African relational knowledges as a panacea to the environmental crisis

The world is grappling with egregious environmental degradation. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), humanity is facing a triple planetary crisis of three major interlinked problems: climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss (UNFCCC 2022). The current crisis is a stark reminder that humanity's destructive assault on the rest of the living world has now reached an epic proportion. The crisis is a historical problem, which stems from colonisation and the industrial revolution. Aimé Césaire, in "Discourse on Colonialism", equates colonisation with what he calls "thingification": He argues that through colonisation, societies are "drained of their essence, cultures trampled underfoot, institutions undermined, lands confiscated, religions crushed, magnificent artistic creations destroyed, extraordinary possibilities extinguished" (Césaire 2001, 21).  The effect of colonisation is epistemicide and culturicide, which has befallen most indigenous cultures that were ecocentric. Colonialism also marked the beginning of the Anthropocene,  the proposed new geological epoch in Earth's history in which humanity has had a significant impact on the planet (Crutzen 2006). While not all human beings are responsible for the Anthropocene epoch, most people are being co-opted in the destruction of the environment at the altar of lucre.

The effect of colonisation is epistemicide and culturicide, which has befallen most indigenous cultures that were ecocentric.

Across African societies, sacred trees and forests are cleared to make way for plantations of monocrops for economic value. Sacred landscapes are extensively exploited to the detriment of our survival. Pollution, environmental destruction and plunder have become the norm. This is in stark contrast to the African ecocentric and kincentric worldview, where human beings and nature were viewed as kindred. This meant that various aspects of the environment were not viewed by African communities as expendables to be appropriated as commodities for profit.

How can we tackle this planetary crisis? It is in our best interest - both as individuals and as societies - to actively rebuild our relationship with the environment. African Indigenous knowledge provides nuggets for reconnecting with nature. Primarily, the traditional African human-nature relationship is centred on multiple interactions with deities, ancestors, cosmic forces, natural objects such as trees, rivers, animals, birds. To ensure a balanced relationship between humankind and nature, there are various forms of communal institutions, obligations, taboos, totems and rituals.

Primarily, the traditional African human-nature relationship is centred on multiple interactions with deities, ancestors, cosmic forces, natural objects such as trees, rivers, animals, birds.

Scholars across the African continent have documented how different communities had precepts about human relationships. For example, through the concept of ubuntu, the collective good of humanity was valued over individualism. Wangari Maathai’s  work Replenishing the Earth illustrated how the Kikuyu and other indigenous African spiritualities regarded nature as sacred (Maathai 2010). Traditionally, ancestor veneration was a key aspect of the lifeworld of most African communities. This meant that individuals had to live in harmony with nature for them to become ancestors after their deaths.

Sacredness is a key aspect of fostering a relationship with non-human beings found in most cultures in Africa. Totems in different African communities show how different aspects of nature is viewed as sacred. The Tachoni of Kenya, for example, fondly refer to themselves as children of the guineafowl, implying that they have a mandate to preserve and honour the guineafowl. The conglomerate of Kalenjin communities of Kenya also have clans with diverse totems ranging from weather elements such as rain, to animals, and birds among others. The Mbuti, Barwa, Sengwer and Ogiek communities are best known as the people of the forest. These hunter-gatherer communities have vast knowledge of how to live sustainably with forest resources. Other communities, such as the Kikuyu, revere the fig tree as sacred. Additionally, through songs, proverbs, legends, and myths rooted in folklore, Africans passed timeless knowledge down through generations. The knowledge embedded in the lore demonstrates the connection between humans and non-humans.

Colonial domination led to the superiority of foreign cultures and ways of being at the expense of the kin-centred cultures of human nature relations found in diverse indigenous peoples, who were seen as inferior. The Indigenous people were looked upon pejoratively as “natives”, “savages” and “barbarians”. Practices of being in tune with nature and treating nature as sacred being mistaken for idolatry. The result is the alienation of African people from the basic principles that constituted their reality and a sustainable lifeworld. Most Africans believed these stereotypes. In order to free themselves from so-called backward or primitive cultures, Africans are slowly abandoning the very essence of relational coexistence with nature that makes life possible. Through education, foreign religions and globalisation, these dominant forces have created diffident and easily influenced communities. Even in the face of these changes, many Indigenous peoples’ cultures have been resilient amidst the onslaught.

If solutions to the current planetary crisis do not factor in our relation to the non-human entities, the sacredness of the landscape as exemplified by African relational knowledges, then they are profligate solutions, a regression.

Unequivocally, indigenous cultures have long advocated respect for all forms of life and responsible stewardship of the earth. While global environmental institutions such as the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), UNFCC among others have recognised the need to incorporate indigenous and local knowledges, their inclusion is still in inchoate. Therefore, any action to address the planetary crisis in Africa must be centred on the relational aspects of African ecologies in their diverse forms. This, therefore, means that we have to disengage from coloniality, by decolonizing the mind as espoused by Ngugi wa Thiong’o ( 1986). Thus, if solutions to the current planetary crisis do not factor in our relation to the non-human entities, the sacredness of the landscape as exemplified by African relational knowledges, then they are profligate solutions, a regression. Therefore, reclaiming our relationship with nature and the land is the sine qua non to the planetary crisis.

King’asia Mamati is a Doctoral researcher in Social and Cultural anthropology at the University of Cologne, Germany. His research interests include human-environment relationships, indigenous peoples, local knowledge systems, environmental changes and religion. He participated in the "African Ecologies" writing workshop, hosted at the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), 29-31 July 2023 in collaboration with the Leeds University Centre for African Studies. This blog post is based on the paper he presented at the workshop.

References

Césaire, Aimé. 2001. Discourse on Colonialism. New York, Monthly Review Press.

Crutzen, Paul J. 2006. The “Anthropocene”. In: Eckart Ehlers/Thomas Krafft (Eds.). Earth system science in the Anthropocene. Berlin, Springer, 13–18.

Maathai, Wangari W. 2010. Replenishing the earth: Spiritual values for healing ourselves and the world. Doubleday Religion.

Thiongʼo, Ngũgĩ wa. 1986. The politics of language in African literature. The politics of language in African literature. Oxford, James Currey.

UNFCCC. 2022. What is the Triple Planetary Crisis? | UNFCCC. Available online at https://unfccc.int/news/what-is-the-triple-planetary-crisis (accessed 11/21/2023).