AKU: An African Journal of Contemporary Research

African environmental ethics as an area within the parameters of applied African philosophy focuses on the conceptual foundations of environmental values as well as more concrete issues surrounding societal attitudes, actions, and policies to protect and sustain biodiversity and ecological systems. In relation to Africa, environmental ethics is complementary. It, therefore, responds to questions from a balanced perspective that understands the human person and the environment as complementary realities. Questions such as: what is our understanding of nature or the environment around us? What responsibilities does the human person have towards wild species and ecosystems? How does the recognition of rapid, global environmental change challenge our understandings of these obligations? These notwithstanding, this paper focuses on African proverbs as a source of African environmental ethics. This is important given the place that African proverbs occupy in African life and spirituality- it is the wisdom of the African people articulated in words using categories that are common to the African people. This piece will, therefore, study proverbs in general as they relate to nature, and the particular proverbs that relate to environmental preservation. The hermeneutic method of inquiry will be patronized for the purpose of this study, and the Igwebuike conservation theory employed as an interpretative theory. This work discovers that African proverbs are a major source of African environmental ethics.

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