On Saturday I gave a talk at COP19 about empowering youth to overcome challenges. During the talk I introduced Connect4Climate (C4C) and their work over the past two years to engage the global community in climate change conversations.
I also told a story about my experience meeting a group of teenage rappers through C4C and promised to post some links. I chose this story because it’s a tale of youth empowerment, of entrepreneurship in the face of adversity and of young people overcoming obstacles.
TS-1 are a rap group from Kabira, one of Africa’s largest slums. Once a bucolic wooded hillside outside of Nairobi and today one of the most densely populated places on earth. Many rappers choose to rap about their money, their cars, their relationships or their hair. But TS-1 rap about their local world, their agriculture, their forestry or rather, the lack there of.
Their first video was about how to save energy and was a rap called ‘Me and My Bike’. The video won first place in a C4C competition.
Today we were at COP19 to look for action-orientated strategies to shape the climate and development agenda for forestry and agriculture. Taking agriculture, economics and forestry in isolation, I believe, is a pointless exercise. In order to reach sustainable development we need to do what TS-1 have summed up – a combined approach.
Since ‘Me and My Bike’, TS-1 have produced several other rap songs with environmental and climate change themes. ‘Biogas’ is a rap about choosing biogas and ‘Trash is Cash’ is about water shortage and land erosion. ‘Climate change’ urges listeners to take a different perspective on climate change, noting that it is activities by us humans that have helped cause this environmental emergency.
After winning the Africa competition, other good things began to happen to TS-1. C4C has a partner – Artists Project Earth – and one of their music industry experts was able to get the rights for TS1 to sing Eminem’s song ‘Not Afraid’. Of course they had their own lyrics so that they could truly let their voices be heard. And these five young rappers from Kibera performed the song without a shadow of nervous energy.
Then more amazing things happened. First, MTV, another C4C partner, projected TS-1’s video in New York’s Times Square on two huge HD screens that flank the Viacom Building. Their rap about climate issues played throughout the day in front of the thousands of people moving through one of the world’s most famous squares. TS-1 were also invited to come and perform at the World Bank awards ceremony known as ‘Right Here Right Now’. It was their first ever flight across the Atlantic.
So why did this happen? How did TS-1 end up performing (virtually!) in Times Square and in real life at the World Bank in DC? Because the Kibera Five dreamed big. And they had perseverance and they connected by using their rap as a platform to voice what mattered to them. Since meeting TS-1 I have had a different outlook on overcoming barriers to action, I hope by telling you this story you also feel inspired into action.
By Izzy Lawrence
