And while that’s one level of impact, Iweala says, it’s not the only one. What’s often not accounted for is the mental stress associated with the destruction of a person’s environment.
“People delink the two things because they think, ‘Oh, these people are stressed because they live in poverty,’” he says. “The truth is, they are stressed living in poverty because their livelihoods have been destroyed—because the ecosystem in which they operated has been destroyed, and with it a sense of self, belonging, and even dignity.” Humans are profound manipulators of the environment, of course. But ultimately, our actions flip the script, and we end up being manipulated by the environment.
Iweala’s connection to Nigeria is profound and has informed nearly every aspect of his life. His senior creative writing thesis at Harvard became the best-selling novel Beasts of No Nation, about a child soldier in an unnamed West African country. He also wrote the novel Speak No Evil about a Nigerian American high school student living with a secret in Washington, DC, and the non-fiction book Our Kind of People, about the struggles of people in Nigeria living with HIV/AIDS.
As Iweala wraps up his tenure as CEO of The Africa Center, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming the world’s understanding of that continent, his mind returns often to Nigeria. “It’s very clear that we need to have a different relationship with the environment there in order for the 230 million people who live in Nigeria to survive and thrive,” he says.
“I’m inspired by the work WWF does in Africa in service to this goal. And I’m inspired by the Nigerian people—not only our resilience, but also our frustration with the way things are presently being done, and our willingness to both push and participate in the change necessary for a sustainable future.”
