Prospects for Sustainable Living with Focus on Interrelatedness, Interdependence and Mutuality: Some African Perspectives

Abstract

In this chapter we endorse the concept of multispecies relationality by explicating African worldviews which emphasize the importance of the practice in African culture (as in other Indigenous traditions) of having a totem in which a human soul is given to animals, plants and nature. For example, the clan totem called Ndou in Venda means persons have characteristics of the elephant, which forms part of their identity. Some clans are not allowed to cut a tree called Mutavhatsindi because they are Vhatavhatsindi (people associated with the tree) and this can bring bad omens. Rivers and caves can also function as totems. We can interpret the symbolism of totemism as implying that humans and non-humans become separated analytically only by creating the categories of ``human'' and ``non-human'', which are (often) recognized to create an arbitrary boundary. In our considering further the symbolism of totems in this chapter, we confirm that we can draw out, and extend, the ethical implications of African cultural traditions which suggest that we are all (and can become better) embedded in a community, which includes ``all that exists'', including past, present, and future generations. Some authors emphasize that the African concept of Ubuntu intimates that humans need to care for other humans as well as animals, trees and rivers (as the biophysical world). We point out how this interpretation of Ubuntu, which implies a (spiritual) orientation towards furthering ``cosmic harmony'', is tied to a moral standpoint to create more connectivity in seeking regenerative sustainability.