I first met Bouba Mal Yaya, a herdsman from the Fulani-Mbororo peoples in Chad, in early 2011. At that time, he and his fellow herders were in a state of great distress.
They saw their traditional way of life and livelihoods slipping away from them. The very core of their time-honoured way of farming had been shaken. The authority of the trusted elders who had always been relied upon to provide accurate strategies to cope with meagre resources and manage seasonal weather patterns had been seriously undermined with the increasingly unpredictable climate and weather conditions of recent years.
As with many challenges, the affected parties often work in isolation and are unaware of other potential solutions. This is also true of the impacts of climate change in Chad.
On the one hand, the Mbororo people have a deep understanding passed down through generations of their land and its climate conditions. They know how to read the signs offered by nature.
Scientists, on the other hand, hold the key to interpreting the impacts of the latest research. If these two groups could come together and pool their combined expertise, perhaps the M’bororo people could maintain their traditional way of life and the scientists would gain from a more profound understanding of the areas.
This was, in fact, the first stage in a process to address the climate change challenge and its far-reaching effects in Chad. A meeting was held in November 2011 in N’Djamena, Chad, brought together meteorologists and community representatives from Chad, Niger, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa.
This gathering, hosted by the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), the Association des Femmes Peules Autochtones du Tchad (AFPAT) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), encouraged Bouba Mal Yaya and his fellow participants to see how traditional knowledge and atmospheric science could be combined to respond to the climate change risks.
Bouba and the other pastoralists were profoundly affected by this experience. “Not only do we have a better understanding of why things are changing for us, but the knowledge of our elders and our ancestors has been given true recognition. It will help us and others to improve our way of life in the future,” he said.