African Philosophy: The Questions of Climate Change and the Environment

Abstract

With the growing awareness of environmental issues in the twenty-first century, this study explores the extent to which African philosophy contributes extensively to the discourse of climate change and the natural world. However, some critics are of the view that African philosophy is inherently anthropocentric and has nothing significant to offer in addressing climate change. Against this backdrop, this undertaking illustrates that the natural environment for Africans is not labeled “other” as often observed among industrialists rather it is a vital part of the African traditional world equilibrium. Hence, anything that imperils the African peoples‟ ecosystem endangers their very existence-socially, economically, morally, politically, spiritually and ecologically. The study demonstrates that there is a huge correlation between socio-political, economic and suppressive structures in Africa‟s postcolonial condition which have brought about climate change, environmental despoliation and underdevelopment in the African ecological space. Taken together, the study employs Deep ecology--a philosophical approach which addresses ecological problems by bringing together thinking, feeling, spirituality and action. African philosophy along with Deep ecology emphasize that the engagements of modern-day civilization threaten ecological well-being hence, the drastic need to transform contemporary environments toward a better ecological sustainability.