Earth jurisprudence – A really interesting movement taking root in many countries, and one I had never heard of.
Across Africa, a network of Earth Jurisprudence Practitioners is accompanying traditional and indigenous communities in the revival and enhancement of their Earth-centred customary governance systems. In Kenya, Uganda, Benin, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Cameroon, communities are reviving traditional knowledge and practices, restoring sacred natural sites and associated rituals, re-establishing indigenous seed diversity and food sovereignty, and strengthening ecological governance systems derived from the laws of the Earth. These civil-society-led initiatives to re-establish Earth-centred governance on the continent are founded on Africa’s rich indigenous legal traditions and cultural heritage and inspired by Earth Jurisprudence – a legal philosophy and ethical framework conceived of by eco-theologian Thomas Berry in the late twentieth century
A very positive glimpse into what a future conception of law might look like, in a society that understands its place within the interconnected web of life.
Let’s hope these will prove accurately-forecasting straws in the wind for Africans defending their continent from the gangsters seeking to gut it, and for re-establishing a true status for humankind-within-nature; and properly subject to it.
This has to happen, either by prudent prior choice, or by a beaten-into-us default - those of us who survive the beating…
Agreed - let’s hope. Steps that move us in the direction of listening to indigenous cultures on the subject of respecting the planet we live on can only be a good thing, I think. And Africa has had to endure centuries of Europeans telling them that their cultural knowledge is totally useless. It’s nice to see some fight back against that tide…