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TZID:Europe/Brussels
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UID:154@clubofrome.org
DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20260722T110000
DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20260724T130000
DTSTAMP:20260630T151935Z
URL:https://www.clubofrome.org/events/webinar-african-environmentalism-of-
 soil/
SUMMARY:Webinar: African environmentalism of soil
DESCRIPTION:Welcome to the first cluster of The Fifth Element's webinar ser
 ies ‘Africa\, climate and education’!\n\nTogether\, we will explore Af
 rican environmentalism by centring soil as both substance and metaphor. De
 spite accelerating global degradation\, soil science is being defunded\, t
 hreatening Africa’s food security\, ecosystems and indigenous knowledge 
 systems. Soil is a living archive of history\, culture and ecology\, yet m
 odern institutions reduce it to an industrial resource.\n\nAcross three se
 ssions\, the webinar series seeks to restore soil’s ecological\, cultura
 l and ethical significance by linking traditional knowledge with modern sc
 ience and by placing soil within broader struggles for land justice and en
 vironmental sovereignty in Africa.\nSession 1: Soil futures in Africa\nDat
 e: 22 July 2026\nTime: 11:00–13:00 SAST / 12:00–14:00 EAT\n\nAfrica’
 s soils are in crisis\, and the stakes go far beyond farming.\n\nDecades o
 f industrial agriculture\, land degradation and underfunded soil science a
 re threatening food security and ecological stability across the continent
 . This session reframes soil health as a question of sovereignty\, not jus
 t agronomy. We will explore land restoration as an act of geopolitical sel
 f-determination and examine why the Green Revolution failed African soils 
 and what agroecological alternatives look like.\nSession 2: Soil as habita
 bility: archive\, ancestor and peaceful accord\nDate: 23 July 2026\nTime: 
 11:00–13:00 SAST / 12:00–14:00 EAT\n\nWhat does soil mean to Africa\, 
 beyond the economic and the political?\n\nSoil is a living archive of memo
 ry\, ancestry and cultural identity\, and a site of historical dispossessi
 on that demands reckoning. In this session\, we will explore what becomes 
 possible when modern science aligns with community-led stewardship and how
  ancestral worldviews frame land as living inheritance connected to questi
 ons of justice and reparation. A panel from African environmental humaniti
 es and land sovereignty closes with a structured capture of indigenous and
  ancestral knowledge.\nSession 3: Soil\, justice and regenerative educatio
 n: Amilcar Cabral\nDate: 24 July 2026\nTime: 11:00–13:00 SAST / 12:00–
 14:00 EAT\n\nWhat if one of Africa’s greatest liberation thinkers was al
 so a soil scientist?\n\nAmilcar Cabral understood over 75 years ago that s
 oil ecology and political liberation were inseparable. This closing sessio
 n marks the launch of the launch of “To Defend the Earth Is to Defend th
 e Human”\, a new publication exploring Cabral's remarkable contribution 
 to what we might now call soil social science.\n\nIn this session\, we wil
 l trace how his understanding of soil was rooted in a politics of human di
 gnity and ask: what does Cabral's legacy demand of how we teach and instit
 utionalise environmental knowledge today?\n\n&nbsp\;\n\n&nbsp\;
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 g
CATEGORIES:Cultural transformations
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TZID:Africa/Johannesburg
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DTSTART:20250722T110000
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