africa arrived barely two months into my position as Communications Manager, with the launch of the report How Africa is Feeding Europe<\/em><\/a> in Senegal. My newsroom travels had not taken me to Senegal, and to launch a report in an unfamiliar country would certainly be an adventure.<\/p>\n\n

Arriving two days before the launch date and over twenty phone calls later, I was hosting a press conference in Dakar with a tent full of journalists at the World Social Forum \u2013 the ideal context to discuss the economic impact of overfishing in West African waters, the impact of overfishing on Senegalese livelihoods, and how Africa was feeding Europe at the expense of its people. Years later, this narrative is being interrogated by everyone in the country, the links between overfishing and migration having been covered by every major news agency. Local fishing communities are leading the resistance, and around the world people are taking action in solidarity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

The demands we made a decade ago are shaping fishing policy<\/a> in West Africa. In 2021, that conversation has moved to something more emotive: Europe wants Africa\u2019s fish, but not its migrants<\/a>. And I look with anticipation at what the result of this conversation will be in the coming decade.  <\/p>\n\n

\"Fish
Senegalese fish processor women hold a banner reading “Women United against Fishmeal” outside the Fisheries Minister building, after a meeting to present their demands to the authorities to stop fishmeal and fish oil production in West Africa.
\u00a9 Pape Diatta Sarr \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Johannesburg, South Africa (2011): Coal dump in Eskom <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

When we started protesting against South Africa\u2019s (SA) almost complete dependence on coal for energy, we looked like a bunch of rebels with no idea how economies worked. Government and corporate interest had entrenched a narrative that SA had an abundance of coal that had to be used to \u2018develop\u2019. <\/p>\n\n

We challenged that development model with the country\u2019s unparalleled abundance of renewable energy, a term that meant little or nothing to even the finest of journalists at the time. But when we dumped coal at Eskom, South Africa\u2019s power utility, the media took us seriously. As Communications Manager, I went home that evening feeling like a heroine, with six front-page newspaper headlines on our action, and a long list of radio interviews offering us space to state our case. <\/p>\n\n

Several years later, over 500 press releases down the line, SA doesn\u2019t only know and embrace renewable energy, but everyone in my neighbourhood is saving up to install solar. And Eskom has confirmed all of our concerns around coal, which offers only ruin. With piles of scandals, several incomplete projects<\/a>, and normalised rolling blackouts<\/a> as its legacy, many South Africans are more and more curious about the potential of a Just Transition<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

\"Action
Activists from Greenpeace Africa drive three dumper trucks filled with coal to the front of the Eskom Megawatt Park to unload five tonnes of the rock outside their offices.
\u00a9 Shayne Robinson \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Johannesburg, South Africa (2012): Action at Africa Nuclear Conference <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

It took our first public opposition to nuclear at the African Nuclear Conference in Johannesburg for us to understand the potency of the nuclear lobby, and those who stood to benefit from nuclear expansion in Africa. Our activists were manhandled at the protest, and even journalists were brutalised. We knew this wouldn\u2019t be easy. But who said it was meant to be? We tried convincing the public that nuclear was dirty, unsafe, expensive, and so many frames and narratives later, corruption, vested interest and the reality that nuclear was a bad choice did the magic for us. South Africa finally abandoned its nine-fold nuclear expansion plan in 2019<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

\"Action
Protest at Nuclear Industry Congress in South Africa \u00a9 Shayne Robinson \/ Greenpeace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The High Seas \u2013 West African Coast (2017): Chasing Off the Bad Guys<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

By this time, I had changed roles from Communications Manager, to Senior Communications Manager, to Head of Communication. The moment I boarded Greenpeace’s flagship<\/a> Rainbow Warrior at the port of Conakry in Guinea, I had a hunch this would be the highlight of my environmental activism. It took six days for the Rainbow Warrior to spot the first boat fishing illegally. Then, as if all illegally \u2013 fishing villains had carved a common playground, we spotted the second, the third, and by the ninth day, the sixth. <\/p>\n\n

Exposing overfishing by neocolonial fleets, both Asian and European, which costs the lives of ordinary people in West Africa, thrilled me like the newsroom. But we achieved much more from that expedition. These ships had their licenses revoked, and others were banned from entering west African waters. While the West African coast is still a Wild West for all kinds of illegal fishing activity<\/a>, exposing the full extent of damage caused by foreign fishing to ordinary people is changing the narrative and putting the spotlight on West African states\u2019<\/a> responsibility for proper fisheries management.<\/p>\n\n

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