AKU: An African Journal of Contemporary Research

Rapid urbanisation across African cities has intensified challenges related to waste management and environmental pollution, making public behaviour an important factor in sustaining clean and liveable environments. This paper examines the role of discourse in shaping attitudes and practices associated with waste management in urban African contexts. Adopting a complementary discourse-pragmatic and hermeneutic approach, it examines how language is used to instruct, persuade, and moralise in relation to acceptable waste disposal practices, while also interpreting the social, cultural, physical, and moral meanings embedded in such communication. The study focuses on three purposively selected environmental expressions: “Do not dump refuse here,” “Keep your environment clean,” and “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Using qualitative textual analysis, the study examines the pragmatic actions performed by these expressions and the contextual meanings through which their communicative force is understood. The analysis reveals three complementary strategies: direct prohibition, responsibility-oriented persuasion, and moral or cultural appeal. From a pragmatic perspective, the expressions function as socially situated actions that regulate conduct, encourage responsibility, and promote the internalisation of environmental values. From a hermeneutic perspective, their meanings are shaped by physical, social, cultural, and moral contexts. The study argues that environmental communication is therefore not merely a means of transmitting sanitation information but also a resource for constructing behavioural norms and giving environmental responsibility social and cultural meaning. The findings suggest that clear, contextually relevant, and culturally grounded communication, supported by appropriate wastemanagement infrastructure, can contribute to more meaningful public engagement with environmental responsibility.

Open Full Text (PDF)