Africa's green transition faces mining displacement and unmet just transition promises

A letter published in The Nation Newspaper argues that Africa's green transition risks repeating patterns of resource extraction and exclusion. It highlights communities in the DRC, Zimbabwe, and Kenya that face displacement, environmental damage, and labor exploitation from mining critical minerals for batteries and from large renewable energy projects. The author notes that Kenya generates over 90 percent of its electricity from renewables, but Masai and Turkana communities have lost grazing land and ancestral territories with little compensation. The piece also criticizes South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership, an $8.5 billion package, for failing to deliver on reskilling and local economic transformation because those promises were political rather than legally binding. The author calls for measuring transition success not just by megawatts installed but by whether communities retain land rights, indigenous rights are protected, and local economies become more resilient.