Urhobo Indigenous Environmental Taboos and the Imperative of Fostering Ecosystemic Justice

Abstract

The fact that there is a global environmental crisis is not in doubt. But there are divergent opinions and positions on how to resolve the global environmental crisis. The crisis has necessitated searching for resources from every source including indigenous sources for ideas and concepts that can help in resolving the crisis. Indigenous sources include the Urhobo cultural beliefs and practices. This paper argues that Urhobo indigenous beliefs and practices concerning nature or environmental-based taboos can help in promoting justice for the ecosystems or eco-justice or ecosystemic justice. The paper then examines some Urhobo environmental taboos and argues for their conservation. Critical analytic and hermeneutic methods are used to present the arguments in this research. The paper finds that indigenous environmental taboos are endangered in Urhoboland as a result of extreme Christian missionary aggressiveness, capitalist market forces, ignorance, etc. It concludes that it is imperative to conserve environmental taboos and thus promote ecosystemic justice