Abstract
The logic of relational view as an ethic of maintaining balance of interaction between human beings and the rest of nature is central to both deep ecological worldview and African traditional environmental knowledge. It is argued in this article that relational view is an overseen/unrecognized depiction of resemblance between African Traditional Environmental Knowledge and deep ecological thinking first and for most in terms of the way they approach ‘ontology of live and let others live.’ Hence, their similarity in this respect rests on the fact that both affirms the inevitable logic of relations between humans and non-humans from which important scholarships would be drawn and exchanged with practitioners in the field of environmental ethics. Owing to this, the founder of Deep Ecology (DE) Arne Naess considers indigenous knowledge (with particular emphasis to the Eastern, Asian ethical tradition) as fundamental premises for any enlightened environmental thinking. Contrary to this deep ecological claim within indigenous knowledge, I argue that, very little or probably no attention is given to the similar contribution of ATEK to an ecologically friendly system of thought such as deep ecology in particular and to the whole spectrum of environmental ethics in general. Hence, this article aims at examining elements of deep ecological thinking in ATEK with particular focus on relational view (nature-relatedness). This article is also guided by Bryan Norton’s Convergence Hypothesis theory (CHT) and concludes that ATEKs have attributes that can be seen as enlightened part of environmental ethics as has been done to the Asian, Australian, Red Indian traditional environmental thoughts. Keywords: African, Traditional, Environment, Knowledge, Deep Ecology, Convergence. DOI : 10.7176/JPCR/45-01 Publication date :October 31 st 2019
Highlights
Environmental ethical imperatives are, often times, universal both in terms of content and concern
What is so common to all attempted definitions, is that Indigenous Environmental Knowledge is local knowledge set by a specific community and manifested directly or indirectly in the culture, belief, Art, ritual ceremonies, creativity and practices etc... of that particular community (Wiredu, K. 2004), (Workineh, K. 2005), (Langdon, J.. 2009)
Attempt is made in this article to imply the fact that elements of ethical imperatives towards the natural environment has long been existed in the African traditional ecological knowledge (ATEK) though it begs a question to claim that who takes what/when if some basic convergence exist
Summary
Environmental ethical imperatives are, often times, universal both in terms of content and concern. This article focuses on many points of convergence between traditional African environmental values as nature-relatedness and the relational values of deep ecological thinking. I argue in this article that Norton’s environmental view holds true for African traditional environmental thoughts because it doesn’t rule out the non-existence of inevitable human interference in the natural environment and by the very fact of that and other evidence provided in this article, the African traditional environmental view qualify as one of the ultimate value of deep ecological thinking, relational value theory and practice embedded in both. Deep Ecology challenges some disguised hegemonic postures in the Western anthropocentric traditions because as many environmental ethicists would have admitted, positions such as the latter are the cause of most distorted relationships between humans and the rest of nature
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