Climate Migration Crises in Nigeria

KANO, NIGERIA - NOVEMBER 20, 2018: A plane view of a developing portion of the city of Kano. CREDIT: Yagazie Emezi for The Weather Channel.

KANO, NIGERIA - NOVEMBER 22, 2018: Co-wives Mariam, 19 and Jamila, 22 grew up by the western coast of Lake Chad within the Nigerian border, but identify as Chadian. CREDIT: Yagazie Emezi for The Weather Channel.

KANO, NIGERIA - NOVEMBER 23, 2018: Kayis (33), recalls his days fishing on the lake. CREDIT: Yagazie Emezi for The Weather Channel.

KANO, NIGERIA - NOVEMBER 23, 2018: With Shahida getting her hair braided, Kayis provides a photograph of his wife. CREDIT: Yagazie Emezi for The Weather Channel.

LAGOS, NIGERIA - NOVEMBER 28, 2018: View of an expanding Eko Atlantic from the waters. These are the first buildings to go up. CREDIT: Yagazie Emezi for The Weather Channel.

LAGOS, NIGERIA - NOVEMBER 29, 2018: Elizabeth was a hustler in Bar Beach for several years before having to move in 2012 after security and raids increased. CREDIT: Yagazie Emezi for The Weather Channel.

Yagazie Emezi is an artist and self-taught documentary photographer from Nigeria (she spent her adolescence in New Mexico) whose work seeks to counter the often tragic narrative currently being retold about the African continent. She’s also somewhat of a social media star – with 141K engaged Instagram followers. Much of her work up until how has focused predominately on stories surrounding African women – their health, sexuality, education and beauty standards, but it’s her recent work for The Weather Channel, a body of work called Exodus: The Climate Migration Crises. Forced Out that focuses on climate change in Nigeria that we’ve asked her about today:

PDN: Tell us a little more about the commission. What is the story about?
Yagazie: The work tells personal stories of how climate change (whether its shrinking lake waters on Lake Chad or the threat of flooding in the capital city of Lagos) in Nigeria is causing displacement among populations already destabilized and vulnerable from poverty.

PDN: This body of work is quite different from the rest of your work. Are you slowly moving towards a more documentary approach? Is climate change in Africa a subject you’re specifically interested in?
YE: I believe it’s simply different in the topic area and timeline as most of the stories I have worked on are far shorter-term assignments and focus predominately on women, beauty and health. I have been developing a documentary approach in my work for over two years now, but this is the first I have been commissioned to ‘complete’ one so far. Climate change and our environment is something I have been building an interest in, ever since last year when I started working at sea, focusing on illegal fishing and its impact on certain African communities. We have amazing environmental activists spread across the continent and a deeply rich history of their work through the years. I simply care and in a way, hope I can play a role in active change for the better.

PDN: Do you have a favorite frame from the series? What makes this photograph stand out to you?
YE: Of course I don’t have a favorite! But my favorite story is the one Kayis shared with me of his journey. (PDN – See Image 3 in the slideshow) Despite the haunting of Boko Haram, the terror and everything that followed, he spoke with such love for his life as a fisherman, his wife and best friend. Selfishly, I loved watching him talk. He used his hands a lot and always talked softly, like he was treading water.

PDN: What was the hardest part about producing this body of work and how did you overcome it?
YE: I was very fortunate to have worked with two amazing fixers on this and without them, literally nothing would have been achieved. Personally, the hardest part as it always is, is witnessing people having to live in the conditions that they do. Growing up in Nigeria, scenes like this are not completely unfamiliar and as a child, it was easy to walk or drive past these lives, cementing our desensitization to our own environments. Now, it’s not something I can overcome. I constantly think about the places I work in and the people I encounter. I am still fighting the guilt of my presence and purpose in them.