The Significance of African Belief System and Cultural Values in Environmental Conservation and Management in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the roles African cultural values can play in the conservation and management of the environment. The paper is descriptive and analytic, and it relied on secondary sources. It reveals that, some cultural values and religious practices in the African Traditional Religion like methods of worship, initiation rites, the invocation of the sacred powers how the gods communicate their wills to humans through the priests and how the gods are atoned if provoked were examined. The stronghold of African cultural values rests wholly on the ascription of psychic powers to any part of the natural environment as the abodes of the gods and goddesses of the land and the protection of these abodes of the gods/goddesses. The protection of the abodes of the gods from entrance, utilization and exploitation overtly or covertly encourages conservation and management of the environment. Forbidden areas associated with worship contribute to environmental management in African society. These African traditional religious strategies for natural resource conservation and management have somehow been eroded by acculturation and enculturation of most African communities through the introduction of Christianity as a modern way of worship. The paper recommended a revival of the principles of traditional African religious practices where modern conservation programs could integrate traditional knowledge systems into their activities in the conservation and management of natural resources.