“You’re Against Cutting of Trees But Use Paper to Write Letters?” Ugandans Online Blast Climate Change Activist

23 year old Makerere University Business School (MUBS) graduate and renowned climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate has received widespread backlash over a tweet she posted on the night of Monday 9^th October 2020.

In the tweet, she posted a snapshot of a handwritten letter (attached below) addressed to the new United States President elect Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris.

In the letter, she asked the two newly elects if they will do everything they must to fight the climate crisis in Uganda. The tweet has since garnered over 1400 retweets and 4000 likes by press-time. 

Vanessa Nakate started her activism in January 2019 by protesting outside the gates of the Parliament of Uganda and running a climate campaign of her own on social media.

Eventually, she was joined by other youth who echoed her voice both online and through peaceful physical protests helping to draw attention to the plight of the Congolese forests.

Nakate founded the Youth for Future Africa and the like-wise Africa-based Rise up Movement. She has since received global acclaim further standing out as one of the handful of youth activists to speak at the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain.

The backlash online was from several Ugandans who ‘found it ironic that she wrote on paper (manufactured from trees) to campaign against climate change’ and those who simply implied she ‘over-stepped her ground’. 

On the subsequent morning of 10^th October 2020, Nakate tweeted, “I have become a laughing stock in my own country for writing a letter to Kamala Harris and Joe Biden about demanding for an equitable and sustainable future for all of us – AND I AM LOVING IT!!! Keep the trolls coming!”