July 2025: Member Spotlight - Afia Zakiya, PhD
- Jordan Roberts
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
This month, Black Sustainability, Inc. is honored to spotlight a visionary in our network whose life's work reflects the very soul of our movement. Obenfo Dr. Afia S. Zakiya is more than a scholar, activist, or environmental leader—she is a living bridge between ancestral memory and future-forward Black sustainability.
A self-described African-centered political ecologist, cultural scientist, and Africana Studies scholar-activist, Dr. Zakiya brings over 20 years of experience in global health, water justice, indigenous knowledge preservation, and community sovereignty to every space she enters. Whether in the academy, the field, or on the ground in Black towns across the U.S. and Africa, she has remained rooted in one mission: the sustainable liberation of African people everywhere.
Dr. Zakiya’s journey begins on Choctaw land in Wiggins, Mississippi, where she was raised in an all-Black settlement on her family’s farm. Today, she lives and works between Mississippi, Atlanta, and Ghana, drawing inspiration from the land and legacy that shaped her.
With a doctorate from Clark Atlanta University’s Mack Jones/Atlanta School of Political Science, her scholarship is deeply grounded in Africana Studies and Black radical politics. But her work doesn’t live in books alone. It is woven into movements, policies, and institutions that center self-governance, land reclamation, and reparatory justice.
From early in her career, she has explored the intersections of Black environmental history, land and water justice, and ancestral ecological wisdom. Her leadership has extended to multiple continents and movements, building partnerships and programs across the U.S., Ghana, Nigeria, Brazil, and beyond.
Dr. Zakiya is a trailblazer in every sense. She was the first Executive Director of the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation, a 2019–2020 Senior Fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (where she published policy papers and built programs introducing youth to water science careers), and served nearly a decade as Country Director for WaterAid Ghana.
In 2023, she led the establishment of the Kodwo E. and E. Maxine Ankrah Center for African Diaspora Studies at Uganda Christian University as a Fulbright Specialist. She currently serves as the Education Lead for the Ubuntu Climate Initiative, and she currently serves as the Education Lead for the Ubuntu Climate Initiative, as well as a Spatial Futures Fellow with PolicyLink.
Her consulting firm, AIDIKI, established in the early 2000s, has anchored countless initiatives focused on Black sustainability, ancestral knowledge systems, gender equity, eco-pedagogy, and governance.
Dr. Zakiya is a prolific writer and educator, contributing to landmark texts on Black ecological thought, gendered cultural practices, and reparations. Her published works include:
“Water Justice, Reparations and Human Rights: Advancing Black Liberation Through Equitable Water and Healthcare Policies Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic” in Africa–America 2021 (CBCF)
“Culture, Rites, and Rights in African Indigenous Societies” in New Frontiers in the Teaching of African and Diaspora History and Culture (CBAAC)
She’s delivered lectures across the globe, including the prestigious James N. Eaton Colloquium on the African Diaspora at Florida A&M University, and has appeared on influential platforms like Tavis Smiley, Reparations Now!, and APPEAL.
A proud member of the Black Sustainability Network, Dr. Zakiya is also affiliated with the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, Afrospectives, Guardians of Heritage, and the Council of Independent Black Institutions, among others. She is a founding member of the African Studies Association of Africa and serves on the international board of the Pan African Heritage World Museum.
Whether leading research teams, shaping environmental policy, or preserving the memory and culture of Maroon societies, Black towns, and Freedmen’s settlements, Dr. Zakiya walks in the footsteps of those who came before—while blazing new trails for those to come.
As she says, “I am guided by my ancestors who lived in all-Black settlements and raised me on the land. I carry them in every movement, every memory, and every mission forward.”
In a world grappling with climate crises, cultural erasure, and economic injustice, Dr. Afia S. Zakiya reminds us that sustainable futures must be rooted in ancestral truths. She teaches us that environmental justice is inseparable from cultural sovereignty. That water, land, spirit, and memory are not separate battles—but one.
We are proud to honor Dr. Zakiya as this month’s Black Sustainability Network (BSN) Member Spotlight. Her legacy is not just what she’s built, but what she continues to inspire in all of us.
Learn more about her recent work and the UCU Diaspora Center initiative: https://ucu.ac.ug/ucu-african-diaspora-studies-center-in-offing/
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