Modernity and Environmental Degradation in Africa: Evidence from Rural and Urban Nigeria
p. 22-31
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1How has the anthropocentric tendency of modern culture eroded the sense of moral responsibility of the African people toward the natural environment? By modernity, we mean the socio-cultural setting that emerged as a result of the scientific achievements and the humanistic turn that the intellectual world witnessed during the modem epoch. Modernity as a culture is, therefore, the product of various intellectual positions and has developed certain socio-cultural characteristics which are inter-related and explainable as a holistic phenomenon. Some of the features of modernity are:
- the celebration of the rational and scientific mode of analysis and explanation
- the affirmation of individual freedom and autonomy against the domination of the community, or the supernatural
- the adoption and propagation of capitalism, industrialism and mercantilism
- the replacement of traditional values with those that are consistent with modernist tendencies
2Modernity and its affirmation of human autonomy and rationality is a celebration of anthropocentric metaphysics. Anthropocentrism explains the immoral way in which human beings treat the resources of nature in the modem society. If a human being sees himself as an autonomous entity in the modernist sense, he will always regard the rest of the world as something to be controlled. Animals, trees and other resources of nature will, therefore, be regarded not as fellow members of the ecosystem, but as things to be dominated.
3Indeed, the spirit of capitalism is also responsible for the moral crisis of the modem epoch. This spirit sees value as essentially economic. Anything is valuable if it can maximize profit. All natural objects, therefore, are regarded as having extrinsic rather than intrinsic value and are seen as means of improving productivity and increasing profit. In this situation, all objects of nature are treated with economic rather than moral consideration. All members of the ecosystem are seen as potential raw material for the industrial network of the modem society. The traditional ethos has been undermined by this materialistic culture. A writer aptly describes how modernity erodes traditional values in this way:
The modes of life brought into being by modernity have swept us away from all traditional types of social order in quite unprecedented fashion. In both their externality and their intensionality, the transformations involved in modernity are more profound than most sorts of change characteristic of prior periods; on the extensional lane they have served to establish forms of social interconnection which span the globe; on intentional terms they have come to alter some of the most intimate and personal features of our day-to-day existence (Giddens, 1990: 4).
4 Two views from the above quotation are relevant to our present discourse. The first is that modernity has transformed traditional values according to the spirit of the new culture. The second is that modernity is a global phenomenon. The implication of this is that even African society has been affected by the new culture to the extent that traditional environmentally protective values in Africa are no more seen as relevant. The culture of modernity came to Africa through colonialism. So when a writer says that colonialism has burst ‘the moral and social order which formerly encased the precolonial indigenous institution’ (Ekeh, 1985: 11), he implies the culture of modernity which is the antecedent and motivating force behind colonialism.
5To what extent have the culture of modernity and its attendant anthropocentric ethics contributed to the environmental bankruptcy in Africa? The prevalent environmental situation in Africa is that of crisis. ‘Human life, natural habitat, soils and species are all thought to be endangered in the continent to an extent never known before’ (Anderson and Grove, 1987: 1).
Value systems which used to help keep balance between humans and the environment are no longer in place; instead, we have value systems controlled and motivated by the greedy accumulation of capital on an individual basis
Omari, 1990: 171.
6In order to confirm the hypothesis that the environmental crisis in Africa has been complicated by the introduction of the culture of modernity, a field study was carried out in two urban and two rural areas of Nigeria. The analysis follows.
Four Cases of Environmental Crises from Urban Nigeria
Case A: Water pollution as a result of dumping industrial and domestic waste
7A water pollution problem occurred in the Aswan! river of Isolo Local Government. The river was being polluted by waste from a textile industry, various small-scale enterprises, and households who used the river as a refuse disposal point. As a result, the river and the surrounding drainage system were blocked. The colour of the water changed, reflecting the effect of the pollution from industrial effusion and petroleum waste from the surrounding automobile workshops. This pollution affected biotic life in the river.
8The above description exemplifies the environmental problem in the urban sphere where the sense of moral responsibility for human beings and the environment has been affected by the culture of urbanity and the spirit of capitalism. Our investigation in this area revealed that the inhabitants of the Aswani river area, like their counterparts in other industrial centres in the world, had little moral awareness about the effect of their behaviour on the environment. Rather, their sense of values was basically economic. Those responsible for the pollution were not concerned about how it would affect other members of the community. It has been said that the sensibilities of every member of the urban space have been blunted and the individual is left to follow his own inclinations (Boyer, 1978: 206). This is precisely the situation of the members of this community where the river and its environs have become a waste disposal centre.
Case B: Blocking of access road by improper waste disposal
9The second case involves the blocking of the only access road leading to the market centre in Aguda area of Lagos State. At the junction of the road, the waste container put in place for the purpose of waste disposal in the area was so full that the rubbish overflowed onto the road, partially blocking it. If the situation were to prevail the road might be blocked. Despite this obvious problem, members of the neighbourhood still persisted in dumping refuse there. In fact, from available information at the time, no member of the area had made any effort to report the situation to the appropriate authority in charge of waste disposal in Lagos State.
10Certain inferences can be drawn from this. The first is that the members of the neighbourhood did not have any sense of belonging; the spirit of community was lacking. There should have been a common effort to resolve the problem. The respondents confessed that this type of situation could not occur in their villages. The urban sphere, therefore, was regarded as a place of temporary abode and the feeling of moral responsibility and moral restraint had been lost.
Case C: Air pollution from insecticides, refrigerant gases and automobile emissions
11The effects of insecticides, refrigerant gases that contain chloroflurocarbons (C. F. C.) and old automobiles that emit carbon monoxide are serious environmental hazards that occur in the urban sphere as a result of modem infrastructures. Has the lack of moral values contributed to the misuse of infrastructures leading to the pollution of the air?
12Our field research in Adetola Street off Aguda in Surulere Local Government confirms that 65 per cent of the residents interviewed make use of insecticides. Further investigation revealed that the decision to use insecticides was affected by two factors: ignorance and poverty. A large percentage of the residents were genuinely ignorant of the fact that insecticides contribute to the depletion of the protective ozone layer of the atmosphere. The second factor was the economic misery of the average household in the area. They used the cheapest means of eliminating insects from their houses. Many of the landlords and tenants interviewed in the neighbourhood confessed that they could not afford mosquito netting.
13These two factors, poverty and ignorance, affect the moral relationship of the people to the environment and account for the careless use of refrigeration gas by the technicians who repair the refrigerators in this same street. Out of the six technicians interviewed, five claimed total ignorance of the effect of the gas on the atmosphere. Although briefed about the effect of such activities on the environment, they claimed that their economic interests were more important to their survival than any moral consideration for the stability and sustenance of the environment.
14The last environmental problem observed in this area was air pollution as a result of automobile emissions. Seventy per cent of the vehicles found in the neighbourhood were secondhand products imported from Western countries. Although most of the vehicle owners were aware of the effects of the gas emitted by these old automobiles, they claimed that the economic situation made the purchase of new vehicles absolutely impossible.
Case D: Neighbourhood congestion due to the construction of illegal commercial and industrial structures
15One of the effects of the present economic depression on the nations of Africa is the growth of the informal sector of the economy. By the informal sector we mean those secondary commercial activities, such as small-scale carpentry, roadside auto-mechanics, traders and other similarly self-employed persons. Often, any available space in a residential area is taken over, without any respect to town planning regulations, for commercial and small-scale industrial activities. This may include things like gari processing, soap and candle making or simply petty trading. In the neighbourhoods of Surulere and Isolo Local Government Areas where the field research was carried out. nearly 80 per cent of the houses had an illegal structure which was being used for a commercial or industrial purpose. Although the effect of this congestion on the environment is known to most of the people who own these structures, they claim that moral considerations are secondary to the struggle for survival. In a particular street where the construction of illegal structures had totally blocked the drainage system, causing regular flooding during the rainy season, the residents did not feel that decongestion was a price worth paying for the restoration of environmental order.
Two Cases of Environmental Depletion in Rural Nigeria
16Even in the rural sector of Africa, the environmental situation is not significantly different. Although the causes and nature of environmental crises may be different from those of the urban sector, the gravity of the problem is the same. The reason for this is because even in the rural areas of Africa the culture of modernity has been able to penetrate and dominate the social life. As Abraham says, ‘the value facet that governs rural life, including ethics, has fallen into abeyance’ (Abraham 1992: 14). Modem culture has led to environmental abuses in the rural areas of Nigeria.
Case E: Deliberate poisoning of a river to kill fish
17The first case of environmental abuse in the mral sector identified was the deliberate poisoning of the river in order to capture fish. This occurred in Omilende village near Igbogila in Yewa North Local Government. Migrant labourers from the Republic of Benin frequently and deliberately put a highly poisonous chemical, Gamalin 20, in the Iju river to capture fish. The natives of the village also alleged that the fish of a particular stream, which people were forbidden to eat in the past, were also killed by the migrant labourers through this unconventional and immoral means. The migrant labourers confirmed the allegation. What we concluded was that the migrant labourers, being aliens in the community, did not feel any moral responsibility to die community. The’sense of community that we earlier discussed as a significant factor in the sustenance of the environment in traditional society cannot be expected from people who are not members of the primordial community. K. S., one of the respondents, confirmed that he had poisoned the river, but justified his action on the grounds that the villagers also committed the same acts. The reason was obviously economic. The poverty of the people has made them resort to unconventional and immoral means to feed themselves. Poverty has completely blunted the morality that hitherto prevented the natives of the village from despoiling their environment.
Case F: Overgrazing, desertification and deforestation
18Desertification and deforestation are environmental problems which confront many African societies. The problem of desertification was identified in Ojubu village in the Yewa North Local Government in Ogun State. According to the residents of the village, the problem is further complicated by the Fulani herdsmen who overgraze the area with their cattle during the dry season.
19The Fulani cattle rearers operated as if they had no moral concern for this foreign land and its vegetation. The overgrazing and the pollution of the stream generated serious strife between the natives and these nomadic herdsmen. The natives also complained that the Fulani deliberately allowed their animals to wander into their farms and despoil the crops.
20Like other migrants, the immoral use of the environment by the Fulani nomads can be attributed to the fact that they are members of a different community. To argue, however, that these herdsmen are the only people responsible for the process of deforestation would be unfair. Our research in this village revealed that many of the members of the community depended on firewood for their subsistence, while they showed no moral guilt for this depletion of the vegetation.
21What we can infer from the various environmental abuses enumerated above is that the strong moral relationship that existed in traditional Africa between humans and other resources of nature has been seriously eroded. What are the factors responsible for this breakdown? The first factor that we need to discuss is the sense of community. Ethics or moral relationships between many agents depend on the feeling of common interests. Before there can be a sense of morality in any individual, the person must be aware that his interests are interwoven with that of other members and that these interests can best be protected if there is mutual respect. There was a strong moral consideration for humans and non humans in traditional Africa because of the feeling of brotherhood and the communal relationships extended from die human to the non human. With the advent of modernity this feeling has disappeared, and every member of the society will employ all means to protect his interests. In such a situation the interests of other members of the society, human or non human, will not concern him. The sense of moral responsibility to the community is absent in modem society. The motivating factor behind all activities of the individual is his survival, all other things of nature including his fellow human beings can be sacrificed in the process.
22The second factor that is responsible for the absence of moral consideration for the environment is related to the first, and that is that economic values prevail over moral values in the modem society. The individual will, therefore, give priority to the protection of his economic interests, without any moral concern. A landowner may only think of the profit he could make from cutting down all the trees on his land, not the effect that such an action would have on the future fertility of this land and the lives of the members of the eco-community.
23The prevalent economic depression also explains the loss of a sense of morality by members of the contemporary African society. Mabogunje (1988: 25) was, therefore, right in maintaining that the present critical economic conditions will erode the little consideration that people have for succeeding generations and the ecosystem. During our field work, evidence was available that many acts of environmental degradation were caused by the abject poverty of the people. In the rural areas, for example, many people resorted to cutting down trees for fuel since there was no cheap alternative. Moral considerations can only be entertained by free and willing people. An individual who is hungry is far from being free or autonomous. In order to satisfy his wants he will compromise all his moral positions. It is a clear fact that when there is a conflict between morality and survival, the latter will win.
24The culture of modernity has encouraged the depletion of the environment through the injustice and immorality that it encourages. The culture of modernity and the attendant capitalism encourages the prevalence of unnecessary affluence in the face of abject poverty. The rich acquire more, while the poor continue to live in deprivation. In this type of situation, public morality completely breaks down and selfish interests rather than altruism take over. When this is the order of the day, it would be sheer wishful thinking to imagine that members of the society would have any moral consideration for the resources of nature.
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