Passionate about the environment, Souleymane’s involvement with the Green Party in Burkina Faso broadened his understanding of climate change and how activism associations can work together to tackle environmental issues. Eager to explore this interest since coming to the UK as an asylum seeker in 2022, Souleymane has had the opportunity to study a Media, Journalism, Culture and Computer studies course at Cardiff University.

“I was trying to find something really to express all of this knowledge. It allowed me to know more about media and different platforms like social media. I was thinking of starting my own podcast but I didn’t know how to start and then I saw an advert on Facebook talking about a 5 day challenge.”

And from there his podcast “Voix Verte”, meaning Green Voice, was born. “I talk about everything related to the environment - not only climate change. Like, climate refugees, how nature around us is really important, why we need to care about trees and gardening.”

Souleymane believes these topics teach others to value their environment, build community and instils a sense of collective responsibility to work towards solutions. In a world where extreme weather events are increasing in frequency, we will see more regular overlapping crises which will disproportionately affect those in countries ill-prepared to adapt to climate change. Largely, these countries are where the majority of those forcibly displaced by persecution and conflict are from. 

“Climate refugees are not for the future but I could even say right now because in some areas in the world, some people leave their own land because of drought or other issues and have to move to another area to start a new life. Until now, climate change is not officially recognised for refugees so we need to consider how international movements can work together to make it official.”

Currently, climate refugees are not covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention which offers protection to those fleeing war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border. However, the effects of climate change and competition for scarce natural resources can exacerbate tensions and lead to further instability and displacement. Acting as a ‘threat multiplier’, climate change magnifies the impact of contributing factors to displacement - and this is likely to increase as climate change causes more frequent and extreme weather events.

Talking about the future, Souleymane wants to continue his podcast journey and expand into making English episodes with guest speakers.

“This is the next step and challenge that I have to achieve to make it more engaging and more open to English speakers to understand what I’m doing. That is the next step of my podcast.”