Short Abstract

Drawing on theories of environmental humanities, this panel proposes oral literature, including proverbs, folktales, praise poetry, cosmogonic myths, and performance traditions, as an underexamined prism through which to read ecological knowledge systems in Africa.

Long Abstract

This panel proposes oral literature, including proverbs, folktales, praise poetry, myths, and performance traditions, as an underexamined prism through which to read ecological knowledge systems in Africa. These oral genres are often treated as folkloric artifact rather than living theory. Drawing on theories of environmental humanities and orality, this panel seeks to advance the argument that orality encodes complex and place-specific environmental philosophies such as human-nonhuman kinship, sacred ecology, and ethics of land, water, and forest that predate and often stretches beyond Western ecological paradigms. The reading of these forms for environment rather than merely as culture, repositions oral literature as a methodological resource for understanding contemporary ecological crises such as climate change, extractivism, and biodiversity loss and related ecological pressures, squarely on African terms. While these oral narrative and poetic genres can be sourced directly from the indigenous communities through fieldwork, they are also collected in prints such as books of proverbs, or collections of folktales. They are in some cases embedded in written literary texts such as the novel, drama and poetry; in other artistic modes such as music, film, and multimedia performances such as social media videos and posts. The panel welcomes environmental readings of oral literature irrespective of the mode in which it is collected, used, or represented. The aim is to bring folklore studies, ecocriticism, indigenous knowledge systems, linguistics, and performance studies into conversation. The panel therefore enacts the 2027 ECAS’ call to bridge disciplines, voices, and varied modes of being and knowing in Africa.

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