Environmental Justice: Towards an African Perspective

Margaret Ssebunya, Stephen Nkansah Morgan, Beatrice D. Okyere-Manu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The main argument of this paper is that current debates and discussions on environmental justice seem to focus more on the West. In a typical African communitarian society, the idea of environmental justice has not been adequately conceptualised. Key scholars in African environmental ethics such as Godfrey Tangwa, Segun Ogungbemi and Murove Munyaradzi have mainly focused their attention on the preservation of nature for both current and future generations, thereby giving less attention to the equitable distribution of environmental resources and environmental burdens in Africa. As such, issues of environmental justice seem to be conspicuously absent from African environmental ethics discourse. The contribution of this chapter is to explore an African understanding of environmental justice by showing the major characteristics of how an African environmental justice ought to look like. The study proposes the eco-collective responsibility theory—an environmental justice model that is specific to the African communitarian society characterised by mutual dependence, cooperation, harmony, relationality and communion in order to promote the common good of the people as well as the good of the environment for both current and future generations.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media B.V.
Pages175-189
Number of pages15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameInternational Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics
Volume29
ISSN (Print)1570-3010
ISSN (Electronic)2215-1737

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Environmental Justice: Towards an African Perspective'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this