On Tuesday Oct. 28, prominent environmental activist Tabi Joda visited Middlebury to discuss his work with One Billion Trees for Africa, an organization dedicated to the reforestation of the Sahel, a rapidly desertifying strip of land across Northern and Central Africa. The talk was hosted by a wide range of departments, including Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Sustainability & Environmental Affairs and African Studies. 

Joda’s journey to Middlebury was not simple. The talk was originally scheduled in September, but was postponed due to visa delays. Middlebury is one of multiple colleges and universities Joda has visited in the past few weeks, including Williams College and the University of Delaware. 

At a school with the oldest environmental studies program in the country and an emphasis on global affairs, Joda’s talk was pertinent to the Middlebury community. 

Over the past 15 years, One Billion Trees for Africa has planted nearly three million indigenous trees in communities struggling with mass out-migration, poverty and desertification, Joda said. These trees help to create a thriving ecosystem and to regenerate soil fertility, as well as providing a new industry where tree leaves are dried, exported to the U.S., and used in many popular supplements. 

Joda opted for a Ted-talk style speech, leaving nearly half of his allotted time for student questions. He was introduced by Ken Kessel, a college friend of Gordan Schuester Professor of Anthropology Ellen Oxfeld, who donated his wedding gifts to One Billion Trees for Africa. Kessell and Oxfeld described Joda’s status as an ambassador of the African Union’s Great Green Wall Initiative and a consultant for the United Nations. 

Joda grew up near the Mambila Plateau in Cameroon, where he witnessed forests disappear over the course of his childhood. His environmental advocacy began while studying at Nigeria’s Ahmadu Bello University, when he and classmates developed a plan to plant trees along the campus boundary to provide shade and improve conditions for students.

“That was my first step toward One Billion Trees for Africa,” Joda told the audience of roughly 30 students and faculty.

He opened his talk by asking attendees to stand and imagine the Sahel — “feel the heat” — before inviting them to sit and learn how a changing climate transforms the lives of millions.

He went on to describe his work in communities, where he encouraged families to work together, establish nurseries, and eventually transplant the trees into the ground. In each new community he encounters, Joda said that he wakes up before everyone else and goes door to door, explaining his plan. Communities are nearly always enthusiastic, Joda said, because they “need hope.” 

Student questions ranged from political enquiries to what Joda’s favorite tree is (avocado). Joda received the questions amicably, asking students’ names and repeatedly praising Middlebury. 

“You are in paradise,” he said. “Be grateful you are an American.”

The talk ended up going 15 minutes overtime, and most students managed to ask a question. The majority of attendees were underclassmen, a trend Professor of Anthropology Michael Sheridan said was because students tend to be curious about, but uncommitted to, African Studies. Sheridan, during his nearly 25-year career at Middlebury, has seen the size of the African Studies major plummet. Before 2000, African Studies consistently had around 15 students across the grades. Now there is only one. 

“It drives me a little bit nuts that we are ostensibly a global liberal arts school, we’re big on languages and yet we haven’t really built out that part of the world in our curriculum,” Sheridan said. The only indigenous African language taught at Middlebury is an introductory Swahili course, put on during J-Term.

Middlebury is gradually building up its African Studies programming, with a new French class specializing in francophone African literature and two J-Term classes travelling to Uganda and Namibia. 

Coincidentally, a similar lecture about timber and land transformation in Tanzania was delivered two weeks ago by Ewan Robinson, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame. Compared to Joda’s, his speech was on the technical side, reviewing satellite images and legal documents. 

“I think we need to do both,” Sheridan said. “I think we need to do technical skills and create curiosity and critical thinking and also figure out how to get people to aspire.”