Paper short abstract:

The first presenter will focus on ubuntu thinking in Akan culture for a more sustainable environmental management of plastic waste in Ghana and wider Africa. The second presenter will compare the Ghanaian case with plastic waste management in Malaysia in specific and in Asia more general.

Paper long abstract:

West African indigenous knowledge as a source for environmentally sustainable management has long remained invisible. This paper will focus on indigenous knowledge in Akan culture, religion, and philosophy. Akan proverbs, symbols, oral storytelling, and video films will be discussed to bring out the environmental-related ubuntu aspects of this culture.

Ubuntu is a South African concept, but ubuntu cultural-religious elements can be found in many African cultures. An Akan proverb, for instance, emphasizes that a chief attains selfhood and can only become a good (environmental) manager by listening to and serving his or her followers. Such ubuntu-based Akan indigenous wisdom has long been hidden by a (neo) colonial layer of sand. Climate change has increased the need to uncover African ubuntu-based epistemologies in and outside South Africa.

The first presenter will share her findings of ubuntu thinking in Akan culture and concentrate on ways to implement this for a more sustainable environmental management of plastic waste in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Unearthing the ubuntu nature of Akan culture can help stakeholders to improve their management of the lifecycle and the reduction of plastic. The second presenter will compare the Ashanti case with plastic waste management in Malaysia in specific and in Asia in general, to enhance a broader intercultural philosophical understanding of African ubuntu in contradiction to Asian communitarian-based plastic waste management in the Global South.