Abstract
In this paper, using ethnographic field data from three indigenous Akan communities, we show that Akan religious ontology about the natural world provides a formidable resource and framework for managing the environmentally destructive tendencies of the human being. We further prove that while these ontologies about the natural world emerge from the intense religiosity of the Akan and the metaphysical worldview of the indigenous Akan, they contain strong environmental ethical norms and values worth resourcing for environmental sustainability in Ghana. We, consequently, argue that significant attention ought to be paid to these religious ontologies—beliefs, norms and practices—of the indigenous Akan, as an effective means of achieving environmental sustainability. We, therefore, propose the resourcing and adoption of indigenous religious ontologies on the natural world that have the potential of informing and enhancing environmental policies and initiatives towards environmental sustainability in Ghana.
1 Introduction
While it is often acknowledged that faith communities and religions have a lot to offer towards the sustainability of the natural world, the tendency to overlook religion in the sustainability discourse, where research and policy frameworks tend to privilege technological fixes and knowledge usually generated by the natural and social sciences, has been underscored (Golo 2020: 1). The sustainability discourse “has often overlooked how religious symbols, rituals, and ethics imply the need for changes in attitudes toward and actions for creating a sustainable future” (Histhuizen and Tucker 2015: 372). Indigenous religious worldviews and local knowledge, for instance, have been acknowledged as crucial for mitigating attitudes that are responsible for negative environmental change and are resourceful to the sustainability discourse (Ikuenobe 2016; Darko 2014a; Awuah-Nyamekye 2009; Klostermaier 1973).
Ghana has its own share of global environmental problems: the depletion of natural resources; pollution; and the loss of biodiversity and tropical forests. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ghana identifies the problems of management of water, forest, mineral and energy resources, land, as well as marine and coastal ecosystems (Laing 1991). Thus, while Ghana is rich in natural resources and biodiversity there is the problem of management leading to natural resource depletion and degradation such as biodiversity depletion and loss of forests (where since the 1990s about 90 percent of Ghana’s high forest has been logged), freshwater shortages, the diminishing of agricultural land, and the degradation of coastal zone and marine environment (Tamakloe 2000; Laing 1991). Ghana is also faced with the problem of poor sanitation and improper disposal of waste (Darko 2014b), particularly e-waste in urban areas (Ababio 2012; Lundgren 2012). A related environmental problem is that of air and atmospheric quality, particularly in the cities of Ghana. Atmospheric pollutants from vehicle emissions, dusts, tarred roads and industries into the immediate environments (Tamakloe 2000), coupled with the constant burning of scraps and electronic waste, particularly in the cities’ scrap yards (Darko 2014b) mean an increased atmospheric pollution with carbon dioxide and other harmful substances, thereby compromising air quality, particularly when one considers the removal and depletion of forests, which serve as carbon sinks (Tamakloe 2000; Darko 2014b). Increasing temperatures and a warming climate also remain environmental threats to Ghanaians.
A more recent environmental problem is illegal artisanal mining, which has the tendency of inducing a host of other environmental problems such as pollution of land, air and water bodies, and the decimation and/or degradation of land and forests, particularly agricultural lands (Afriyie, Ganle and Adomako, 2016; Hilson and Garforth, 2013). Artisanal mining also called galamsey in the local parlance, involves “low-tech, labour-intensive mineral extraction and processing” (Hilson and Garforth 2013: 348) of gold, and dates back to pre-colonial times as an indigenous activity (Ofosu-Mensah 2010). In recent years, galamsey has become high-tech, huge and unregulated underground business with horrid environmental costs and impacts on agricultural and other economic lives (Afriyie, Ganle and Adomako, 2016; Hilson and Garforth, 2013). Interestingly, two of the three communities studied in this article—Osino and Obuasi—have had devastating effects of illegal artisanal mining, with Dormaa also under threat.
In this article, engaging literature on the conceptual framework of religious environmentalism and on indigenous Akan religious ontology as well as primary data from three indigenous Akan communities, we focus on presenting and discussing the views of the indigenous Akan of Ghana on their beliefs and knowledge about the natural world and their relevance for environmental sustainability in Ghana. We present their views on the following: (i) beliefs and knowledge about the natural world, particularly on the origin, value and goal of the natural word; (ii) the source of these beliefs; (iii) religious practices that reflect these beliefs they hold about the natural world; and (iv) thoughts about the responsibilities that these beliefs place on humans in their interactions and dealing with the natural world. This article opens with a background review of the literature on religious environmentalism and a discussion of indigenous Akan religious ontology as the concept and context for the paper, respectively. Following the background is a section on methodology accounting for the process of data collection and analysis. We then present responses from the field on the objectives set for the article; followed by a discussion of the responses; and a conclusion of the article.
2 Religious Environmentalism
Religious environmentalism is defined as “the resurgence of religious concerns and activism with regard to the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation generally, since the earth serves as the life support and stem of every living species on earth” (Golo 2013: 204). Gottlieb asserts that, awakened by environmental activists,
religious institutions have been moved by the seriousness of pollution, climate change, endangered species issues, resource depletion, and overpopulation. Religious leaders, theologians, and local clergy have signed on to the recognition that the earth as a whole is in an unprecedented predicament. Even if this response is not uniform and absolute, it is still extremely widespread.
Gottlieb 2003: 493
Religious environmentalism emerges out of religious resurgence that is invigorated in “a third space where religious views on the natural environment interact and are promoted for the well-being of the environment and for religious environmental action” (Golo 2013: 205). The result is the visibility of faith communities and religious groups in political and research activities concerning the natural environment, and various engagements of religious and faith communities in Conference of the Parties (CoPs) of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) and commitments to climate justice (Jenkins, Berry and Kreider 2018; Rautenbach, Kerber and Stuckelberger 2014), usually through formal statements or through confessional and constructive thought (Jenkins, Berry and Kreider 2018). Thus, the visibility of faith communities and groups in climate debates and activities, including demonstrations (Kidwell 2019), is a sign of the concerns and relevance of faith communities to finding solutions to the enduring environmental problems that face the world. They “demonstrate formal religious thought interpreting the meaning of climate change” (Jenkins, Berry and Kreider 2018, 90).
Generally, the concerns of religious groups and faith communities about sustainability initiatives result from the beliefs and claims they make about the natural world and the place of humanity in it. A recurring metaphor in these engagements is that of stewardship, where religious and faith communities see themselves as stewards of the natural world, God’s creation. The stewardship metaphor suggests that while human beings are allowed to benefit from the resources of the earth, which includes some form of alterations to earth, humans are required to do this within certain limits and constraints (Golo 2020: 5). In the case of indigenous African communities and cultures, because they largely describe their relationship with the natural world through divine beings (Ikuenobe 2016; Darko 2014a), they consider the despoliation and degradation of the natural world as a desecration of it and an affront to their relationship with the deities (Darko 2014a). These breached relationships incur the wrath of the gods and ancestors who may inflict individual or communal punishments, consequently (Darko 2014a), suggesting a cause-effect scenario. Therefore, though faith communities may admit that the deities have blessed them with the resources of the earth for their benefit, they affirm their stewardship by developing strict religious regulations and modalities to control profligate and reckless use of the earth’s resources (Golo 2020).
It would, therefore, be argued reasonably that in religious environmentalism the knowledge, values and norms that faith communities appeal to are derived from and are reflections of their beliefs. This is, particularly, the case of African indigenous religions, where it is suggested,
The belief in the creation stories, the Supreme Being, life after death, and a continuity or linkage between the world of the living and the dead set environmental issues in a different context. It underlined the African traditional ontologies and axiologies that guided relationships between the individual, society, and nature. It determined the kind of relationships that must exist between humans and their surroundings.
Darko 2014: 190
Similarly, indicating that African indigenous views on ontology can be understood in light of their views on cosmology, Ikuenobe (2016) notes that,
There is no conceptual or ontological gap between human activities and supernatural activities of God, gods, spirits, ancestors in African thought; they are interrelated and one is an extension of the other. However, God, the gods, spirits, and supernatural entities are experienced by humans as part of nature in their manifestations in physical events and natural objects.
Ikuenobe 2016: 5
Faith communities, therefore, develop their doctrines and frameworks for understanding and explaining their choices and actions within the natural world, as well as developing doctrines, norms, values, and modalities that regulate their interactions with the natural world, as a religious duty. In this way religious communities would be contributing to finding solutions to environmental concerns, through providing deeper insights and understandings into “the meaning and transcendental quality of reality” (Klostermaier 1973: 142).
It is argued that religious communities have at their disposal the economic, political and institutional resources as well as social capital to achieve collective goals (Veldmann, Szasz and Haluza-DeLay 2012). Beyond these, as a value system, what religion and religious communities have to offer are those deeper dimensions, different perspectives and insights about the value and telos of the natural world and the role of humankind in it, which are embedded in the various religious traditions and which religious discourse brings to the public debate (Wardekker et al. 2009; Klostermaier 1973). We do not intend to suggest that religious communities have all the resources to mitigate and/or achieve collective goals regarding environmental concerns, for we are aware of several barriers such as leadership, concrete denominational actions and religious conservatism and skepticism to climate change (Veldmann, Szasz and Haluza-DeLay 2012); socio-economic, political and pastoral challenges (Ngirinshuti 2020); and theological and institutional barriers (Nche 2020). However, we are convinced that because religions affect societies at every level, they could make a decisive difference (Veldmann, Szasz and Haluza-DeLay 2012, 255). Furthermore, religious perspectives and ontologies on the natural world, could be combined with secular discourses and technological and scientific sophistication (Klostermaier 1973). For instance, local religious beliefs and ideas can inform public policies towards a pragmatic policy “which makes use of all the scientific knowledge of nature and associates it at the same time with the deepest insights of religious traditions about the place of man in the universe, his responsibility towards this world which he is now able to destroy but not to rebuild” (Klostermaier 1973: 142).
Therefore, claims that religious people make about their beliefs about the natural environment, in the light of the environmental crisis, can be resourced to mitigate the factors that encourage environmental degradation. It is suggested that societies which have religious orientations to life and reality, such as many societies in Africa, the search for an encompassing environmental sustainability that sidelines religious communities, their beliefs and the values they hold about the natural world are bound to have challenges in meeting their outcomes (Golo, 2020; Darko 2014a). In Ghana, where religious beliefs and practices are still central, and where religious groups and leaders make a difference in the lives of people by advocating values and principles by which people live, religion can be influential in the decisions and choices that people make in relation to the environment (Golo and Yaro 2013). It is suggested that, while there exist substantial obstacles to religions’ key role in response to environmental degradation (Veldmann, Szasz and Haluza-DeLay 2012: 259), in theory and institutionally, religions are “potentially well positioned in that they reach a broad audience of believers, some of whom accept and respect their moral authority and leadership” (Veldmann, Szasz and Haluza-DeLay, 2012: 258). Hypothetically, this is more so, when religions see themselves as having the explicit responsibility to address moral issues, of which climate change is one (Veldmann, Szasz and Haluza-DeLay, 2012: 258). Klostermaier notes: “Religions as expressions of, and actively moulding influences upon, the attitudes and minds of people cannot be ignored in relation to such a vital question as the ecological one” (1973: 140).
The enduring influence of religion in the lives of many people globally, theoretically means religious groups are well positioned to motivate and influence the worldviews and cosmologies of many to be concerned about and get involved in social issues, such as those of environmental sustainability, as revealed by recent anthropological studies on how religion shapes adherents’ perception and treatment of the natural world (Jenkins, Berry and Kreider 2018; Veldmann, Szasz and Haluza-DeLay 2012: 258). Faith communities also have a deep experience in activism with earth care and environmental protection, which could be joined with those of civil society towards environmental sustainability (Wisner 2010). It is further underscored that when faith communities “have the conviction that their environmental commitments are first, directed towards the concerns of God and/or the supernatural, and then to their own welfare and that of future generations, they become motivators for moral restraint at the level of individuals and groups” (Golo 2020: 9–10). Therefore, while it is acknowledged that religions and religious communities are unable to provide all the answers to the current crises of the environment, they may be able to contribute towards the answers (Veldmann, Szasz and Haluza De-Lay 2012; Klostermaeier 1973). At the least, religions can inform responsible attitudes and lifestyles among followers of the various religions (Klostermaier 1973).
We suggest that if African societies and policy elites would effectively and holistically confront environmental degradation towards environmental sustainability, then environmental policies and development choices in Africa would have to reflect the experiences of lived realities, worldviews and ethics of indigenous communities and local people. Thus, in this paper, we explore the Akan indigenous and/or religious ontology on the natural world and how this fosters environmental protection.
3 Akan Religious Ontology in Context
Akan conception of the Supreme Being (Onyankopon) and the relation believed to exist, or that ought to exist, between him and other beings—especially humans—may be said to roughly constitute Akan religion. Conceptions of this kind may result in the postulation of worship of the Supreme Being by humans, if the relation entails reverence for the former. However, I refrain from using worship here without a caveat because some forms of worship do not apply in the Akan context. Kwasi Wiredu, for instance, contends that there is nothing like institutional worship in Akan religion (Wiredu 1998: 34). To a large extent, Akan religious practices may relate to some other entities given that the Akan universe is composed of a panoply of beings.
In Akan ontology, there are notable categories of beings apart from Onyankopon who is believed to have brought the other beings into existence. Such beings, according to Kwame Gyekye, may not be well understood except when one is not oblivious of the potency of each of them in relation to the other(s). Gyekye observes that words found in a typical libation prayer would “attest to the existence of a Supreme Being (Onyame, Onyankopōn), deities (abosom: lesser spirits), and ancestors (that is, ancestral spirits: nsamanfo), in descending order” (Gyekye 1995: 68). And, further the descending order, Gyekye places such entities as human beings and “the physical world of natural objects” (Gyekye 1995: 68). It would be seen from the hierarchy given here that the Akan universe is neither solely physical nor solely metaphysical, but a combination of both. This offers the Akan thinker an explanatory avenue for presenting the nature of the universe, and the way entities therein would have to relate with each other. For one can account for the origin of some events, especially in the natural world and the lives of humans. For instance, it is believed that depending on how a person acts towards other persons or the natural world, one may be rewarded with good fortune or punished by one’s ancestors. This gives reasons why when humans breach relations with the deities, for instance through environmental infractions, they may incur the wrath of the deities who will inflict them with punishments communally or individually (Darko 2014a). This suggests that beings in Akan ontology engage in actions that affect each other. In this regard, Gyekye describes the Akan world as “a world of action” (Gyekye 1995: 79). According to Gyekye, this concept of action is “developed into a metaphysics potency … And since a higher being has the power to destroy a lower being, humans and the world of natural objects and phenomena can easily be controlled by … spiritual powers” (Gyekye 1995: 79, emphasis ours).
The capacity for humans to act in ways that attract further action from the ancestors and the general thinking that lower beings on the ontological hierarchy may go through experiences caused by higher beings—seem to provide some understanding of the notions of cause and effect in Akan thought. Even though these appear to suggest, for instance, a spiritual notion of causation, it would not be appropriate to misconstrue this to mean the absence of physical causation in the philosophy of the Akan people. This is particularly so, given the dualistic nature of the Akan universe earlier referenced. This composite reality makes Akan causation very interesting to study but, at the same time, quite complex. The empirical aspect of reality is directly attributed to, even if partially, the constitution and/or nature of the human being and natural phenomena. Yet, some physical properties are conferred to such metaphysical beings as God (Danquah 1968: 68–69). The dualistic character of human beings and natural phenomena makes it possible for the two to depend on each other, and to track the effects of human actions on nature.
It may be observed from the foregoing that natural phenomena, and for that matter the environment, comes last on the Akan ontological hierarchy. This would most likely lead the philosopher to raise questions about the value of the environment to the Akan. But we will argue in this paper that Akan religious beliefs and norms promote environmental control in spite of the position of natural phenomena on the ontological hierarchy. We do not intend to debate whether Akan environmental ethics is anthropocentric or eco-centric or eco-bio-communitarian since that falls outside the scope of the paper. However, we observe the disagreement between G.B. Tangwa and Munamato Chemhuru over the proper terminology for African environmental ethics. For instance, while Tangwa attributes anthropocentrism to the West and describes African environmental ethics as eco-bio-communitarianism (Tangwa, 2004, 392), Chemhuru suggests that some philosophers attribute anthropocentrism to Africa as well, and not all Western environmental ethics are anthropocentric (2016, 15). In the meantime, it suffices to state and justify the view that in Akan religion nature and natural phenomena do not appear to be treated with little value.
Akan religion is described by some philosophers, including Gyekye, as naturalistic (Gyekye 1996: 5). This implies that the religion is founded on rational deliberations about natural phenomena. This characterization of Akan religion is, however, different from Pius Abioje’s understanding of the nature of Indigenous African Religions (including the Akan). He argues that African religions are revealed because they contain myths about entities such as God, and that a myth is nothing but “a sacred tradition or primordial revelation [that has] … some lessons to teach, beyond the material detail” (Abioje 2007: 150). However, Abioje’s position is untenable since this sense of revelation is not what the term “revealed religion” stands for (Majeed 2014: 131). Consistent with Gyekye’s position, therefore, would be the view that even if there are African myths, they are “the mental efforts of African ancestors to interpret the various cosmological and biological phenomena that they experienced” (Oso 1979: 22). The naturalistic conception of Akan religion underscores the recognition of the natural phenomena as critical to the sense of being and environmental awareness of the Akan people.
It is the reflections of Akan thinkers on the environment, so to speak, that led to the emergence of Akan religion. It led to belief in God and a conception of his attributes, as well as those of the spirits below him. The belief in supernatural beings does not do away with or belittle the empirical dimensions of Akan thought. Humans are the closest to natural phenomena in terms of potency, so it is worthy of effort to understand the practical implications of the usage of this potency by human beings for the environment. This is one way of making sense of the philosophical study of the environment, alongside its religious dimensions, in the Akan culture. In this vein, it could be stressed that even though Akan religious practices and beliefs cover different activities and entities, this research would be about the relation between humans and the other beings. But its focus shall be on the relation that exists or ought to exist between humans and the environment.
4 Method
The paper is based mainly on the interpretation, critical review and reflective evaluation of Akan religious beliefs and practices that bear on the management, conservation and sustainability of the natural environment. The Akan of Ghana, constituting about half the population of the entire nation according to the 2010 population and housing census by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS 2012), represents a mother ethnic group encompassing Akyem, Asante, Bono, Fante, Agona, Akuapem, Akwamu, Wassa and Guan constituent groups (see Awuah-Nyamekye 2009: 254 for a geographical map of the Akan). To achieve the set goal, we adopted desk research as well as qualitative data gathering targeted at three (3) purposively sampled sites: Obuasi (OB), Dormaa Ahenkro (DA) and Osino (OS). We selected these three (3) Akan communities as representatives of three major ethnic groups namely the Akyem, the Asante and the Bono, with two (2) of these communities experiencing massive environmental degradation in recent years.
A corpus of existing seminal literature on the subject matter has been reviewed to amplify their religious and philosophical content and inform our critical analyses and consequent conclusions. For the qualitative research, semi-structured interviews were used as data collecting instruments at all sites. The questions administered were both general and searching as well as close-ended. We conducted ten (10) key and purposively selected informant interviews for each of the research sites. The informants at each of the sites were traditional chiefs and/or their regents; queen mothers; elders at the chiefs’ palaces; linguists, indigenous priests and priestesses; indigenous historians; and traditional elders who were identified as authorities in the traditions of these sampled communities—majority of these who earned their livelihoods through farming. In addition to these one-on-one interviews two (2) FGD s of ten participants per group—one male and one female group—for each site, making a total of twenty participants and moderated by the lead-researcher for the site, were conducted to foster a balanced representation of the data gathered and curtail the biases of contextual interpretation of the various Akan religious and nature-related beliefs and practices. In all, about ninety (90) people were sampled and interviewed for the three (3) selected sites. The residential duration in the communities were an initial three (3) days reconnaissance visit to the communities within which appointments and contacts were made. We returned to the communities after three months for extra seven (7) days residence for interviews and focus group discussions (FGD s) making a total of ten (10) days on each of the three (3) sites over a period of four months. In certain instances, the process afforded the research team a first-hand knowledge of the practices of the people through direct participant observation. Adopting chiefly critical and thematic analyses, the resultant data from the field was used to flesh out religious worldviews and concepts philosophically to reach conclusions that, we hope, are representative of indigenous Akan ontology and, more importantly, serve the interest of environmental sustainability.
Dormaa-Ahenkro is the municipal capital of the Dormaa-Ahenkro municipality of the newly created Bono Region of Ghana, and traditionally under the authority of the Dormaa Traditional Area with the paramount chief in Dormaa-Ahenkro (GSS 2014). This makes Dormaa-Ahenkro a traditional capital also (GSS 2014). While government and the paramount chief of the Dormaa Traditional Area have gone hard-hitting on the environmentally destructive activity of illegal mining, the municipality continues to be threatened by renewed activities of illegal miners (Modern Ghana 2021). Osino, a semi-rural agrarian community rich in gold and whose main source of income is cocoa farming, is the capital of Fanteakwa South district, of the Eastern Region of Ghana. In recent years, the livelihood of the community has been adversely affected by environmental degradation, particularly by illegal mining activities and their effects on water sources and land. Obuasi is a municipal capital in the Ashanti Region of Ghana known for its large gold deposits. The main occupation of the people is farming but the youth in the municipal area largely engage in illegal mining which has negatively impacted the environment.
5 Presentation and Discussion of Findings
Findings on the Akan religious ontology and its relevance for environmental sustainability from key informant sources and FGD s from the three selected communities of Osino in the Eastern Region; Obuasi in the Ashanti Region; and Dormaa Ahenkro in the Bono Region of Ghana are presented according to the main questions asked as well as issues emerging from them.
5.1 Akan Beliefs about the Origin, Value and Purpose of the Natural World—Cosmology
The consensus among our informants suggests that the natural world has a divine origin; it has been created by a divine being, who may have created the natural world for a purpose. They indicated that this divine being is Onyankopon Kwame (literally translated as God, the Saturday born) as reflected in the extracts below:
Well, our ancestors deeply believe that the earth itself and whatever is on it did not create themselves; and that there is a mighty being, which our ancestors, if you hear their prayer during the pouring of libation, call Onyankopon. So, our ancestors believe there is a big God that is Onyankopon who is the source of all creation and who created the earth and everything that is on the earth.
OS02—a linguist
The Akans believe that the earth was created by God; a personified being called Kwame or Onyankopon Kwame. The earth (asaase) is regarded as a deity called Yaa. Being a deity (obosom), the earth is regarded as valuable. The word bosom stands for anything that som bo (is valuable).
OB06—an elder with knowledge in Akan philosophy
When the maker created, he created the mountains, he created trees and everything and the belief is that Onyankopon (God) made them and so everything that God has created, I know that they are all good. So, the belief I have is that the mountain God created it, trees God created it.
DA06—a chief priest
The indigenous Akans of Ghana ascribe not only a divine origin to the natural world but also the type of the world that was created. First, it became clear from our findings that God did not simply create a physical world of tangible things but also spiritual world. Thus, to the indigenous Akan, the natural world is an enchanted reality. The earth particularly, which is believed to be a goddess called Asaase Yaa, according to a community elder knowledgeable in Akan philosophy, “is offered a drink in libation; she is mentioned next to God. This shows the respect Akans have for her” (OB06). This is supported by the interview extract below:
We also know that the earth on which we are is a spirit, we cannot use our eyes to see her; but when she speaks in the spirit we know that it is the earth that has spoken. We believe Asaase Yaa is a spirit who is always with us and when we approach her, she helps us. That is why when somebody dies and we bury him or her in the earth, we buy wine to go and pray to plead with the earth that we know what we have buried in it is not good. So that prayer is a way of compensating the earth; so that the spirit will be comforted.
DA05—chief linguist
Second, it also became clear that in indigenous Akans cosmology the creator God, Onyankopon Kwame, also created a moral world. This is a world which must be valued and treated for its worth. It is for this reason a chief priest informant submitted that God created a good world and that which he had inherited from God and his ancestors are good. He notes:
I know what God created for me is good. The earth too that he created, when he created the earth, he finished creating it before bringing me here. So, all the things that he initially created it is good and so I have the belief that the mountain and everything God has created are good for me.
DA06—a chief priest
We have also found that in this religious ontology (cosmology) of the indigenous Akan, the purpose of the natural world is intricately linked with the people’s knowledge of the creator as a moral being and to the telos or goal of creation. The general understanding of the people, concerning the purpose of the earth is that the creator, Onyankopon, created the natural world for the benefit of humans; so that human beings would find life and meaning within the natural world, while safeguarding and preserving it. This view is supported by extracts such as:
The purpose of the things God created, the trees, the waters. The trees on the earth and the rivers on the earth. The trees protect the water, we also breathe air. The water that we drink bring us strength. These things benefit us, some examples are that people drink from water flowing through where they are. It is the trees which make the water cool all the time and also protect it from drying up.
DA05—chief linguist
This earth that we are living on, God has created trees and other things on it. And inside/beneath the earth there is money (sika), gold, diamond and other things. In the past, when it rains heavily in this town, you will notice pieces of gold exposed on the ground. So, the earth is important to us. God has planted or put a lot of things inside or beneath the earth for us such that everything we need we can get them from the earth.
OB04—a female elder
My understanding is that God created nature before creating man and this means that God created nature for the benefit of man. We only have to take good care of it. Man is a caretaker of nature. Regarding the forests, they serve as a means of protection for us. We consider our rivers as very important to us because of their utility: a source of fish and drinking water. Due to this important role of our rivers, we do everything to protect and preserve them. We do sell land including a forest or all the trees that are on that land but never our rivers or a stretch of land from which/on which these rivers are located. Rivers, unlike lands, are not transferrable.
OS01—local chief
From the above responses, we noticed that the indigenous Akans have quite a complex ontology of the natural world, in terms of its origin, goal and value. This conception of the natural world hardly lends itself to simplistic conclusions. Evident, however, is the consensus that the natural world has symbolic value and it is not just a collection of bio-physical substance. As suggested that in African ontology, “there is no distinction between ‘object’ and ‘subject’; Africans do not believe that objects exist unknown by a subject or known objectively” (Ikuenobe 2014: 4), it is evident among the indigenous Akans that the natural world is an entity worthy of the subject and of value to them in three main ways. These are: the ethical value reflecting the kind of world that was created (value and goal); the religious and spiritual value in terms of what the natural world reveals of the supernatural being behind creation; and the social value, which defines the nonhuman world in relation to humans. This triadic ethical conception of the natural world, which are not mutually exclusive, reveal what we would define as a holistic conception and/or ontology of the natural world by the indigenous Akan. This triadic ontology of the natural world, which is traceable to their beliefs, is significant and determinative of the way the indigenous Akans interact with the natural world.
Firstly, we noticed this triadic ethical conception may have given strength to the holistic and interrelated view of creation among the indigenous Akan, particularly when the people suggested that the future of human communities depends largely on maintaining the health and integrity of the natural world and vice versa. This is because the indigenous Akan believes there exists an intricate web of relationships between humans and the natural world because humans are interrelated with the natural world from the interior of their beings and nature. An informant noted:
Since our fathers considered themselves as part of nature, they respected nature and established a healthy relationship with nature. The Akan believes that every object of nature has life (sunsum). There is therefore a relationship between humans and the creation around them because all nature has a common sunsum. The differences are only differences in how the sunsum has manifested itself.
OS09—indigenous priest/herbalist
In this case, we identified that humans and the natural world are intrinsically related. These beliefs impose on the indigenous Akan the religious and moral responsibility to maintain healthy relations with the natural world. This view has been underscored by Darko (2014a) that beliefs in creation stories; the Supreme being; life after death; and the ancestors undergird the ontologies of relationships between humans and the natural world. Similarly, Ikuenobe (2014:5) underscored that: “The African view of reality is manifested in different aspects of people’s actions and ways of life, especially in terms of their religious practices. Their religious practices seek to maintain the harmony and balance that exist in nature, reality, and the natural community of things.”
A related clarity is the orientation of the indigenous Akan to the inter-relationship between environmental stability and the stability of human communities. The indigenous Akan religious ontology affirms that for sanity to exist among human communities, this must first exist between humans and the natural world. This could be inferred from the indigenous people’s understanding of a religious moral world in which everything is intricately linked, whereby once a dimension of the triad has been breached the consequences reverberates through the entire system. When we treat the natural environment well, an informant notes:
It helps to bring about peace in the community. Because we live with these rivers and forest on earth, God added them to us. And so, the laws protecting it help bring about peace in the community. If we treat the natural environment well, they will also give off their best to us, for instance when we grow crops they will yield well because we have been treating the land well.
DA03—a queen-mother
Therefore, for the indigenous Akan, and as underscored of African indigenous thought, nature is seen as “holistic and as an interconnected continuum of humans and all natural objects which exist in harmony. People’s actions and ways of life reflected the efforts to exist in harmony with nature. These efforts led to the preservation of nature” (Ikuenobe 2014: 2). We are convinced that this dimension of the triadic view of creation among indigenous Akans largely grounds the communitarian ethics espoused by the indigenous Akan particularly, and probably many indigenous African peoples. Gyekye (1995) for instance, locates the locus of communitarian ethics among the Akans in the natural sociality of the human being, a quality which demands that the human capacity to do good is utilized for communal good. But the society (in this world, natural world) is partly spiritual; and that, the “perceivable, phenomenal world” depends on the spiritual for its sustenance (Gyekye 1995: 69), wherefore the community was “identified as relations to family members and non-family members as well as to the surrounding trees, land, rivers, stones, air, rain, sunlight, skies, animals, ancestors, and the supernatural” (Darko 2014a: 190). Gyekye (1995), therefore, draws attention to the physical and spiritual dimensions of nature and the need for ethical care for the society or community in the “natural” world. This notion is relevant for contemporary and current sustainability initiatives because it remains that breached relationships between humans and the nonhuman creation of the modern industrial society largely account for the global environmental challenges facing contemporary humanity, as has been clearly affirmed by environmental ethicists globally.
Secondly, while majority (almost all) of our informants seem to share a utilitarian view of the earth, it is also apparent that their triadic conception of the natural world controls an exploitative use of natural resources. This is related to the people’s understanding that the natural world is purposeful to God. Hence, it does seem that the indigenous Akan adopts a sustainable use of the resources of the earth because of the utility of the earth to them while remaining naturally good, if not sacred. This utilitarian perspective of the earth vis-à-vis its intrinsic value, which must be kept in balance, Ikuenobe (2014: 9) defines as a hybrid ethical view of moral teleology (which underscores the anthropocentric view of the moral goodness of an action when it satisfies human interest) and moral deontology (which underscores the non-anthropocentric view of the moral goodness on an action when it affirms some intrinsic moral worth). We find this definition as reflecting indigenous Akan ontology than Tangwa’s eco-bio-communitarianism (2004). Here, we would say the stewardship of the indigenous Akan become apparent. An informant noted:
The reason why the earth is important to us (…) is that, when God created all things, he gave all of them to us as gifts on this earth. That is why we get timber from this place (…). God gave us the knowledge that, this seed when we plant it, it will grow well … and when we plant other things they will also grow well. Then God also showed us that there are treasures beneath the earth. … We get a lot of treasures from this place and this makes the earth more important to us that we have to look after it very well. …. God has given us diamond; he has given us gold and timber; he has given us this and that; so when you get a small piece of the earth from here to there, then you have to look after it very well because it has value.
OB02—a clan elder
The view expressed above, which echoes in diverse ways in many other responses, typifies that of stewardship, which Golo and Yaro (2013) defined as claims that humans are to nurture and protect the natural world while carefully benefiting from its resources and what it has to offer—an understanding they found prevalent among their religious sample population they studied in Ghana. Therefore, while our informants suggest that humans are to be beneficiaries of the natural world, they also consider the natural world as having value of its own worth respecting. This is supported by an informant that:
Our ancestors would not subscribe to the view that all nature exists for the sake of man. This belief (that it is for the sake of man that all other objects of nature exist) may be Jewish or Western. In the view of the Akan, the natural world will continue to exist without human being’s existence. Every object of nature has its significance, but man is central in God’s creation. The fact that we do not know the benefits of an object of nature does not mean that a particular object is not significant. Some of the objects of nature are also helpful to other objects of nature.
OS09—indigenous priest/herbalist
This view of the natural world would be seen, as indicated earlier by our informants, to flow from their conception of God as a benevolent creator of the world who created the natural world out of good intentions, which implies that what has been created is good. This underscores the belief among indigenous people that the kind of world the creator created is ‘good’ and has an end in itself, which should be respected for its own sake and value (Ikuenobe 2014). This suggests that claims to intrinsic value of the natural world, while evident among the indigenous Akans, is not unique to them. Theoretically, this view is espoused by diverse forms of non-anthropocentric ethical perspectives, such as that of the renowned American environmental and religious philosopher Holmes Rolston, who located objective intrinsic values in nature at the levels of species; ecosystems; animals and organisms, as he rhetorically suggested:
It is true that humans are the only evaluators who can reflect about what is going on at this global scale, who can deliberate about what they ought to do conserving it. When humans do this, they must set up the scales; and humans are the measurers of things. Animals, organisms, species, ecosystems, Earth, cannot teach us how to do this evaluating. But they can display what it is that is to be valued.
Rolston 1994: 29
It is known to the indigenous Akans that, while they benefit from the natural world, it does not exist simply to satisfy the whims of humans, but the natural world has other values. We perceive that the indigenous Akans conceive of the natural world this way because of the religious value they have of it. This religious conception of the natural world makes it unthinkable for the indigenous Akans to lay claims to having the natural world at their behest. This is because, among the people, “land (earth) is conceived as a gift from Onyame (God), first to the ancestors and to the subsequent generations and hence must be handled with sanctity. This makes land a divine gift to the social group or communally owned and thus must be used in such a way that posterity will also benefit from this divine love” (Awuah-Nyamekye 2009: 265). Further, this is an indication of the essential role of the religion of the people in environmental sustainability. Here, we agree that, as expressions of and molding influences upon peoples’ attitudes and minds, religion cannot “be ignored in relation to such a vital question as the ecological one” (Klostermaier 1973: 140).
5.2 Source of Beliefs and Ontologies about the Natural World
We sought to find out from our informants, sources of the beliefs and views they held about the natural world and how these sources were evident to them. We noticed interrelated sources of the ancestors, deities (gods), and human experiences, observations and wisdom—all of which can be reduced to their spirituality and their experiences of reality. Reflecting the assertion that African indigenous ontologies are sourced from religious practices and ceremonies, sustained a frequently transmitted generationally through the socialization process (Darko 2014), our informants indicated they have received these knowledge and beliefs about the natural world from the ancestors and deities who reveal these to them through priests and priestesses or through their actions and punishments of those who infringe on religious proscriptions in relation to the natural world. We had responses such as:
We believe that when we believe in the things the ancestors, those who have died and gone, said, they work for us.
DA05—chief linguist
We pass through the priests, people say fetish priest but I do not want that name; I will say priests. They are the eye of the ancestors, occasionally they perform rituals, then the spirit will come to them and tell them what the people should do …. All these come from our priests and if we follow we have a very significant result.
DA02—indigenous historian
The informants indicate that normally when such infringements take place the deities, gods and ancestors get offended and act in ways that are easily noticeable. Thus, it is evident that indigenous Akans come to these beliefs and views about the natural world from experiences of (religious) reality—observations from natural phenomena. This attests to the view that indigenous Africans see both the natural and supernatural as “two aspects of a unified and harmonious ontological category, and the primary mode of accessing reality is through experience” (Ikuenobe 2014: 8); and also that “the two are paradoxically one entity, for one cannot exist independent of the other” (Awuah-Nyamekye 2009: 255). When asked about the sources of their beliefs, the following extracts reflect these views:
So, when it happens like that (referring to the infringement on beliefs about the natural world and abuse of the natural world), it can even make the rivers become angry and make evil things happen in the society. You will investigate and be told it is because that happened therefore the river is angry.
DA03—queen mother. (Emphasis ours)
One could encounter an evil spirit if one goes to the farm or rivers on their forbidden days. Doctors cannot heal diseases caused by the gods for disobeying their instructions or eating their totems.
OS08—a chief priest
From the mind, knowledge and wisdom.
OB02—a clan elder
If you want to live with the earth, it will show you the things it does not like. If you are able to go by those principles, then you can live with it. If you go contrary to those principles, you may face the consequences.
DA07—chief priestess
From these extracts one can adduce that, to the indigenous Akan, the earth communicates itself through its dynamics, performance and the way it responds to humans’ interactions with it—and humans will hear from the earth if they are willing. While it is obvious that observations and experiences of natural phenomena are relevant in environmental knowledge production, the religious ontology generated by the indigenous Akans is unique.
From the responses of the indigenous Akans, it is evident that their beliefs about the natural world are not based on wishful thinking but emanate from the lived realities of the people (Oso 1979). Some are beliefs inherited from their forebears and reinforced by their real-life experiences with their deities, which the informants claim are effective in regulating healthy interactions with the natural world. This is, particularly, in relation to deities revealing their anger through abnormal natural occurrences when environmental norms and values are infracted, as also underscored by Darko (2014a) that the deities and ancestors punish individually and communally at their disapproval of the way the people relate with the natural environment. In a situation like this, the unnatural occurrences would stop only if the deities were appeased with specific interventions as required by the deities. In the light of this, the people’s beliefs and claims may be considered as grounded and reasonable. We would acknowledge that, since the views expressed by the informants come from a particular worldview and philosophical framework, which is the religious worldview and the framework of their lived experiences, respectively, there would be no justification assessing those views in the light of contrasting and/or competing frameworks that may trivialize these religious worldviews. This option is more defensible as any other would not reflect the lived reality of the indigenous Akan.
5.3 Religious Practices Reflecting the Beliefs of the Indigenous Akan about the Natural World
We also sought the views of informants on religious practices that reflect their beliefs about the natural world. We found that, to maintain healthy relationships with the enchanted natural world and their deities (who either inhabit or whose worship is related to the natural world), indigenous Akans have diverse practices, usually religious prohibitions called taboos, that control human conduct in their interactions with the natural environment. This, in the immediate, would be in respect of the spiritual nature of the natural world and for the deities who inhabit it, but there also are remote implications to these, both of which are intricately linked. Our informants cited diverse scenarios such as:
Well for the land, there are days set aside that nobody was supposed to go to the farm so when that day approaches, every farmer ought to stay away from the farm. So if a person disobeys this rule and goes, he or she might meet something.
DA03—queen mother
On certain days of the week people are not allowed to go to their farms since the earth god will visit harm on those who disobey. All these beliefs were put in the minds of people in order to preserve nature, a certain day in the week when the earth is allowed to rest. … and in some places people are not allowed to fish in certain rivers at certain days of the week and that is also to preserve nature itself
OS02—linguist
Akan elders used taboos to ensure that people protected the environment. For instance, they could say that someone closer to a potential offender will die. They could also attribute religious injunctions about the earth to a deity.
OB06—a community elder
Similar views resonate in FGD s as seen in the following extracts:
Okay, I will use the water bodies as an example. On particular days, we don’t go close to this river. On those days, sacrifices are performed for the river. This belief puts some reverence/fear in the people. There was the “evil forest”, people don’t go there because they know that when they go there, they will lose their lives so they were cautious.
OSFGDM-R1
In the Dormaa area, there is a sacred day (called nkyida) that are not supposed to be used for farm activities. But if a person decides to go against this taboo or regulation and goes to farm, such a person will see a strange thing, or might encounter a spirit in a strange manner that will affect the person’s life when he/she returns home. Sometimes, the person becomes dumb until rituals are performed for him or her. Even with that if God does not intervene, such a person may not become a normal person again.
DAFGDW-R1
As suggested by the responses, and corroborated by Darko (2014a), anyone who contravenes these ritual prohibitions angers the gods/deities and ancestors and “will see something” on account of that. Some of the usual consequences mentioned are epilepsy, stroke, dumbness, giving birth to deformed babies or even loss of life. In case of these occurrences, according to the people, the deities would have to be appeased through rituals for a reversal of the misfortune. Awuah-Nyamekye confirms this, in the case of the earth goddess, Asase Yaa, when he notes that any breach of the prohibitions “is considered as defilement and, in fact, a serious sin against the earth goddess. It is purification that can restore the severed relation or else misfortunes will follow the perpetrator(s) and in some cases, the entire members of the community may suffer” (Awuah-Nyamekye 2009: 266–267). This further supports the assertion by indigenous Akans that experience and wisdom serve as sources of their beliefs about the natural environment. That indigenous communities use taboo days to regulate natural resource use, is further affirmed by Awuah-Nyamekye (2009) when he indicates how the indigenous communities in Ghana, such as the Fantes, have used taboo days and ritual prohibitions to control the way humans interact with the natural world.
With hindsight of contemporary environmental problems, and from the narratives of our indigenous research participants, particularly the benefits they indicated to have derived from their indigenous ontology and subsequent practices regarding the natural world, these ontologies would be considered as still relevant in the modern Ghanaian context. This suggestion is premised on the claims that this worldview continues to work for the indigenous Akans where they are enforced, as mentioned by the people themselves, and there are no indications they hamper development of these societies. While it is suggested that modernisation and secularisation have undermined some of these worldviews and their modalities (Golo and Yaro, 2013; Awuah-Nyamekye 2009), what may be required are adaptations and philosophical re-definitions of these sources and knowledge of the natural world.
5.4 Responsibilities That Indigenous Akan Religious Ontologies Place on Humans in Their Interactions with the Natural World
Finally, we sought to find from our informants the responsibilities that their beliefs and knowledge about the natural world place on humans in their dealings and/or interaction with the natural world; and why such modalities are necessary today. The Akan religious ontology of the natural world, as reflected from the views of our informants, impose the duty of care on humans’ use of resources and in their interactions with the natural world. Beyond commitment to deities, taboos about the natural world are also resource-use control mechanisms that regulate human responsibilities towards sustainable use and interactions with the natural world. An informant submitted:
Also, the earth is named as Yaa because it is considered to be a being with feelings just as humans have feelings. All this establishes the Akan belief that there is a relationship between humans and other objects of nature. And this relationship must be maintained and respected. Thus, the institution of prohibition on some days for the rivers, animals, forest, sea, earth which are all considered as beings so that they may rest just like humans. This, in my view, were means of preserving nature, for nature to regain its strength.
OS06—queenmother
Another informant noted:
We believe that some days, Thursdays, you should make the land peaceful, don’t go to farm, if you go to farm you see somethings for yourself. … Why should mother earth not have a day to rest. So that is the environmental protection, that we have for our mother earth and apart from that too there are some rivers that you can’t cross, even if your farm is behind them; if you cross them, you will see something for yourself.
DA02—indigenous historian
It would be wrong to think that indigenous people were not aware of the economic value of the natural world, even as they sought to preserve them. Rather, we would suggest that the religious ontology of the indigenous Akan supports sustainable use of nature’s resources. From their responses, the suggestion they tend to offer is that a society is healthy and develops when there exists a healthy relationship between humankind, the natural world and the spiritual world—the triadic ethical conception we earlier mentioned. When humans meet their obligations to the natural and the spiritual worlds, the natural and spiritual worlds also respond by providing humans their needs, including environmental services. Our informants suggested the point is not whether the beliefs they hold of the natural world make good sense or not, but the purpose they serve which is the regulation of human interactions with the natural world. This is because these religious prohibitions are beneficial to both humans and the natural world. This is reflected in a rhetorical question posed by a sub-chief of a traditional area, thus:
It benefits us. … Why don’t you go to work every day? That one day that you are to rest, it is so, so that your mind and body will be well. In the same way the land and others are. So, if you continue to work on it for some time, one day let the land also rest. Because take it that, err … like the trees that are here, all of them have air passing around them; they are all living things. If you use something often without allowing it to rest a little, then you are disturbing it. That is why we talk about taboo days. That even helps your body. …. By that time, you would have also allowed the land to rest and so if you go to the farm everything will go on well.
DA04—chief’s regent
Views, such as these, indicating religious modalities were practical and effective, as compared to the current situation where these modalities have been diminishing, underscore reasons why the indigenous Akan would lament their demise and yearn for their enforcement today. To these people, the key to maintaining the intrinsic value and integrity of the natural world and remaining in good relationship with God and the gods, is respect for the natural world and living within restraints (Golo 2020), as good stewards. To the indigenous Akan, the primary responsibility of the human being is to maintain a healthy relationship between them and the nonhuman world. This is the duty of care, which has been echoed by many informants in diverse ways, such as:
Once God entrusted creation in the hands of humankind, our ancestors felt they were under a certain obligation to also protect the earth and whatever exists on it and under it. I mean it’s the gift of God and so when we look critically within the belief systems of our ancestors, abusing nature was frowned upon.
OS01—a chief
So, our ancestors believed that the earth itself and whatever abounds on/in it was a gift from God and they themselves were under obligation to protect it so that is the relationship that exists between ourselves and nature traditionally and culturally.
OS02—linguist
In terms of their relevance today, an informant notes:
They are relevant, but they must be reformulated to suit the life of today. We must know that there are reasons serving as the basis for these taboos. These reasons are taboos that can be adopted to suit us so that we can live in harmony with nature.
OS09—educated elderly Akan indigenous priest/herbalist
Generally, the indigenous Akan response to the degradation of the natural world suggests that what will be required is respecting the norms and values embedded in the indigenous worldviews of the people and preserved by the elders, and resourcing them for contemporary use. This correlates with the suggestion by Golo (2020) that obedience to religious beliefs, norms and values and the limits they impose on humans is required if religiously oriented societies would see the practical ecological resources embedded in these beliefs, norms and values. This indigenous Akan response further corroborates the submission of Ikuenobe (2016: 10) that the moral attitude required by the indigenous African ontology is a commitment to “a sense of justice, what is right, and what humans have a duty to do”, which includes “an appreciation of the bad consequences of not having such moral attitude and an appreciation of the good consequences of such moral attitude” (Ikuenobe 2016.10). At the practical level these will involve the use of natural resources to our benefits while maintaining the balance and harmony in nature (Ikuenobe 2016). These correlate with the views espoused by the indigenous Akans.
6 Conclusion
The discussions in this article present the indigenous Akans as a people whose beliefs, values and norms of environmental consciousness offer some workable solutions to the myriad environmental problems confronting Ghana today; and the need to pay attention to these. Beliefs held by the indigenous Akans about the spiritual value of the earth, in addition to their practical knowledge of the negative consequences of human irresponsibility towards the natural world, ensure that humans value the earth and sustain it. This they do by benefiting from the earth but within restrained parameters by the deities, while they listen to the earth as it communicates. These beliefs and practical knowledge emphasise that humans acknowledge their stewardship and engage in (religious) practices that promote environmental sustainability by respecting prohibitions and/or regulators that serve as nature-use mechanisms, irrespective of the limits it imposes on them. While the findings and discussion in this article are a critical contribution to literature on Akan environmental ethics, we also learn from the indigenous Akans that stewardship is a sacred duty imposed on humans with very practical dimensions for safeguarding both human wellbeing and environmental sustainability, which from environmental perspectives, are two sides of the same coin. Holistic environmental sustainability, therefore, is promoted in Akan religious ontology. Consequently, we suggest that Ghana’s efforts at environmental sustainability would largely benefit from indigenous religious beliefs, norms and practices that protect the environment.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their generous grant for the “Re-Invigorating Humanities Research (RE-HURE)” at the University of Ghana from which this research was funded, Project No. G-1804-05739.
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