Dealing with the Past in Environmental Peacebuilding: An African ecological perspective
art by Shar Tuiasoa (Hawai’i, USA)
Munini Mutuku (Environmental Peacebuilding Association); Rachel N. Stern (University of British Columbia)
Environmental peacebuilding in Africa should incorporate African environmental philosophy in transitional justice processes to better address past environmental crimes and abuses.
Context
Since the early 1990s, several dozen Sub-Saharan African countries have attempted to deal with past grievances, having realized that “the future is largely a result of the past.”[i] The concept of transitional justice is indispensable to recovery from conflict. It comprises four main pillars: right to know (or truth-telling), right to justice, right to reparations, and guarantee of non-recurrence;[ii] memorialization has been suggested as a fifth pillar.[iii]
While transitional mechanisms provide a platform to address the lasting impacts of violations of humans, they seldom seek to redress violations of the environment. The environment is often a silent casualty, with ecosystems treated as exploitable resources for diverse goals.[iv] Justice efforts and recurring compensations are based on the damages inflicted to the human population, not the damage inflicted to nature and its ecosystems. People are compensated, while nature and its ecosystems, independent of their value to people, seldom benefit.[v]
What’s been done
African environmental philosophy recognizes the interconnectedness of all beings and expresses concern over environmental degradation for future generations and ecological health.[vi] The underlying belief of the philosophy is the ethical linkage of nature, community, and humans.[vii] It brings to light the African dual ontology, which comprises both spiritual (invisible and intangible) and physical (visible and tangible) beings.[viii]
Connecting the human, natural, and spiritual realms is drawn from the concept of Ubuntu, which is critical for developing an integrated approach to justice for environmental harms.[ix] Ubuntu “represents an indigenous African philosophy of justice centered on healing, forgiveness and reconciliation aimed at restoring the humanity of both victim and perpetrator. It encapsulates the notion of an interdependent humanity, the core of traditional African cosmology.”[x]
The African metaphysical worldview[xi] suggests an approach to transitional justice applicable to environmental justice and environmental peacebuilding work in Africa’s post-conflict societies.
Looking ahead
The future work is two-fold. First, environmental peacebuilding must expand to include transitional justice ideas and mechanisms. Second, transitional justice must integrate the African environmental philosophy that “pays attention to the epistemological and metaphysical dimensions of the worldviews of the African people in order to understand the environmental attitudes and values in African traditions of thought.”[xii]
Footnotes
[i] Mutua, M.W. (2011) ‘A Critique of Rights in Transitional Justice: The African Experience’, Rethinking Transitions: Equality and Social Justice in Societies Emerging From Conflict 31 (Aguilar, G.O. and Felipe Gomez Isa, eds., Intersentia)
[ii] Swiss Peace (2012) ‘A Conceptual Framework for Dealing with the Past: Holism in Principle and Practice’, Dealing with the Past Background Paper, Swiss Peace.
[iii] Hamber, B., Sevcenko, L. and Naidu, E. (2010) ‘Utopian Dreams or Practical Possibilities? The Challenges of Evaluating the Impact of Memorialization in Societies in Transition’, The International Journal of Transitional Justice, 4: 397-420; Salvioli, F. (2020) Report: Memorialization processes in the context of serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law: the fifth pillar of transitional justice, Human Rights Council, 45th session (https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3875086?ln=en)
[iv] UNEP (2009) From Conflict to Peacebuilding: The Role of Natural Resources and the Environment, United Nations Environmental Programme: Nairobi, Kenya.
[v] De Toledo, N. (2020) What if Nature Became a Legal Person? World Economic Forum (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/nature-legal-personhood/)
[vi]Workineh, K. (2018) ‘Environmental philosophy in African Traditions of Thought’, Environmental Ethics 40(4):309-323. Addis Ababa University. DOI:10.5840/enviroethics201840431
[vii]Timothy, O.A. and Oti, F.A. (2019) ‘Towards an African Philosophy of Environment’, Int. J. of Environmental Pollution & Environmental Modelling, 2(3): 105-108. Nigeria: University of Calabar
[viii] Ibid
[ix] Danford, C.T. (2016) ‘Ubuntu is Not Only about the Human! An Analysis of the Role of African Philosophy and Ethics in Environment Management’, Journal of Human Ecology 53(2):157-166. Delhi: University of KwaZulu-Natal
[x]Bonny, I., (2014) ‘Beyond Retribution Beyond Retribution: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa as Universal Paradigm for Restorative Transitional Justice’, Covenant University Journal of Politics and International Affairs (CUJPIA) 2(2).
[xi] See Supra note viii
[xii] See Supra note vi