“We Have an Obligation to Act as the Custodians”: Environmental Communitarianism in Mbugua’s Different Colours

Abstract

Several studies have gestured toward the fact that the environmental consciousness in most African communities is distinct from the common positions elsewhere. Accordingly, it becomes important to explore environ-mentalities that evolve from practical engagements with the still close natural world in twenty-first-century Africa. In this trajectory of thought, this article reads Ngang'a Mbugua's novel Different Colours and considers the representation of an eco-ethos anchored in the community values of mutual care and accountability. I argue that human-nonhuman relations in Different Colours attest to the recognition of both the intrinsic value as well as the instrumental value of nonhuman entities, which destabilizes the symmetrical categorization of environmentalism standpoints as either human-centered or ecosystem-centered. I trace the roots of this alternative African environ-mentality in an African community-based morality. Hence, I propose the term eco-communitarianism. I also demonstrate how, through various narrative strategies, Mbugua's story typifies a balance between interest in instrumental value and respect for the intrinsic value of the nonhuman.