Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Preservation

Abstract

Indigenous cultural and religious practices made it possible for tribes to coexist peacefully with their surroundings. This promoted a balanced and sustainable utilisation of natural resources. Today, the world is stirring at an environmental disaster of catastrophic magnitude. This is practically experienced through drastic environmental degradation and extraordinary changes in weather patterns, among others. This has brought a plethora of related effects, such as diseases that are continually being discovered. These conditions are risky to humanity if they continue unabated because there is a link between human activity and the destruction of the ecosystem. This paper, therefore, draws from our African indigenous cultural practices to rediscover how they preserved the ecosystem. This can be an African contribution to the larger pool of initiatives toward environmental preservation. The work is guided by the following questions: i. What are the threats of environmental degradation in Kenya? ii. What are those indigenous African cultural practices that critically enabled the preservation of the environment? iii. What strategies are adoptable and applicable in contemporary times for the enhancement of environmental preservation? This is fundamentally important in conscientizing all persons in society toward their responsibility in environmental preservation, as declared in the Laudato Si! movement initiated by the late Pope Francis.