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Artes Mundi 2007 artist Abdoulaye Konate Abdoulaye Konate lives and works in Bamako, Mali. I n the 1990's he took up one of the great issues for West Africa the encroachment of the Sahel. One part of the world where the effects of climate change are being felt now - The Sahel is the region in Africa where the Sahara desert meets sub-Saharan tropical Africa. This semi-arid belt runs east to west across the continent and includes the countries of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea. There are dried lakes, unemployed fishermen, droughts, flooding, conflict, and food insecurity. Year by year, little by little, the fertile areas of the Sahel dry up and become sand. This means that the mostly nomadic people who lived in those areas are pushed south in search of water and land on which to graze their cattle. Lake Chad - the Sahel
Lake Chad (image taken in 2001) is but a
fraction of what it once was. The lake, surrounded by wetlands, has been
taxed heavily as a source for numerous irrigation projects, and is subject
to an arid climate that has endured a dramatic decrease in rainfall over
the past forty years. The green and brown rippled area to the north and
northwest of the lake (most clearly visible in the high-resolution image)
suggests the lake's previous surface area.
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URL Sources http://www.artesmundi.org/artistProfiles/artistProfileKonate.php http://youthinkblog.worldbank.org/climate-change-sahel http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=1877 For article on “Lake Chad fishermen pack up their nets”: |
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