African ecofeminism and environmental ethics

Abstract

In the last five decades, activities that either unsustainably exploit or degrade the environment in the Global South have been increasing. This has been happening even when there are policies that have been formulated in global conferences to reduce environmental degradation. Consequently, there is need to come up with an approach to environmental ethics that can motivate people in the Global South towards environmental consciousness. This dissertation argues that Wangari Maathai’s approach to the environmental problems in Kenya can teach the people in the Global South to be environmentally conscious. It further argues that Maathai’s approach of African ecofeminism has the potential to offer some long-term solutions to the environmental problems in the Global South because it addresses the root-cause of the environmental challenges in the Global South. According to analyses done by this dissertation, the root cause of the environmental challenges in most regions of the Global South is an exploitative patriarchal mentality. This mentality injects and perpetuates structures of oppression, domination and exploitation that dominate over and exploit the weak, women and the environment. Thus, this dissertation uses the approach utilised by Maathai in the Kenyan context to argue for ways to destroy the exploitative patriarchal mentality in the Global South and promote a green consciousness.