IN SEARCH OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: A HERMENEUTICS OF THE CONCEPT OF SPIRIT IN AFRICAN INDIGENOUS PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

The fact that the world is experiencing an environmental crisis is indisputable. The environmental crisis has manifested itself in various ways such as deforestation, desertification, atmospheric and marine pollution, unplanned urbanisation, over-population, and so forth. In the search for ideas and theories that can help to mitigate the environmental crisis, many western theories have been proposed to the negligence of indigenous ideas and theories. This paper argues that there is a place for serious consideration of the African indigenous idea of spirit in making environmental ethics. Through analytic and critical hermeneutics methods, the concept of spirit in African indigenous thought is deciphered and its implications explicated for mitigating the current environmental crisis. The paper finds out that there is environmental ethics that can be gleaned from African indigenous environmental thought. The paper concludes that this African-based environmental ethics can contribute to mitigating the current environmental ethics.