Herds of Life-Sized Animal Puppets Set Off on Climate Awareness Journey From Central Africa to the Arctic Circle

The Herds, a public art initiative of life-sized animal puppets that aims to raise awareness about the climate crisis, has set off on a 12,400-mile journey starting in central Africa and traveling through 20 cities in four months to the Arctic Circle.

The mobile art piece of hundreds of intricately crafted puppets began on April 10 in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has since visited Lagos, Nigeria, and Dakar, Senegal, with its next stop in Marrakesh, Morocco.

“The idea is to put in front of people that there is an emergency – not with scientific facts, but with emotions,” said Sarah Desbois, producer of The Herds Senegal, as The Guardian reported.

The Herds is the second major undertaking of The Walk Productions, a nonprofit London-based participatory public art company that first introduced the puppet Little Amal four years ago.

“Little Amal is the 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child at the heart of The Walk. She has become a global symbol of human rights, especially those of refugees,” The Walk’s website said. “Since July 2021, Amal has travelled to 166 towns and cities in 17 countries and been welcomed by two million people on the street and by tens of millions online.”

The award-winning project was co-founded by Amir Nizar Zuabi, a Palestinian director and playwright. Handspring Puppet Company designed and built the Little Amal puppet.

The Herds’ visit to Lagos drew as many as 5,000 people attending events put on by 60-plus puppeteers, reported The Guardian.

In Dakar, the streets of Médina — one of the busiest neighborhoods in the city — were filled with more than 40 puppet giraffes, monkeys, zebras and wildebeest. The following day The Herds moved to an event in the Ngor fishing village.

“We don’t have a tradition of puppetry in Senegal. As soon as the project started, when people were shown pictures of the puppets, they were going crazy,” Desbois said.

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Ukwanda Puppetry and Designs Art Collective, based in Cape Town, South Africa, created the first set of The Herds’ animal puppets using recycled materials. In each location the traveling animals visit, prototypes provided by Ukwanda are given to local volunteers who are taught to construct their own animals. During the project’s journey, roughly 2,000 people will learn to make the puppets.

Zuabi said The Herds is a continuation of the journey of Little Amal, inspired by refugees who have often said the climate crisis is a catalyst for forced migration.

Not only does The Herds have the environmental crisis at its center, but the project encourages communities to get involved with climate activism and put together their own events to consider and discuss the project’s significance.

“The idea is that we’re migrating with an ever-evolving, growing group of animals,” Zuabi told The Guardian in 2024.

After Marrakesh, The Herds will move to Casablanca and Rabat before making its way to Spain, France, Italy, England, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, finally reaching its last destination — the Arctic Circle — at the beginning of August.

“THE HERDS is an urgent artistic response to the climate crisis, a living, breathing call to action that stampedes across continents. Through the beauty and ferocity of these life-size creatures, we aim to spark dialogue, provoke thought, encourage engagement and inspire real change. Meet us wherever you can,” Zuabi said in a press release.