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<p>Africa faces significant socio-environmental challenges whose interconnectedness highlights the need for strategies that address social and ecological priorities simultaneously. Yet, global sustainability discourses, while emphasizing environmental sustainability, often do not consider the urgent socioeconomic realities faced by African countries. This paper contextualizes Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ within African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) to address human-environment tensions on the continent, attempting to integrate the spiritual and ethical dimensions of integral ecology with the indigenous wisdom embedded in African values such as Ubuntu. Emphasizing harmony between humans and nature, these systems offer lessons for crafting policies that respect cultural values while advancing the needs of current and future generations. Using qualitative thematic content analysis of archival data and adopting a primarily nonurban approach, overlapping principles between Laudato Si’ and IKS were identified. The findings show a strong convergence on interconnected themes such as spirituality, harmony, justice and stewardship. The insights generated support a call for the adoption of more culturally grounded legal and business policies that can promote not only inclusive economic growth but also social equity and ecological sustainability in Africa. Actionable recommendations include the integration of IKS into environmental governance, Overall, the paper, with a preliminary conceptual synthesis, shows how localised solutions can enrich global sustainability initiatives and promote sustainable development for Africa’s current and future generations.</p>

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Integrating Laudato Si’ and Indigenous Knowledge to Address Human-Environment Tensions in Africa: Pathways for Ethical Business and Legal Solutions

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月8日

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  • Kemi Ogunyemi

摘要

Africa faces significant socio-environmental challenges whose interconnectedness highlights the need for strategies that address social and ecological priorities simultaneously. Yet, global sustainability discourses, while emphasizing environmental sustainability, often do not consider the urgent socioeconomic realities faced by African countries. This paper contextualizes Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ within African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) to address human-environment tensions on the continent, attempting to integrate the spiritual and ethical dimensions of integral ecology with the indigenous wisdom embedded in African values such as Ubuntu. Emphasizing harmony between humans and nature, these systems offer lessons for crafting policies that respect cultural values while advancing the needs of current and future generations. Using qualitative thematic content analysis of archival data and adopting a primarily nonurban approach, overlapping principles between Laudato Si’ and IKS were identified. The findings show a strong convergence on interconnected themes such as spirituality, harmony, justice and stewardship. The insights generated support a call for the adoption of more culturally grounded legal and business policies that can promote not only inclusive economic growth but also social equity and ecological sustainability in Africa. Actionable recommendations include the integration of IKS into environmental governance, Overall, the paper, with a preliminary conceptual synthesis, shows how localised solutions can enrich global sustainability initiatives and promote sustainable development for Africa’s current and future generations.