When did the issue of climate change get personal for you?

A conscious interest in climate change is quite a recent development for me. I grew up in Makurdi, a quiet, sleepy town which is the capital of Benue State. During my childhood days, we had a lot of green spaces. There were trees, parks, though not so well kept, and trees lined the few tarred roads. These came naturally with clean, fresh air. I remember clearly, there was air to breathe in Makurdi then. We lived mostly in government owned quarters that had provisions for open spaces and parks. Then suddenly, in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, there was a sudden increase in the rate of what is called development of the town. Houses, plazas, school and church buildings, mansions sprouted up daily and the green spaces right in the middle of these quarters were sold to make way for them. There were also people buying up and building the swampy areas meant for growing rice. We were locked in with the new fences now being our only view when we looked through the windows. This came with a lot of difference in the weather. There was no cool breeze blowing in through our windows to cushion the effect of the scorching sun at midday anymore. Temperatures skyrocketed; there was a noticeable difference in the ‘quality’ of the harmattan winds; then came the floods that displaced hundreds.

At this time, I became mildly conscious of these changes and knew that something had to be done to protect the environment from total destruction. At this time, there were also a number of tree planting campaigns that sought to draw attention to the topic, and they had some effcct on me, heightening my interest in the area. However, it was my reading of Bernadette Nyam’s A Better Earth: Stories on Care of the Earth in 2020 that made me more acutely aware of the need to make deliberate efforts to enlighten young people as much as I can on the effects of man’s actions on the earth and the dangerous consequences. All the books on environmental degradation which I had read from Nigerian authors like Ken Saro Wiwa’s A Forest of Flowers, Helon Habila’s Oil on Water and Tanure Ojaide’ s poetry, among others, focused on the dire situation in the Niger Delta. It was new to me that the author concentrated her energies on little things we do without second thoughts that are steadily destroying the environment.

Nyam’s book drew my attention strongly to the climate change issue, but my story submitted for “The Green We Left Behind” is my first work that has climate change as its preoccupation.

Nostalgia has a strong presence in your story. Could this sense of nostalgia be of loss or of hope?

It is a sense of both loss and hope. I feel a deep sense of loss because, inasmuch as I would have loved to believe the contrary, it is not possible to take the earth back to where it used to be. A lot of things have replaced the green spaces and they can’t just be uprooted to bring back the green. We have actually, as the title of the anthology says, left that part of the green behind. On the other hand, I am hopeful that with sustained campaigns to create awareness on what we are doing wrong and how we can get it right, people would become more conscious of their relationship with the earth and its effects on climate change. Thus, we may be able to restore some part of what has been lost and prevent further damage to the earth.

What inspired your story for The Green We Left Behind non-fiction anthology?

The immediate source of inspiration for my story, “Charred,” was the call for submissions by Arts Lounge. Climate change is something I have begun to feel strongly about in recent times, and I would have to write about it eventually, but Arts Lounge made me do this much earlier, and I am very grateful for this inspiration. I feel honoured that my story is considered worth publishing and I intend to keep at it till the message that we must show due regard for the earth by caring for it if it is to keep sustaining us is heeded.

As an artist, how are you able to merge beauty in language with such a dire theme on climate change?

My emotions usually get really stirred up when I have to handle a dire theme, and this state of emotional turmoil seems to me to have something to do with beauty of expression. For me, dire themes make the words flow effortlessly, as if they have a life of their own. For example, in writing “Charred,” I don’t remember making any deliberate effort to embellish the language, especially as I had the non-fiction phrase at the top of my mind. This is perhaps why themes that come with a sense of urgency tend to inspire poetry a lot.

As you release your story to the world, what do you wish or hope for the story?

I wish that the story would reach a very wide audience, and I earnestly hope it has the desired effect of inspiring a positive change in the attitude of the readers towards the natural environment.

Apart from writing, how else do you intend to contribute towards curbing of global warming?

As they say, ignorance is bliss. Global warming, as you rightly described it earlier, is a dire topic, a harsh topic a lot of people would prefer to avoid or ignore. However, the effects will not go away on their own, no matter how hard we try to ignore them. So I believe that every avenue should be used to create awareness on the topic. In this wise, in addition to writing, I intend to orgamise tree planting campaigns, campaigns to create awareness on environment friendly sources of energy and production of compost as a way to recycle waste. This is of course in addition to making personal efforts to keep to the standards I preach as it is easier to teach the young through our actions.

Biography

Regina Achie Nege is an independent editor, prose writer and poet. She was second runner up for poetry in the 2021 Association of Nigerian Authors literary

awards. She is also the vice chairperson of the Association of Nigerian Authors,ANA, Benue State Chapter. Her major published works include Ad Finem Fidelis: A History of Mount Carmel College Makurdi from 1979 till Date (2017), Dog Tales for Children (2017) and Let Me Die Another Day (Poetry). Regina has also co-edited several books including Season of Laurels and Thrills (2021) and Ace Booksquare Literary Reviews (2022). Her poetry, articles and book reviews are published in several journals, anthologies and dailies. She is a doctoral student in the Department of English, Benue State University, Makurdi.