O. A. CHUK A
plane centre round it. This world is active, however, not be-
cause of the animals and plants but because of the human exis-
tence in it around which the whole world revolve. As such,
although things are oriented in some way or other to the world
about them, only man cultivates a world view and generates
action in the universe (Andah, 1988: p. 73).
This cosmological view of the Africans incorporates the Af-
rican ontology which centers on forces in existence. Based on
the religiosity of the Africans, they have a tendency to place
every existential authority of God. They see God as the creator
of the universe (both the visible and the invisible). But He en-
trusted the worldly administration on the lower gods, good
spirits and indirectly the ancestors. The Africans, as such, look
up to these intermediaries of God for provision and sustenance.
They offer prayers through the ancestors to god for fertility, of
their lands and their daughters, daily protection from woe, daily
bread and so on. This exchange, according to Andah, (1988: p.
81) preserves the balance of the world which is unstable.
By the ontological co-existence of these beings, the African
sees a subtle interaction among them. Dogbe (1988: p. 3) lists
five (5) categories of the ontologically interacting beings which
are ordered but fused together.
The being above all beings which is the ultimate explana-
tion of the genesis and sustainance of both man and all
things.
Spirits made up of super human beings and spirits of men
who died long ago.
Man, including human beings who are alive and those about
to be born.
Animals and plants or the remainder of biological life; and
Phenomena and objects without biological life.
These must co-operate for harmony through rites, offerings,
sacrifices and invocations. This at times demands mystical rela-
tionship between man and other lower forces.
The traditional African preservation of her environment con-
sists in the way in which this hierarchical interaction is carried
out. Most of the natural things in Africa in the core-traditional
society are not carelessly tampered with. They are left follow-
ing in the belief in their possession of intrinsic value which
demonstrates the place of the traditional African environmental
ethics. These things that form the natural world are protected
from man by surrounding them with mysteries, and major and
mirror taboos which keep man and his destructive tendencies
away from them. Andah (1988: p. 81) argues further:
The African (Igbo) have the frightening possibility of over-
throwing their [environs] by violating the manifestation of the
sacred, which pervade their whole life, trees, market, rivers,
hills, shrines, and so on. Therefore, they are protected by nu-
merous major and minor taboos that can be broken even unin-
tentionally.
One does not dig too deep to discover that the structure of the
core-African society by the application of their rules embedded
in their tradition, save their world from some environmental
damage and ecological destruction. Any violation of the natural
order through an occurrence of any form of natural disaster is
seen further as a retribution from God either for misuse or re-
appraisal for a taboo. One sees among the Africans a collective
effort to pressure his environment by avoiding such environ-
mental property that will either destroy one or the entire com-
munity.
The African belief system seems to be mythologically bound
and conformist in its structure since everyone dread the out-
come of any mishap, from the gods. However, it seems re-
warding since in the practice of this there is an environmental
preservation and ecological equilibrium.
Environmental Philosophy: The African
Indigenous Perspective
Environmental philosophy studies the relationship between
human beings and the environment (here comprising of animals,
plants and other inanimate things with the world; and indeed
whole world). The African indigenous perspective comes to
mind in trying to study the various things in the world and how
they interact. In the Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958:
p. 105), the author brought out a seeing attitude of the average
African man to his environment by the reception given to the
“white man” (colonial missionaries) by the natives.
According to Achebe, when the white man came, the indi-
genes gave the “evil forest” for their settlement. This, the au-
thor stressed, is to make it impossible for them to survive since
the evil forest is specifically sacred and is believed to be an
abode of the wicked spirits. Similar account is rendered of the
Turkana people who mounted fierce resistance to the construc-
tion of Dade Dam and the subsequent flooding of the valley.
The belief of the indigenes of this Turkana is accounted for by
Lenana the medicine man. It is so believe d by these people that
there is a serious problem digging the valley—the graves of the
death. This is because the beliefs and the knowledge of the dead
which impacts on the knowledge of the living will be cost since
there is a link between the living and the dead, to destroy the
remains of the dead amounts to destroying the knowledge and
future of the living (Johnson, 1981: pp. 13-14).
The African perspective of environmental philosophy evi-
dently stems from their concept of interaction of forces. This
belief in interaction of forces is embellished by their attachment
to geneological bonds and their belongingness. The indigenous
responsibilities to and for the natural world are based on an
understanding of the relatedness, or affiliation, of the human
and non-human worlds (Jamieson, 2001: p. 22). One can con-
veniently call this a “fundamental genealogical drive to envi-
ronment”.
The genealogical study of the Africans presents a mytho-
logical history of the indwellers of a particular place. This
mythological history goes to inform one of one’s primogenital
decendence and the migration (if any) to the present settlement
over time. It is indeed a continuous unfolding of history. Ac-
cording to Jamieson (2001: p. 6):
Genealogical map affiliations spatially as well, placing indi-
viduals and families in relation to one another, and locating
them in—by connecting them to—the earth.
The above citation suggests that possession of origin is tan-
tamount to the possession of genealogy which gives its current
place within time (historically). This genealogy by its historical
attribution connects the individual in question with the place
and further with the other people who exist and others who
existed (but are dead) in that place at one time or another. This
genealogy equally accounts for the other aspects of existence
(non-living things in the world and their origin in the environ-
ment.
Genealogy identities a people and their relations and thereby
set them apart from the others. It explains the mode of the rela-
tionship between one person and the order and the extent of this
relationship. Thus, to recite a genealogy, to recall the ties of
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