Fowota Mortoo, a member of the Young Climate Prize Cycle 02 Cohort, was selected for her visionary proposal to preserve the ecological and cultural heritage of Keta, a coastal town in southeastern Ghana that has suffered devastating sea erosion over the past few decades. This environmental loss has also led to cultural erosion, with many words from the local Ewe language—once essential to describing ecological systems and traditional practices—falling out of use or being replaced by English. Fowota’s project proposes a series of maps of Keta shaped by Ewe words and composed of images, stories, and oral histories that safeguard the town’s history. By treating language as an archive of our relationship to place, these maps aim to preserve endangered ecological knowledge and reinforce cultural identity. In doing so, Fowota reimagines cartography as a practice of resilience and memory in the face of climate change.

During the program, Fowota was mentored by Claudia Schmuckli, curator-in-charge of contemporary art and programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Her guidance supported Fowota in shaping the project’s scope and situating it within a broader global conversation on climate, culture, and justice.