Tikkun Olam in Africa: Reverse Tashlich Reaches Cameroon & Kenya

TIKKUN OLAM, a powerful three-word phrase in English that translates to “repair the world,” is one of the most common phrases among the Jews. Not only is it a fervent expression, but it is also sacred and an eternal call, which invokes a reminder of the duty of mankind to the surrounding environment. A responsibility: to repair, revive, restore, or protect the nature around us as much as we can, ensuring it doesn’t continue to decay into deplorable conditions.

Unfortunately, water bodies, one of the four essential elements that sustain humanity and life in nearly every part of the globe, now experience unprecedented deterioration due to the actions of the very humans they support. Initially, as stated in Bereshit, water enveloped the entire earth until Hashem separated dry land from it and placed man upon it. Today, activities of human beings living on the land are the main source of pollution threatening our rivers, seas, and oceans, which constitute a total of 72% of the entire planet Earth.

Against this backdrop, a nonprofit organization in the United States initiated a renewed mission to repair our waters, Tikkun Hayam, approximately a decade ago, and it has since gained global traction. Repair the Sea is an organization that envisions a world in which the ocean is clean, aquatic life is abundant and safe, and the sanctity of water is appreciated and protected. Its vision and mission strategically blend science and spirituality with a Jewish perspective, which has immensely drawn tons of Jewish volunteers to this cause.

Among all its initiatives, the Reverse Tashlich, which recently debuted in West Africa, is the most engaging and has a global spread. The concept is rooted in the Jewish Rosh Hashanah tradition of casting crumbs of bread, symbolizing human sins, into a body of water, referred to as the tashlich rituals. Nonetheless, the opposite of this action entails removing sins in the form of human waste, such as used plastic bottles, nylon, and other garbage near the water, to prevent them from getting into the water.

This year’s outing had a total of 320 teams, each consisting of 10 to 15 volunteers, participating from 31 countries in 6 continents. The global marine cleanup exercise, which took place simultaneously across the planet, happened on September 28th, barely three days before the fast of Yom Kippur. Teams were required to register online and maintain a web platform where they would update important cleanup details post-event. And according to information made available, a significant amount of plastic, measured in tons, was successfully collected across the board, preventing it from finding its way into surrounding waters.

In 2025, one of the newest teams in Africa came from Cameroon, Central Africa, while Kenya also made its debut in East Africa. Both countries joined the likes of Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria, all of which have participated in the previous editions of the global marine conservation.

The Elburgon Jewish community, in kenya, perched on a high mountainous location carried out the reverse tashlich in grand style, covering a lot of ground from the sloppy track of the crowded mountain settlement down the hill. The area, known as Sakaitim, has a population of about 3 thousand people whose daily use of plastics that are indiscriminately deposited finds its way down the hill, eventually ending up in the Njane dam. The settlement pattern on the slopes of the highlands causes rainwater to flow down, carrying away various materials, most of which end up in the dam.

With a team numbering more than the expected 15 men, members of the Jewish community, most of them dressed in reflectors and bearing collection bags, began the cleanup in the village area. They moved from house to house and from corner to corner and collected used plastic bottles from the surroundings. Onlookers cheered them and offered a helping hand, lauding their efforts. The group was led by Moshe Ben Abraham, the leader of the Jewish community and the chief government official for the area, which spans beyond Sakaitim and includes a total of about 22 villages. For the residents of Sakaitim, it was a worthy sight to behold their chief leading such a cleanup on a sunny Sunday afternoon with his team.

The location is situated within the Rift Valley area in Kenya. Typical of these places, it is not only on elevated ground but also consists of many slopes, ridges, undulating hills, short valleys at different heights, and meandering rocky tracks. Although with near-freezing temperatures at some times of the year, the region has excellent soil fertility, which supports agriculture. Hence, most of the people are farmers and engage in farming all year round. Many also keep cattle for meat, donkeys as farm animals, and cows for dairy, all these animals thriving on the rich grass due to the area’s high soil fertility.

Despite the area’s excellent soil fertility, the hilly terrain causes rainwater and runoff from mountaintops to flow downwards, up to where it eventually settles into the lakes that are abundant in the rift valley area. This was a major concern to early settlers in part of this region, most of whom were Europeans, including the Jewish people who erected the historic Nakuru synagogue in 1956, a site less than an hour’s drive from the Elburgon Jewish community. To make use of the area’s rich soil, an innovative strategy was implemented to create dams in various locations that would trap large volumes of runoff water, thereby ensuring a readily available water supply for year-round agricultural activities.

The water held in the dam supports the soil around it and serves as a source of irrigation for many farmlands. These artificial dams, primarily constructed at the base of slopes and on flat valley surfaces to capture significant amounts of water, feature narrow exits at the opposite end to mitigate the risk of overflowing floods, which can happen occasionally, posing substantial harm to agricultural lands and risks to human safety. The dams are interconnected, with their outflows channelling into the next dam in the distance. In the Chandera jurisdiction, there are approximately nine dams, including the Gwatanero, Million, Ndega, Njane, and Nyeda dams.

The Njane dam, closest in proximity to the Elburgon Jewish community, has a picnic spot at a corner, which attracts people seeking leisure time, only to leave used plastic bottles at the banks that often end up in the waters of the dam. Members of the reverse tashlich team reached the dam as part of their cleanup site, where they rounded up the daily activities mapped out for the day. At the end of the task, which lasted more than three hours, the team headed back to the village after removing all the plastics that could have ended up in the dam.

However, plastic bottles are already trapped inside the dam in an enormous quantity, and the ones still gathering at its banks are not the only threat faced by the dam. While it is feared that continuous accumulation of all sorts of plastics potentially can block the narrow exit channels, disrupting the controlled flow, and eventually leading to flash flooding, there is another more disturbing real threat —aquatic weeds. These weeds grow from the deep bottom of the dams and sprout in most places up to three meters.

With such sporadic growth, the aquatic weed competes for space inside the dam and is now a common menace in almost all the dams. If left unchecked, it not only blocks part of the channel of flow but can also displace a volume of water to flood the banks. Nonetheless, removal of aquatic weed wasn’t part of the day’s assignment, as the job requires a more experienced marine-savvy team and equipment. On a later date, led by the chazan, Michael Moshe, and a team that included some non-Jews, they conducted a pilot test to remove some of the aquatic weed along the shoreline; however, they did not venture deep due to the associated risks.

With a total number of collected plastics standing at around 9,674, the next step was a proper disposal as demanded by the principles of the reverse tashlich marine conservation exercise. The whole idea is to first remove the waste debris, preventing it from ending up in surrounding waters. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the disposal is carried out in a manner that prevents the collected waste from returning to the same environment. Alternatively, the end goal should be aimed at exploring viable recycling options as post-reverse tashlich measures with the intention of helping the plastics regain their usefulness again.

The participation of Cameroon in this 2025 reverse tashlich marked a meaningful moment for Jewish marine conservation engagement in Central Africa, with the Beth Goshen Jewish community in Yaoundé choosing the Yaoundé Municipal Lake as its cleanup site. This lake, which is in the Atemengue plateau valley in the heart of the Cameroonian capital, is not a random choice. The history of this place goes back to the 1950s, when a dam was built on the Mingoa River, eventually giving rise to a body of water that soon became a recreational and social landmark. The site attracted families, cultural activities, and even a nautical club that was founded in 1953. Later, the lake was also the site of fairs and public celebrations. It became a place of relaxation and shared identity for people in the city. However, its gradual decline was not only ecological but also cultural, calling for practical actions to restore both nature and public awareness.

The Yaoundé Municipal Lake, like many other lakes in cities in Africa, has been affected by population growth, bad garbage management, and insufficient environmental restrictions. Over time, plastic waste and wastewater discharges altered the ecological balance, destroying the site’s beauty and cleanliness. The local government has tried to rehabilitate the Mingoa Valley in several phases, including cleaning up the water, treating it, building pedestrian walkways, and making it easier to get to. The first phase, which was finished in March 2024, has already changed some portions of the lake scenery, making it cleaner and easier for people to get to. But, with a second phase of the rehabilitation project currently suspended due to funding gaps, voluntary actions such as the reverse tashlich become an essential complement to the efforts of municipal authorities. The Beth Goshen team understood this need and acted appropriately. This situation demonstrates how national plans for environmental repair can incorporate Jewish environmental principles.

On the day of the cleanup, some members of the community, led by Rabbi Haim Mpodol, arrived in the afternoon equipped with collection bags and gloves, performing the symbolic action of “removing sins” not by casting them into the water, but by extracting them. They toiled on the shores of the lake, where plastic bottles and throwaway packs had built up over time. People who were passing by were curious about what they were doing because it was unusual to see a group of Jewish people actively cleaning the environment in a busy African capital. Volunteers discussed what the reverse tashlich means and how it combines a spiritual message with real-world environmental responsibility.

The cleaning in Yaoundé, like its counterpart in Kenya, illustrated the global reverse Tashlich’s adaptability. From the man-made dams and rural settlement of the Rift Valley to the rehabilitated urban lake in Central Africa, the ceremony connects Jewish communities worldwide through a shared lexicon of action. In Cameroon, the cleanup served as a powerful, visible statement: that repairing our waters is an important part of restoring our world, and that every community, regardless of where it is, has the potential and the duty to start that repair in its own backyard.

For the Kenyan group, the collected waste marked the first batch of plastics to be stored at the Elburgon dump yard. Given the distance to the nearest recycling facility in the city, the team plans to continue removing plastics from their surroundings, securely stockpiling a substantial amount before transporting it to town for proper recycling. Looking ahead, full-scale removal of aquatic weeds is also being planned to repair and save the dams. The project will require strategic partnerships, an experienced team, and adequate funding. If this initiative is successful, it will not only keep farmlands, human settlements, and local fish populations safe from the dangers of flooding, but it will also ensure the long-term ecological health of the area’s water resources.

About The Author