An African Legal, Cultural and Religious Perspective of Sustainable Soil Governance

Abstract

This chapter adopts a desktop review of diverse literature to understand the legal, cultural and religious underpinning of sustainable soil governance in Africa. The role of traditional knowledge systems in achieving sustainable soil governance in Africa will also be evaluated. The African Union recognises five geographic regions on the continent namely, North, South, West, East and Central. A sixth region consisting of people of African descent living outside the continent is also categorized but it is not materially relevant for the present analysis. The countries highlighted in this chapter are only used representatively of the entire continent to the extent possible. Africa is a large continent with diverse traditions, cultures and religions upon which the legal systems responsible for natural resources and environmental protection are anchored. It is therefore impossible to discuss any issue pertinent to the continent with homogeneity. Africa is no doubt one of the most resource-abundant continents. Natural resources such as gold, diamond, oil, natural gas, copper, uranium, among others are mined in different parts of the continent. Almost every country in Africa has a deposit of natural resources because the continent is endowed with about 97% of the world’s chromium, 90% of the world’s cobalt, 85% of the word’s platinum, 70% of the world’s cocoa, and 60% of the world’s coffee. Despite this abundance of natural resources, Africa is also among the poorest continents. One of the factors that has led to the continent’s extreme poverty levels is that the extraction of land or soil based natural resources is minimally utilised to the benefit of the African countries themselves. The process of natural resources extraction causes immense damage primarily to land and soil as well as the general environment. Against this background, this chapter assesses how culture, traditional norms and religion have shaped sustainable soil governance in Africa.