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3 - Intergenerational Justice and the Environment in Africa

from Part I - Indigenous Philosophies on Justice between Generations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

By
Workineh Kelbessa
Edited by
Hiroshi Abe ,
Matthias Fritsch  and
Mario Wenning
Hiroshi Abe
Affiliation:
Kyoto University
Matthias Fritsch
Affiliation:
Concordia University, Montréal
Mario Wenning
Affiliation:
Loyola University, Spain
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Summary

In this chapter, I will examine how Africans envision their futures and promote intergenerational justice. In African worldviews, a community is comprised of three generations: the living dead, the living, and the yet-to-be-born. The three generations are interconnected. The current generation should owe a debt of gratitude to its forbears for leaving a usable environment behind and fulfilling its moral obligation towards future generations. In the African worldview, successive generations share the environment (the land). According to African intergenerational ethics, natural resources ought not to be exploited beyond their limit, and the land ought to be taken care of for the benefit of present and future human generations, as well as for the good of non-human species. The Oromo of Ethiopia and other cultural groups in Africa do not simply consider justice, integrity, and respect as human virtues applicable to human beings, but they extend them to non-human species and Mother Earth. Thus, I argue that intergenerational thinking can help humanity to address both local and global environmental problems.

Keywords

AfricaGadaafuture generationsintergenerational justicehandhuuraaOromo
Type
Chapter
Information
Intercultural Philosophy and Environmental Justice between Generations
Indigenous, African, Asian, and Western Perspectives
 , pp. 59 - 74
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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