Profit, Tradition, and African Wildlife: Examining Animal Commodification Through Eco-Bio-Communitarianism

Abstract

In Southern Africa, there exists a large-scale commodification of fauna, extending to the utilisation of animals in traditional medicine. In South Africa alone, 1,175 documented cases of rhinoceros poaching transpired in a single annum, and analogously, an estimated 100,000 pangolins are smuggled from there to Asia annually. These and myriad other species, whether intact, in part, or processed into medicaments, are vented either in their country of origin for application in traditional medicine or exported illicitly across the globe for similar purposes. In this paper, I posit that this large-scale commodification conflicts with a relational African environmental ethic. To substantiate this claim, I consider two cardinal concepts in African ecological ethics, which will illuminate how animals should be utilised and considered morally. Firstly, the Shona concept of Ukama employs Felix Murove’s exegesis. Secondly, I explore eco-bio- communitarianism, precisely the Nso worldview of Godfrey Tangwa. Upon applying these concepts to the utilisation of fauna in traditional medicine by traditional healers and to the current largescale commercial exploitation of animals in conventional medicine, this thesis concludes that only the profit-driven use opposes an African environmental ethic.