This Fragile Paradise

I love champions who come from unexpected places, and I think it’s vital that we show how people from every nation care about our planet so we empower young people of every color to champion the Earth. Usually, women and indigenous people are among the powerless, especially in countries such as Africa, but Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim learned from her mother how to wrest power for the greater good. I also love that Ibrahim used cartography to map her community’s resources to encourage her people to share instead of kill each other over what they had. In “This Fragile Paradise,” I tried to imagine what it was like to be Ibrahim, to sing from her soul. By imagining what a young woman I admire thinks and sees and feels, I hope to inspire others to be warriors for the Earth. Ibrahim taught me that anyone can.