High-level international role-players have arrived for climate talks (COP17) in Durban, South Africa, and are debating the key issues as they try to hammer out an accord. But what is the impact of climate change on ordinary people from Africa? AllAfrica's Julie Frederikse and Thembelani Moyo spoke to Africans attending COP17 in an effort to understand their personal experiences of global warming and changing weather patterns.
If you've heard a lot about climate change but never encountered an actual victim, then meet Ruth Baivule. The activist from Nigeria's Port Harcourt doesn't miss a beat when you ask her how her community is experiencing climate change.
"We have lower rainfall and it is less frequent, and when rain does come it sometimes floods," she says. "Our children get sick with diseases like diarrhea. We also have less revenue as we have less crops, and less possibilities to plant food - but we don't want to import food as it costs too much."
She says that these factors are driving their community's youth to migrate from rural areas to the cities, and even to other countries, because they cannot live on what they earn from the land.
Allan Zambia of the Zambian Land Alliance, was also quick to respond when asked how his area is experiencing climate change.
"I was just ringing my wife now and she told me that she has not yet planted, yet this is supposed to be the rainy season," said Zambia, who is from Zambia's Eastern Province. "The temperatures are high but you wouldn't believe that this is our rainy season. Also there's the issue of animals that are supposed to be feeding right now, but because it's dry there is no water for them and no grass, as it has all dried up."
Zambia says the lives of his family and community have worsened due to these unexpected weather patterns.
"When you expect that there will be no rain, it rains heavily, and when you expect it to rain, it will not rain," the 39-year-old social worker said. "So it messes with our farming programs, and as a result there is no production."
What is his community doing about it?
"We will change, as we now have to adapt to the effects of climate change," he said. "For us it is now about adaptation."
Zambia and his organization came to South Africa as part of his country's civil society delegation, the Zambia Climate Change Network. The culmination of more than seven months of planning, they made a seven-day-long road trip to Durban, stopping in various countries en route to raise awareness about COP17.
Kenyan Japhet Muroko also has a long list of the impacts of climate change on his community.
"It affects agriculture, education, employment, rainy seasons and road networks, and it causes a lot of diseases," said Muroko, a member of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance from Nairobi.
Muroko's group spent a year planning their journey to COP17. He says they traveled for 12 days by bus from Burundi, through Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, stopping in each country to give out petitions.
"Climate change and global warming is deadly and catastrophic, so everybody should take it seriously," said Muroko, 35. Like many other Africans, he believes that the response to climate change must be adaptation.
"I hope everyone will accept change, that things will never be the same again, and I request all the world leaders to accept the change before the change comes to change them," he said.
Muroko feels that as a musician he can help his community to respond to climate change.
"We carry out day-to-day education and I prefer to educate people through song," he said. "I strongly believe that there is plenty of power in music, and I think it is a fast way that you can spread the word."
Olonana Pulei is at COP17 representing Kenya's Maasai community through the Manyoito Pastoralists Integrated Organisation. When asked about the impacts of climate change on his community, he cites effects on the animals that are key to pastoralist farming.
"There is this issue of drought and when the drought comes all the animals perish, and we are left with nothing and poverty rises," Pulei said. "When animals are not there, even people are at the risk of perishing as we depend on animals."
Like so many Africans, he sees the need for adaptation to climate change. But he is not optimistic about the outcome of COP17.
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"I actually don't see a positive result because these people have been speaking the same thing for the past couple of years and we have not seen a good result," Pulei said. "With all the COPs (Conference on the Parties on climate change) they have been having, we have just witnessed a lot of talk. So I am not expecting much." Allen Zambia, on the other hand, is less pessimistic.
"I expect that these leaders should really honor the commitments that they have been making for the past 16 meetings they have had," said Zambia. "Because some of the big countries like the United States and Japan are not showing any serious commitments - yet we are the ones who suffer most."
"I feel they will take things seriously as we have come as a mobilized crew," said Zambia, comparing this African-based COP with the others. "All the other meetings that have been held previously have been out of our reach, but now this one is for us. We are in Africa and we have used our own means to reach were they are. So they will really feel that we are here and they will act on our demands."
