Chapter 5 - Climate change
5.2 Climate change perception
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“Sometimes parents hide things from children. Also, me as a woman I had to be with my mother in the kitchen and not in the living room with the men who discuss and talk about different issues”.
Respondents mistake seasonal and regional changes for climate change, and they justify the lack of information by pointing to their schooling and the general lack of interest in their nations. Direct questions were used to test their understanding throughout data collection. Participants occasionally had the correct knowledge from their experience but were unaware of it. The following part examines the perception of climate change by looking at the interviewees' personal experiences.
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"It was the first time in the country. Most people were proud and enthusiastic about the snow in the west of the country. Others understood that snow is a negative sign of climate change" (14th woman, Cameroon).
"Things have changed since I was little. It is so hot in the country. When you are there, you adjust, although it may also be really chilly at times." (Cameroonian, 19th interviewee)
These testimonies highlight the perception of extreme weather temperatures, mostly higher and in some cases lower. In addition to these many respondents witnessed heavy rainfall when living in their home country. However, the majority of women viewed this event as steady over their lifetimes:
"When it rains, there is a lot of wind, and houses move, but it has always been like this."
(Guinean, 6th interviewee)
“From May through July or August, it rains. In September, there is no rain, but there are storms. But it hasn't changed since I was little. In the rainy season, there is a lot of damage to the houses and the roadway.” (Guinean, 4th interviewed)
"Sometimes it rains a lot, ruins the dwellings, blocks the passage, and is complicated. In terms of climate, it's the same. It's not changed over time." (Senegalese, 15th interviewed)
“I was raised in Koundara, where I first went to school. It’s desert there. It’s very hot. In Conakry, it is different. In the rainy season, there are frequent floods and house damage.
But ever since I was little, it’s always been like that. The problem is the garbage that goes up and enters the houses.” (Guinean, 8th interviewee)
A Guinean woman described the challenges she faced while managing and guarding the family's cashew grove during heavy rains:
“Since I remember, the rain level has been the same. There’s no place to sit when you leave, and you must wait until the rain stops. You’re going to sit and wait in the rain for hours, and once you get home, you can smell the freshness. When the sun is out in the morning, we sometimes head out to the plantation, but then it starts to rain.” (Guinean, 3rd interviewed)
28 Another branch of respondents believe that their country is experiencing frequent torrential downpours and it is getting destructive over time:
“When I was a kid, it rained a lot and was very cold. But now I’ve heard that there have been floods, making it difficult to walk outside, forbidding kids to go out, and causing water to enter the houses.” (Guinean, 20th interviewed)
“During the rainy season, there are floods, damage, everything is wet, and you can’t get out. Now the situation is worse in nature. The floods are stronger and more frequent.”
(Cameroonian, 14th interviewed)
These quotes show how the rainy season is characterized by heavier rain and increased frequency of torrential rain that can cause floods. Two respondents report noticing warmer weather during the rainy season, particularly a warm wind that was typically cold:
“The wind is very hot now. Before, the wind was cold. Things are getting worse. Some people suffer from climate change impacts. The air is hot. Normally it’s not like that. The environmental degradation has increased.” (Guinea, 23rd interviewed)
“In my country, during rainfall, the weather is becoming hotter. Things have changed a lot since I was little until now. Even though I'm not there, I am aware of how challenging life has become.” (Senegalese, 16th interviewee)
In the last cases, it is clear how the change in temperatures and weather conditions are recognized as risks and threats to their compatriots. These risks are particularly highlighted by women whose family livelihoods depend on natural resources. Households living out of agriculture have been the most impacted by rising temperatures, more frequent rainstorms, and droughts. In many regions, agriculture is the first source of income for the community. Two Guinean women have expressed the impact of rain on their family production:
“My dad had land to grow rice, and we lived off rice sales. But with a lot of rain, rice will spoil, and from August to September, there is a lot of rain. The rain has gotten heavier since I was little.” (2nd interviewee)
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“My family relied on farming. My uncle had a cashew nut field. During the rainy season, the rain destroyed the plantation. Cashew trees are particularly tough to grow in the rain.
You need to cut it, pick it, and it hurts because you stay wet for a long time. My sisters and I always left to help on the plantation.” (Guinean, 3rd interviewed)
The 14th interviewee from Cameroon explained how heat and droughts hinder output.
This statement is confirmed by a Guinean woman who had her family livelihood from the cultivation of African eggplant and Fonio. Both goods require high temperatures for growth. Fonio is cultivated in the Sahel region and grows in the dry season, while the African eggplant is grown in all sub-Saharan Africa and needs to be well-drained. The distance traveled in quest of water is increasing as it becomes harder to find, she says, explaining the greater scarcity of water brought on by droughts. According to her experience, the quantity and accessibility of water found are not stable (Guinean, 13th interviewee). She continues explaining how the heat affects agricultural production:
“The amount of production has decreased over time. Because it is too hot right now, growing is more challenging. We used to grow fonio as well, but now that the money is missing, we cannot do so. The land is used only for the production of eggplant.” (13th interviewee)
The eleventh respondent, a 19-year-old woman from Cameroon, said her family used to produce cocoa but that it is no longer sufficiently prolific:
“When I was little, at the time of my grandfather, my family lived off it. Cocoa production is more difficult now because the seasons are unpredictable. The cultivation does not always bear fruit, and the sale of the harvest does not allow my family to have agriculture as only revenue”.
These testimonials indicate that various factors contribute to the difficulties facing the agricultural sector. Some see heavy rain as the cause, and some people do not have enough money to support their family's capacity to maintain the plantation and buy seeds, while others experience more unpredictable seasons than they were in the past. According to a Guinean woman (23rd interviewee) there is less of a propensity for agriculture to be the only source of income. One of the effects of this process is urbanism:
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“Farmers and breeders are compelled to go to the city to earn a little more. They must leave for the big cities to have a future. They used to have good harvests as their primary source of income, but now it is different. Schooling is also a reason to leave for the capital.” (Guinea, 23rd interviewed)
The population living in the rural area are forced to look for other sources of income.
According to a Cameroonian woman, farmers are generally from the elderly community (11th interviewee). This opinion is confirmed by a Senegalese woman who explained that young people are not attracted to continuing their family heritage in agriculture as it is not a stable and enough prolific income:
“Nowadays, young people are increasingly looking for non-physical jobs like teaching or business. Only older people keep doing that. Agriculture is not very common due to the physical effort and because you do not earn much money from it. Usually, the harvest is used for the family and to sell what remains, but you don’t make much money. With machines, like mass agriculture, yes, because you can sell the products at a large scale, but families cannot afford it. External enterprises usually do it.” (Senegalese, 16th interviewed)
In this instance, she noticed that the youth's mentality had changed. They put more emphasis on money. Particularly in Senegal, the natural resources are lacking due to overexploitation, and as an example, she mentioned the multinational companies in the territory. In the interview, she continues explaining:
"Before, it was simple to use the various natural resources available. Now that people are aware that natural resources may be used to generate income, there is always a lot of food available, yet we sell it all." (16th woman, Senegal)
Along with agriculture, other industries are also affected. For instance, the 15th respondent (Senegalese), said that fishing in Senegal used to be simpler and now overfishing in the ocean puts fishing in danger. Due to the large number of fishermen, it is now more difficult.
To sum up, a substantial majority of respondents (43,48%) asserted that they did not notice any change over time when they were in their native country, despite numerous
31 testimonies mentioning changes in temperatures, seasons, and availability of natural resources. Through women's voices, the perception of climate change exists in accordance with the data available on the region's vulnerability to climate change. In the following chapter, domestic violence is observed, including its perception by migrant women, the awareness of it, the vulnerability that exposes women to this type of violence, and the domestic violence expressed during the interviews.
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