Bibi Bakare-Yusuf is co-founder and publishing director of Cassava Republic Press. Prior to founding Cassava Republic, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf obtained her PhD in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Warwick and worked in academia. She is recognised as a leading African feminist scholar, cultural theorist and philosopher with work published in leading academic journals such as Small Axe, Fashion Theory, Feminist Theory and Journal of African Identity and more. She has worked as a gender and research consultant in the public, private and development sectors for the BBC, UN-Woman, ActionAid, Central Bank of Nigeria, the European Union and others. Bibi is also a Yale World Fellow, a Desmond Tutu Fellow and a Frankfurt Book Fair Fellow.
Ecology and Climate Justice are the cause of the day – but where are the Black voices in this vital discussion?
Cassava Republic Press is calling on Black writers, activists, policy makers, thinkers and creatives from around the world to contribute to a transformative anthology that seeks to re-centre African and Afro-Diasporic perspectives on ecology, climate justice and conservation.
Echoes of the Earth: Black Voices Reclaiming Ecology and Justice
This collection, edited by Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, will bring together in a single volume African and Afro-Diasporic perspectives on climate, environmental repair, and ecological thought. It aims to reframe global ecological discourse by foregrounding Black people’s relationships with land, water, air, memory, and technology; relationships that have long been shaped by survival, resistance, and renewal.
Climate catastrophes disproportionately affect centres of Black life. Our struggles are deeply intertwined with the legacies of colonialism, perpetuated into the present through the suppression of indigenous knowledge systems and practices in favour of capitalist extraction. We therefore invite contributions that explore what a genuinely global, just, and sustainable ecological vision could look like rooted in critical and multidisciplinary Black worlds and wisdoms.
Themes
We are looking for essays on, but not limited to, the following themes:
We are looking for essays exploring water in all forms – in scarcity and abundance. How do hydropolitics and the resulting infrastructure affect our relationship with this vital resource? What are the spiritual and political ecologies of rivers, oceans and rain?
From desertification and the spirit of the Sahel to the lushness of the Amazon. Our relationship with land is both fragile and sacred. What relationship do we have with the soil that feed us? How are land dispossession, war and environmental refugees changing our relationship with land?
With the rise of fast fashion and digital waste, Africa is both a site of extraction and of dumping. What is the price of the critical minerals we take for granted every day? And how do colonial relationships play out in the realm of climate justice?
How rituals, music, art, dreams, and the metaphysical shape our ecological consciousness. How do we use art to reimagine land and loss, and to work through eco-anxiety and the psychic toll of collapse?
In what is now undoubtedly the age of AI, what are the climate costs of the Cloud? What does Black Environmental consciousness look like in the age of surveillance and AI? What are the climate costs of the cloud? Can we trust the future of the planet to algorithms?
How are Black spaces governed ecologically, and what part do green finance and climate capital play in this? What does a robust and post-colonial climate infrastructure look like – and what threatens this vision? Are reparations and redistribution needed to bring about climate justice?
How to Submit
Submit your essays now via Submittable. We welcome submissions from writers of all backgrounds who engage with climate, land, and ecology through fresh and compelling perspectives.
Genre: We are interested in thoughtful and rigorously researched essays, polemics, testimonies, and creative non-fiction
Word Count: Submissions should be between 3,500 – 7,000 words.
Format: Essays should be double spaced in Word format, double-spaced, using 12-point Times New Roman font.
Pitch letter: All essays should be accompanied by a pitch letter, which should include a brief abstract.
Compensation: A modest honorarium will be offered to all contributors.
Original Work: All submissions must be original, previously unpublished work. We also invite visual essays.
Deadline: January 4th 2026
About the Editor
