♪ host: welcome to "global 3000." thisis week we looook at the gae choking the nairobi river. in t the kenyan capital, young peopople from informal settlemes are doing something about it. we head to o one of the popoot regions in the u.s., where bees are bringing former coal miners hope for the future. but first, the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, and how someme of their descendans are returning to the continent their ancestors came from. for hundreds of years, the trade in african slaves was a lucrative busisiness.

the consequences for the continent were horrendous. entire areas were stripped of their populations. millions of africans died, eitherer when their villages we attacked, or on the long journey from the interior of the continent to the coast. the ones who made it were packed together like cattle in the holds of slave ships, for a journey that often took many weeks. most ended up in brazil, the caribbean, and the u.s. from the beginning of the 16th century until the end of the 19th, around two million people died at sea during the crossing. between 10 million and 12 million survived the horrific voyage. after arrival, abducted africans were sold on, many to the owners of plantations, where they were forced to work for the rest of their lives, without rights, and often brutally abused. in the u.s., slavery was only abolished at the end of the american civil war in 1865.

reporter: for many west african slaves, this is where their journey across the atlantic began, on the ghanaian coast in elmina, which means "the mine." it was given the name by portuguese traders because of the region's plentiful gold deposits. but in fact, they made their fortunes mainly with the slave trade. almina castle was where people were held captive before being boarded onto ships headed for america. 400 years later, the descendants of those slaves are returning to search for traces of their history and identity. many come from the u.s., mostly as tourists. but some come to stay, like afia khalia and marcus taylor. >> 600 were male. the rest were female. reporter: 600 men and 400 0 won were confined here in cramped dungeons. some would become forced laborers, others would die. visitors lay wreaths of

remembrance here. for many, it's a profoundly moving experience. marcus: i'm a history buff, and i know my history very well. but nothing about me knowingngr studying has prepared me for this experience. i'm just totally -- off. afia: this language wouldn't even sum it up for me to speak my mind, m my heart, w what i . reporter: marcus is from detroit, and wants to settle in ghana. he and afia met here, and now live together in the capitol, accra. he is still waiting for his belongings to arrive from the u.s. they have a bit of furniture,

and phphotos of afia's relativ. family history is important to both of them. even when it's a painful history of humiliation and violence. marcus: when i was 12 years s o, my family was atattacked by pole officers. i watched my family members, every male in my family being beaten, everyone being beaten. my grandmother, my mother, being beaten in front of me at 12. and we were coming from my great-grandmother's funeral. and to watch that big injustice, from a very young age i kind of felt that i never belonged there. reporterer: afia is preparing r her next client. she works as a professional massage therapist, mixing traditional western massage techniques with ghanaian spirituality. she tells us she turned towards ghana after experiencing rejection and discrimination in

america. now 38, she remembers being summoned to see her employer nearly 20 years ago. afia: at 19 i i got my "a-ha moment" of that t i was directy told that being african was not acceptable. and the person was looking at me, like, "you know i like you a lot, you know your hair is so cute, you're so cute, right? yeah, but we're going to have to take you out of your position unless you change your hair. because the higher ups, they think your hair is a little bit too ethnic." and i was, like, "too ethnic? what does that mean?" reportrter: but that was long a. nowadays she's focusing on the positive. afia: i use to give people hope, i use it to inspire people. music is pretty much a healing tool for me, just as well as my

therapy is. reporter: afia wants her voicee to be heard. she started performing hip-hop in los angeles, and is continuing in accra with her partner marcus's support. her lyrics are about identity, about being a woman, about being black. ♪ marcus had a bodybuilding career in the u.s. and canada. he stopped for health reasons, but now he's now training again. he wants to qualify for the mister universe contest. marcus: they asked me which country that i wanted to represent, whether i wanted to represent the u.s., or i wanted to represent canada, or ghana. i'm representing ghana this year. and i'm here repatriating, in process s of gettingng my citizenship, so i thought t tht it would be great for me to represent ghana.

reporter: elmina castle. a place of terror for west africans. returning to where the trauma of slavery began is a way of marking a new beginning for many african americans. >> this is the door of no return. now, the door of return. reporter: coming here helps them connect with their heritage. marcus can't imagine ever going back to the u.u.s. marcus: nothing has changed. and for me, i just feel that, for us, we have to make our own change. we cannot allow, or basically expect somebody elsese to makea change when they have been the same way for years. the french have a saying -- things change, but things stay the same. so for me, i can't live in that

existence. reporter: by crossing the ocean to come to africa, afia khalia and marcus taylor are making their own change. host: the largest coal-producing region in e u.s. stretches from pennsylvania in the north to alabama in the south. the heyday of the mining industry is long past, though. between 2008 and 2017, around half of all coal mines in the country shut down, and over a third of the jobs in the industry disappeared. thousands of unemployed miners have been left behind, many of them with major health problems. in west virginia, where coal was once king, a busy insesect is w bringing a ray of hope. reporter: beekeeper cindy bee is checking alvin farley's hives. he's one of her protéges. like many in this area, farley used to work as a coal miner. then he was diagnosed with black

lung disease, and could no longer work. for a long time, beekeeping remained just a hobby. alvin: this is nothing like coal mining. i mean, i enjoy this a lot, more than anything i do. more than my garden. sometimes i worked coal that was 32 inches high. and you've got to crawl around all l day, and you can't straighten up. very seldom you ever get to find a place to straighten up. reporter: the small compensation that farley receives for his disability isn't enough to get by on. cindy bee works for a collective that offers beekeeping training for people like farley, and then buys their honey. in west virginia, where many people live below the poverty line, every little bit of cash helps. cindy: so, beekeeping is kind of a supplemental thing that we're

hopingng will help out, increae the income of our partners. reporter: founded in 2016, the non-profit organization is situated on the site of what was once a summer camp for the children of coal miners. it's funded by a million-dollar settlement from a lawsuit against a coal mine operator that violated environmental regulations. masterer beekeeper marark lilld his team have trtrained 90 partr beekeepers so far. and that number is growing. they want to prove that there are alternative business oppoportunities for the former mining state. for 30 years, lilly travelled throughout west virginia as an appraiser for an i insurance company. then his hobby offered an opportunity for a second career. mark: i think many of us, the older we are, the more we hope things to return the way it was. and that's our job, is to help educate that if we want to attract younger generations, we

have to gigive them somemething different toto do. reporter: and could beekekeepig really be a possssibility? mark: absolutely. and it may be just a gateway, right? so it opens their mind to a new idea. reporter: they've created new jobs here as well. robbie and james, who is 70, are preparing the sugar water the bees are fed to help them survive the winter. robbie: i passed my apprentice test, or whatever. and there's a next level test you can take. yeah, there's plenty to learn. reporter: at first, they were all scared of being stung. even the former coal miner james. james: you don't maybe not get used to it, but you get more aware. you know, it's not as bad as we thought when we first started. robbie: yeah. the more you learn, the easier it is to be comfortable. james: yeah. and to me, i learn somomething w every time i go into the yard.

it's amazing how perfectly they do what they do. reporter: cindy bee shows us the barrels of centrifuged honey, which is being stored until spring. they want to have a good supply on hand when they start selling it as a pure natural product from the heart of the appalachian mountains. >> want to taste that? reporter: west virginia has one big advantage, they tell us -- that there's still so much untouched nature here. cindy: we don't have the agricultural problems that other states have. in other words, we don't have a mono-food source that bees might be taking advantage of. they need a lot of different kikinds. just like human beings, they need a lot of different kinds of sources for their food. and west virginia provides that. reporter: the e label emphasizs that the product is a

collaborative effort. it means to provide a ray of hope in these economically trying times. coal continues to be mined in the region. whole mountaintops are being dug up, but there are hardly any jobs. even so, some people here still believe president donald trump's promise to save the coal industry. but outside with the bees, no one talks politics. regardless of who they voted for, in the end, the love of west virginia is the most important thing. robbie: the mountains are the home. i've lived here my whole life. born here, raised here. can't beat it. reporter: mark lilly doesn't think this project will solve all the region's problems, but he hopes it will help people here regain their self-esteem. and it's not just about the production of honey. they're also working on a breeding program, trying to develop hardier bees that are better able to cope with the

consequences of climate change. the one with the green dot is the queen. james: it's the same principle as humans, more or less. you have got to work together. and that's what they're doing, what they're striving for. reporter: today they're checking the hives for mite infestationo. the organization behind the beekeepers isn't just involved with the bee project. it's also interested in aiding reforestation of areas destroyed by mining. keeping healthy bees is one part of the picture. mark: i don't think that the government has an answer for anything, and most people around here would agree to that. so it has to be grassroots, which is what we're doing, is grassroots. learn to help ourselves sustainably, so that we can continue to do it from this generation to the next generation. so you don't have big arguments. we all kind of agree that west virginia needs a lot of help, and we're gonna look within for

help instead of looking without. james: we're rich in family and friends. reporter: the bees have given james a new perspective. but a part of him is still hoping that the coal industry might recover. his boss understands. for far too long in west virginia, coal mining was the only way to make a decent living. and views don't change overnight. host: but views have to change, and not only in west virginia. we all have to rethink our relationship with nature. according to a recent australian study, numbers in around half of all insect species are falling dramatically as their habitats disappear. and without sufficient pollinators, entire ecosystems could collapse. reporter: they actually collect nectar for their own purposes, drawn by the fragrance and color of the flowers.

in the process, they transfer pollen frorom one flower to te stigma of another flower, helping the plants to reproduce. the process is calledd pollination. and thosose who transpsport the pollen, , pollininats. popoination wawas originally carried out by the wind. but in thehe process of evoluti, insects anand animals hahave increasisingly taken o over. theieir work is imimportt. 75% of crops, from cocoa beans to pumpkins, depend on pollinators. and if y you include allll flowg plants, it's nearly 90%. bees are probably the best known popoinators, a and can be fodd alall over the world. but flies also transrt pollen.n. asas do beetles, moths, an, and butterflies. in tropical and subtropical regions, birds also help to pollinate, along with bats.

they like flowers with strong-smelling, slimy nectar. in madagascar, the so-called traveller's tree is pollinated by lemurs. but the most important pollinators for farmers worldwide are insects. domemestic honeybees alone cant pollinate all l the food crop. wild pollinators are often more productive. in the case of the apple blossom, for example, a wild mason bee is 80 times more effective as a pollinator. but it's the insect diversity that best increases the yield. in the case of coffee, the fruit sets much better when various types of bees pollinate the flowers, than when the same number of bees from ononly one species s are involved. the problem is, insect diversity isn decline.e. some food d crops, likike ricr wheat,t, manage withthout pollinatators. but many nututrient-rich f frt

and vegetables c can't do at.. a lack o of pollinatators couldd to crop losses, which could in turn endanger food security. as land is converted into farmland, many insects find their natural hahabitat dwindlg or disappearing compleletely. conventitional fararming often involves h huge monocultureses. here, pollininators find onlya limited choicece of flers,s, f any at allll. and only for a l limited perer. theyey've also beeeen hit by the of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. so how can pollinators be protected? we need to preserve the habitat of insects. by planting flowers on the edges of fields, for example, or between the crops. we need to limit the use of chemical pesticides, or in some cases, ban them completely. and we all n need to underersd the importrtance of insects.

they n need protectiting justs much as the big impressive animalals and the cucute and cl candidates that win ouhehearts so easily.y. host: clean water is vital to human health. but millions have no access to it. this week in our "global ideas" series, our reporter thomas hasel visited some informal settlements that are home to residents of the kenyan capital, nairobi. they're taking water cleanup into their own hands. reporter: frfreeing the nanaii river fromom garbage migight m like a never-endining battle.. the name nairobi c com from kenya's ssai tribe, and means "cooool and refrfreshing wate" but ththese days, ththe cool ws are lilittered with h refus. concerned d residents frfrom e nearby slulum no longer r wano accept thehe environmental didisasterightht at eir doororstep dia: whehewe were young, this river r wasn't as didirty. so we decideded tolean i it. in the pasast, we went swimmingn the ririver.

but that's's not possiblble any, becaususe the water r qualitys chananged. we want to t try to returnrn io the y y it ud to b be. reporter: lydia wamboi is e e of out t 70 residentsts of the korogocho o slum in eaststen nairobi who o works with t the organization komb grnn solulution they've e dedicated ththemselvo prototecting the e environment.. wawamboi knows t that the polln in t r river is now threatening those e who live thehere. phelisistus: the watater of nai ririver s becocomeangerousus the childrenen play there,e, d because theyey have nowherere e to swiwim, they also go into te wawater. but t it's full ofof unhealthy stuff,f, and the childldren get diarrheaea and skin didiseases. reporterer: kea is s sufring from m more frequent droughts e to climate change. people here depend on the river for water. they use it to wash their clothes and d irrigate theheir fields.. the kenyanan authoritieses haven

slow t to react to thehe pollun problelem inhe riviver. the e residents therere feel the bebeen left toto dl with it tn theieir own. frfredrick okindnda, the chairif komb green sololutions, felthat y totoo. he decideded to take advdvantaf a rarere visit by a a governmt representative. fredrickck: we are not c cleag the river bebecause we wanat recogngnition. we're doining it becausese we t . whenen t governonostarted to recognize ouwowork, wead alreadady started dodoing i. you see e this rubbishsh thate have c collected herere? wewe've ked fofor machineses to collect it, but they nev c come. we wted toto rse conceces. lawrence: i ununderstand thahat ththere are chalallenges to gee equipment that you aresksking fo but as dirirector ofnvironment, i'll makake anffort t to get the resources we have to y y young peop. reporter: the activists are stilill waiting fofor the govert to finally keep their prisise.

at the river, the mamain sourcof the e pollion isis car. spific colction pot for the rbage. so p peoe inside the comninity, ey just cocollt their garbage inside there. at nightwhenen ware nott around, , they are jusust dumg them i into the rivever. reportrter: and becacause onlyf ofof nairobi's m more than fouor million n residents arare connd to t the sewage sysystem, wastee water is pumped directly ioo the e rive untrereat. christopher: what isis the reresponsibilility of the cocy governrnment here inin nairobi? i thinink it is to w work on e sewer lines and at least to make sure thahat th are n noteing directed i into nairobi river,o that w we might brining back e life of the rive repoer: : but e nairirob river's fe is already being

compromised at its source, which is located in the ondiri wetlands in the western part of the kenyan capital, around 50 kilometeters from the e korogo slum.. ththe wetlands a are the only t bog in the c country. thth're vital for the binding of clclimate-damagiging carbon did. but in t the former bibird sasanctuary, thehere are hardly animals leftft. naftali: thehe pollution stats right from here, b because it s now w surround b by greeousese. ose e whhave done greenhsese rming g ow that i is chical intensiv ople useopious amountsf ngicicid and pesticides order r protect their cps.. omom whe it brbrea, you ca see th the wat is already pollut. d by the te it reaes nairirobi, it is a a completelyy toxixic river. reportrter: people l like nafi mungngai and his t team are trg to s save the river r at the so. anand they're gegetting a helg

hand from momother nature e her. david: w we are plantiting bao treeees along thisis wetlan. they are v very good trerees wht comes toto sipping in n the mes that a are coming ouout of the greeeenhouse farmiming. reporter: frfreeing the wewetls of poisons and filth is essential if they want the wildlife to retu. now, the goverernment has s top its promises. david:d: the gernmnment ems too be in slumumberland, whehen it s to comoming up with h policiest are serious about coconserving nairobobi river. and you sesee how we trereat r rivers, isis a reflectioion ofo we are as a societ when i look k at the amazizingm volununtes we havavat the friends of ondiri weanand, and wh i heaear about otheher communitity groups dowownstreai see a a lot of hope.e.

reporterer: the river r cleang projects are continuining in korogocho slum. kenynya's citizens are developg an awareness for kpiping the environmenenclean. thdandora waterfalls are located few kilomers downstream. resident and environmental activist clement ochiengants to make th part of the river pictcture perfect t again. clement: o our dream witith the waterfall is to create an opportunity for our youth and for the sociciety to g a change th is s natully a a dere for them. we b believe this s placn actualally accommodadate so my local and eveven internatitiol toururists. reporter: the peoplef f the nairobriver haveaken on th chalallee and want the riverero once again b be worthy of its name. naobi, cool and refreshing wateter. host: that's it for thth week on "global 3000." thanks for joining us. and don't forget, we love hearing from you. got something to tell us?

send it to global3000@dw.com. or post on our facebook page, dw women. thanks for watching, and bye for now. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

10/25/19 10/25/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> so you won't take down lives were you will? it is a simple yes or no. >> it is hate speech. it is leading to violence and death threats in my office. i think american people are tired of this hypocrisy. amy: as facebook says it will not fact checked political ads or hold politicians to the usual