A Conversation with Ibrahima Thiam

Wednesday, January 29nd, 2025

12 pm EST 11 am CST 10 am MST 9 am PST

In March 2024, the Senegalese people, following the winds of change sweeping West Africa over the last decade, voted for progressive change against the French leaning political establishment. On March 24, Bassirou Diomaye Faye was elected President, promising to end Senegal’s dependency on France, Pan-African unity and self-development, and economic opportunity for the youth. This change comes in the wake of a deepening economic crisis in Senegal and West Africa, a wave of coups in the neighboring Sahalene region, deepening climate change leading to prolonged drought and rising sea levels, and massive migration by land and sea to Europe and beyond.

This discussion will focus our talk with Ibrahima on climate change in Senegal and the broader West African region, and what its implications are for the people of the region and the world.

Ibrahima Thiam, born in August 1973 in Rebeuss, a very popular district of Dakar, Senegal. After my first classes (primary and secondary school), I traveled to Germany to study Political science and Economics. After graduation in 2010 on the subject: Politics and Religion in Senegal, the case of religious Murid brotherhood of the Muriden, I joined the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RSL) West African office in Dakar.

My work is managing RLS projects on the following thematic: Natural resources and Climate change. My key interest in fighting climate injustice with the grassroots organization.Four years ago I started a national network of actors for climate justice. The 14 regions of the country are represented in that platform that stands as the voice of the climate impacted people. Every year I organize the climate school. The concept consists of gathering climate activists and scholars to interrogate climate issues and promote debates.

Beside my profession, I am a poet and I have published in French (Entre le rythme et le Blues), in Wolof (Doxandéem), meaning the adventurer and German (Dazwischen) that means Inbetween.

Examining the Winds of Change on the African Continent Part 2: Anti-Colonialism, Climate Change and Social Transformation In Senegal