African Environmental Ethics

This book focuses on under-explored and often neglected issues in contemporary African environmental philosophy and ethics. Critical issues such as the moral status of nature, African conceptions of animal moral status and rights, African conceptions of environmental justice, African relational Environmentalism, ubuntu, African theocentric and teleological environmentalism are addressed in this book. It is unique in so far as it goes beyond the generalized focus on African metaphysics and African ethics by exploring how these views might be understood differently in order to conceptualize African environmental ethics. Against the background where environmental problems such as pollution, climate change, extinction of flora and fauna, and global warming are plain to see, it becomes useful to examine how African conceptions of environmental ethics could be understood in order to confront some of these problems facing the whole world. This book will be of value to undergraduate students, graduate students and academics working in the area of African Philosophy, African Environmental Ethics and Global Ethics in general.      

Munamato Chemhuru obtained his Doctoral degree in Philosophy from the University of Johannesburg in 2016. Upon completion of his doctoral degree in Philosophy, he was awarded a commendation bursary for outstanding performance in doctoral studies by the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty of Humanities. In 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Global Excellence Stature Fellowship (GES) for a post-doctoral research fellowship that he pursued with the University of Johannesburg’s department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities. After completion of his post-doctoral research fellowship, he was appointed as a Senior Research Associate in Philosophy by the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg from 2018-2020. He is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Great Zimbabwe University. His current research focuses on various applied ethical issues in African Philosophy stemming from concepts such as African communitarian philosophy and the idea of ubuntu. He has published research articles in some central Philosophy journals like Amoye: Journal of African Philosophy and Studies, Caribbean Journal of Philosophy, Journal on African Philosophy, Africana Journal of African Studies, Philosophia Africana, South African Journal of Philosophy, Politikon, Theoria and Phronimon. He also has a book chapter in an edited book published by Lexington Books in 2014. Munamato has also presented conference papers at local and international conferences in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya and Greece.