The Yoruba Concept of Alajobi as a Panacea for Africa’s Environmental Crises

PDF
Published: Dec 31, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.39998
Keywords:
Alajobi environmental crises Ajogbe Yoruba earth health moderation (iwontunwonsi) contentment (itelorun)
Oluwatobi David Esan
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1749-636X
Solomon Kolawole Awe
Osun State University, Nigeria
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5959-9052
Abstract

This research centers on environmental issues in Africa. By environmental issues, we mean human actions that threaten the collective existence of all living beings on the Earth’s surface. Present reality and research indicate that the ongoing abuse of the environment is not only harmful to nature but also impacts human health and prosperity. According to the World Health Organization, a quarter of all deaths worldwide are now linked to environmental misuse and carelessness towards nature. Incidents such as Ebola and Coronavirus outbreaks should remind humans of the severe and destructive effects that can occur when the environment is exploited without regard and caution. Many lives and properties have been lost globally due to nature’s retaliation in events like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and other natural and human-made disasters. In addressing these issues, this paper discusses how the Yoruba concept of ‘alajobi,’ meaning ‘kinship,’ can be vital in reorienting Africans to see themselves and other beings in nature not just as co-tenants (ajogbe) but as relatives originating from the same ontological source – ‘the earth.’ The paper examines two core values essential for the sustainability of alajobi: moderation (iwontunwonsi) and contentment (itelorun). These values can serve as a paradigm to tackle environmental crises. Ultimately, this paper aims to reinforce the importance of interconnected, interdependent, and harmonious relationships between humans and nature as a sustainable solution to prevent further and impending environmental crises in Africa.

Article Details
  • Section
  • Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (preferably in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Author Biography
Oluwatobi David Esan, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria

Esan, Oluwatobi David is a lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. His Master's degree project was on existentialism, while he is currently working on African environmental philosophy in his PhD. His research interests include Metaphysics, African Philosophy, Existentialism, Environmental Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Literature.

References
Ademilokun, Mohammed Ayodeji. “Yoruba Proverbs and the Anti-Corruption Crusade in Nigeria.” Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 6, no. 1 (2014): 41-48. doi: https://doi.org/10.4102/ink.v6i1.244.
Akiwowo, Akinsola. Ajobi and Ajogbe: Variations on the Theme of Sociation. University of Ife Press, 1983.
Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by J. A. K. Thomson. Penguin Books, 1953.
Behrens, Kevin. “Toward an African Relational Environmentalism.” In Ontologized Ethics: New Essays in African Meta-Ethics, edited by Elvis Imafidon and John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji. Lexington Books, 2014.
Chibvongodze, Danford Tafadzwa. “Ubuntu is not only about Humans! An Analysis of the Role of African Philosophy and Ethics in Environmental Management.” Journal of Human Ecology 53, no. 2 (2016): 157-166.
Clare, Palmer, Katie McShane, and Ronald Sandler. “Environmental Ethics.” The Annual Review of Environmental and Resource 39 (2014): 419-442. doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-121112-094434.
“Do Genes Respond to Global Warming?” PLoS Biology 2, no. 10 (2004): e338. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020338.
Ejike, Cyril Emeka. “COVID-19 and Other Prevalent Diseases in Africa: A Pragmatic Approach.” Conatus – Journal of Philosophy 6, no. 1 (2021): 33-59. doi: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.24650.
Esan, Oluwatobi D., and Solomon Kolawole Awe. “The Yoruba Concept of the Okun Omo Iya as a Critique of Martin Buber’s ‘I-Thou’ and the Quest for Environmental Sustainability.” Dialogue and Universalism 33, no. 2 (2023): 233-253.
Fayemi, Ademola Kazeem. “African Environmental Ethics and the Poverty of Eco-Activism in Nigeria: A Hermeneutico-Reconstructionist Appraisal.” Matatu 48 (2016): 363-388. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-04802008.
Karageorgakis, Stavros, and Konstantina Lyrou. “The Essence of Nature and Dialectical Naturalism.” Conatus – Journal of Philosophy 8, no. 1 (2023): 185-200. doi: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.31845.
Kelbessa, Workineh. “Environmental Philosophy in African Traditions of Thought.” Environmental Ethics 40 (2018): 309-323. doi: https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics201840431.
Kelbessa, Workineh. Indigenous and Modern Environmental Ethics: A Study of the Indigenous Oromo Environmental Ethic and Modern Issues of Environment and Development: Ethiopian Philosophical Studies I. Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2011.
Metz, Thaddeus. “African Values and Human Rights as Two Sides of the Same Coin: A Reply to Oyowe.” African Human Rights Law Journal 14 (2014): 306-321.
Metz, Thaddeus. “Human Dignity, Capital Punishment, and an African Moral Theory: Toward a New Philosophy of Human Rights.” Journal of Human Rights 9, no. 1 (2010): 81-99. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14754830903530300.
Metz, Thaddeus. “Toward an African Moral Theory.” Journal of Political Philosophy 15, no. 3 (2007): 321-341. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9760.2007.00280.x.
Odunjo Joseph Folahan. Alawiye: Iwe keta. Learn Africa Plc, 1975.
Ogar, Joseph Nkang, and Samuel Akpan Bassey. “African Environmental Ethics.” RAIS Journal for Social Sciences 3, no. 1 (2019): 71-81.
Ogunade, Raymond Olutoyin. “Environmental Issues in Yoruba Religion: Implications for Leadership and Society in Nigeria.” Science and Religious Global Perspectives 3 (2005): 4-8.
Ogungbemi, Segun. “An African Perspective on the Environmental Crisis.” In Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, edited by Louis J. Pojman, 330-337. Wadsworth Publishing, 1997.
Ojomo, Philomena. A. “Environmental Ethics: An African Understanding.” African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 5, no. 8 (2011): 572-578.
Omobowale, Ayokunle Olumuyiwa, and Olayinka Akanle. “Asuwada Epistemology and Globalised Sociolgy: Challenges of the South.” Sociology 51, no. 1 (2017): 43-59.
Oyekan, Omowoyela. Yoruba Proverbs. University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
Plumwood, Val. Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason. Routledge, 2002.
Salami, Yunusa Kehinde. “Asuwada Principle and Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria.” Yoruba Studies Review 3, no. 1 (2018): 139-152.
Samuel, Olusegun S., and Ademola Kazeem Fayemi. “Afro-Communal Virtue Ethic as a Foundation for Environmental Sustainability in Africa and beyond.” South African Journal of Philosophy 38, no. 1 (2019): 79-95.
Solomon, Scott. “Climate Change Could Affect Human Evolution.” NBC News. September 7, 2018. https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/climate-change-could-affect-human-evolution-here-s-how-ncna907276.
Tangwa, Godfrey B. “Some African Reflections on Biomedical and Environmental Ethics.” In A Companion to African Philosophy, edited by Kwasi Wiredu, 387-395. Blackwell, 2004.
Ugwu, Anayochukwu Kingsley. “An Igbo Understanding of the Human Being: A Philosophical Approach.” Conatus – Journal of Philosophy 7, no. 1 (2024): 135-181. doi: https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.25223.
Wahab, Bolanle. “African Traditional Religions, Environmental Health and Sanitation in Rural Communities.” The Environscope: A Multidisciplinary Journal 1, no. 1 (2004): 1-9.