Hope for the Sahel: The Great Green Wall

Ten thousand years ago, following the last ice age, North Africa was a well-populated land of savannah, woodlands, and wetlands. Then, over the next few millennia, the climate dried across a belt of latitudes circling the globe from Africa through the Middle East to East Asia and even to the Americas. This drying created most of the great deserts of the world that we know today, including the Sahara, Negev, Arabian, Thar and Gobi.

This desertification hit existing agricultural societies hard. Just as today we see refugees fleeing drought-stricken areas, our ancestors would have been faced with the choice of dying of hunger and thirst, or moving to new land. But unoccupied lands were scarce as the productivity of the land declined throughout this huge area. In order to survive, some hitherto peaceful peoples became aggressive, brutal nomadic invaders, forcing those living around oases and along rivers to raise armies to defend themselves. As this relentless process continued generation after generation, so civilization as we know it was born. Out of the trauma experienced by peaceful, cooperative, egalitarian farming cultures emerged the violent, warlike, hierarchical, male dominated states of Egypt and Mesopotamia. We still live with their legacy today.

In her classic book, The Chalice and the Blade, Riane Eisler characterised this process as the transition from partnership to dominator cultures. We tell the story of this transition in far more detail in our book, Hope for Humanity. There, we draw on many sources, including research on climate change, archaeology and anthropology, and books on the subject such as James DeMeo’s Saharasia, and Steve Taylor’s The Fall, as well as the work of Riane Eisler. (click the links on the right for further information)

For the last few decades, the Sahara has been on the march again, this time southwards into the nations of the Sahel - a region wracked by poverty and conflict. The reasons for this desertification are complex. They include decades of drought, population growth, the impact of misguided agricultural developments, and the breakdown of the traditional symbiotic relationship between farmers and nomadic herders - peoples who, over centuries, had developed a deep understanding of how to live sustainably and peacefully in this fragile region. Climate change due to global warming may also be a factor, but the extent of its influence is not yet clear.

What of the future? Are we about to see a repeat of the traumas of prehistory? Will further climate change bring more hunger and conflict to the peoples of the Sahel, or will the better rains of recent years continue? Computer models of global climate disagree on the answer. Some predict reduced rainfall for the region, while others predict an increase. (See UNEP report ClimateChangeSahelCombine.pdf) The reasons for these different predictions was investigated by Alessandra Giannini. She concluded that there will be drying if the effects of ocean warming dominate the climate, but there could be increased rainfall if regional land effects are stronger.

It is well-known that forests can increase rainfall across large regions by holding moisture in the landscape, and stimulating the formation of rain-bearing clouds. So one of the best ways to try to push the sahelian climate in the right direction is to plant trees. Enter the Great Green Wall project. The idea of planting a belt of trees across Africa to halt the advancing desert was first put forward in the 1980’s. But it was only recently that the idea received official approval and promises of international funding of up to $3bn under the UN’s Convention to Combat Desertification.

15km wide, and stretching 8000 km from the Horn of Africa in the east to the coast of Senegal in the west, the Great Green Wall will pass through 11 of the poorest countries in the world: Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. As well as planting drought-tolerant trees and shrubs, the project will create water retention ponds, new agricultural production systems and other economic activities, and social infrastructure. Besides stopping desertification and erosion it will protect water sources such as the shrinking Lake Chad, and restore or create biodiversity. It will bring economic development to local communities, helping to stem the tide of youth emigration, and providing them with energy resources, fruit, vegetables and other foods. And perhaps most importantly, it will foster political stability through cooperation at all levels from the international to the community. If it is to succeed, good science and technology are not enough. The project must also gain the support and involvement of local communities. The fact that this has been recognised at the highest levels at the outset augurs well.

This project brings hope to a huge region of fragile and degraded ecosystems, poverty and conflict. It offers hope of a transition to sustainability rather than the trauma of war, starvation, and displacement. It demonstrates how the challenge of climate change may be met in ways that foster the evolution of a new partnership society and an era of prosperity, peace and equality.

The Homies and the Popz

Here’s a truly delightful, heartwarming story of hope for humanity.

Compton is a city of 100,000 on the south side of Los Angeles. It’s one of the most dangerous places in the US - a world of gangsters, drive-by shootings, homelessness and street kids. And it’s also home to the Compton Cricket Club, aka the Homies and the Popz.

When founder Ted Hayes was first invited to play cricket, he asked “What’s cricket?” Film producer Katy Haber replied “It’s the same as baseball but instead of running around in circles, you run up and down.” Inspired by the experience, Ted Hayes formed a team of homeless men, training in alleyways with rubbish bins as stumps. Later, he took a recruiting drive to local schools and ran cricket workshops. So alien was the sport that one kid told his friends his brother was playing grasshopper!

That was 14 years ago. Now the Homies and the Popz brings together former gangsters, homeless men and street kids who see cricket as a model for a purposeful and law-abiding life. It’s the only all American-born cricket team in the world, playing in the Los Angeles amateur league and exhibition matches. They’ve toured England 3 times, and are currently on their first visit to Australia.

According to Hayes “The aim of playing cricket is to teach people how to respect themselves and respect authority so they stop killing each other.” And the Homies’ mission is to:
1.    Curb the negative effects of gang activities amongst the youth of Compton.
2.    Addressing homelessness in the inner city through the principles of ethics and cricket.
3.    Encourage and promote civility, good and productive citizenship.

But Ted Hayes has even bigger ambitions. “We’d like to go to places of conflict and teach the idea through cricket that we can learn civility. We can disagree and compete to win, but let’s not kill each other. The world is big enough for us all to live in peace and have fun competing while making ourselves better human beings.”

Trauma affects us all

Do you ever wonder why the planet is wracked by so many crises?  Do you ever wonder why humanity seems unable to meet the challenges of creating peace, protecting the living systems that support us, and ending poverty?  We believe a root cause is trauma. Trauma warps our personality, blights our health, stunts our development, and condemns us to living well below our potential.

Most of us think of trauma as something that happens to other people as a result of childhood abuse, war, famine, accidents, or sickness. But trauma is universal.  Few, if any, of us are unaffected by it. At every stage of life, from conception to death, we are exposed to potentially traumatic experiences. Your mother may have smoked or taken drugs, been malnourished or stressed during pregnancy. You may have had a difficult and painful birth, or put in a hospital nursery away from your mother.

As an infant, your distressed crying may have been ignored, or you may have been treated roughly and angrily rather than with gentle love. In childhood, you may have been harshly punished for bad behaviour, or sexually, emotionally or physically abused.  At some stage of life, you may have lived in a war zone, in constant fear of injury or death. Or you may have been a refugee from conflict, famine or a natural disaster. You may have had cancer or another life-threatening illness. And so the list goes on.

Not only are we all exposed to potentially traumatic experiences, but also we inherit trauma from our parents and grandparents.  Partly, trauma is transmitted by social learning and education. But the new field of epigenetics is rapidly revealing how it is also transmitted genetically.  Traumas suffered by your parents did not change their genes, but they did affect which genes are active - which are switched on, and which are switched off. And those patterns of gene expression will have been passed to you.

This effect even extends to your grandparents. The egg and sperm that became you were formed when your mother and father were tiny embryos in your grandmothers’ wombs, and were affected by their life experiences at that time. This effect has been recognised in practice by the Australian Government which offers some free therapy to the grandchildren of war veterans.

Trauma has been linked to many life issues. In severe cases, it can lead to debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder. It is also implicated in most mental illnesses from anxiety and depression to schizophrenia. It may lead to angry, aggressive and violent behaviours. It is a factor in eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. It is linked to heart disease, cancer, immune system dysfunction, chronic fatigue and other major illnesses. It also is associated with migraine, lower back pain and other psychosomatic conditions.

Many of us think of trauma as affecting individuals, but it also impacts on families, communities and whole societies. In the family context, emotional and behavioural effects of trauma can lead parents to abuse their children or each other. At the community level, traditional beliefs, ways of life and social norms may be shattered by war, famine, earthquakes, hurricanes, industrial development and other disasters. Afterwards, it can take generations to recreate community from anarchic chaos.  Just imagine the difficulty of rebuilding trust and social relationships after years of civil war and genocide.

Once we recognise the prevalence and impacts of trauma, we can take action to change the situation. In our book “Hope for Humanity: How understanding and healing trauma could solve the planetary crisis”, we document the nature, history, prevalence, mechanisms and impacts of trauma in more detail.  We then go on to develop strategies for healing the huge numbers suffering from past trauma, and for reducing the creation of new trauma. We also provide general guidance on choosing a healing modality and therapist.

Perhaps the most important step is for each one of us to recognise and accept that we are probably personally affected, and to start our own inner journey of healing despite our natural resistance to facing the hidden pain. Spiritual approaches such as meditation work in some cases, but often need the support of skilled therapists to enable us to break through the terror, or to open our awareness of memories that we have locked away in secret vaults.  Similarly, therapy often needs the support of spiritual practices to achieve long-term personal transformation.

For there to be real Hope for Humanity, it is vital that we each embark on our own healing journey.

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Trauma and humanity

(M)uch of the violence that plagues humanity is a direct or indirect result of unresolved trauma that is acted out in repeated unsuccessful attempts to re-establish a sense of empowerment.

Trauma therapist Peter Levine

Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence. Not only can trauma be healed, but with appropriate guidance and support, it can be transformative. Trauma has the potential to be one of the most significant forces for psychological, social and spiritual awakening and evolution. How we handle trauma (as individuals, communities and societies) greatly influences the quality of our lives. It ultimately affects how or even whether we will survive as a species.

Trauma therapist Peter Levine

(A)lmost everyone I have ever met suffers from some sense of incompleteness and emptiness. They sense that parts of themselves are missing and that they are cut off from a deep connection with life. … Few people are fully at home and some of us have been so badly traumatized that almost no one is at home.

Shamanic Healer Sandra Ingerman

… despite our differences, we’re all alike. Beyond identities and desires, there is a common core of self - an essential humanity whose nature is peace and whose expression is thought and whose action is unconditional love. When we identify with that inner core, respecting and honoring it in others as well as ourselves, we experience healing in every area of life.

Joan Borysenko