Teaching Botho for Global and Holistic Development

The world is currently experiencing a devastating environmental crisis that is threatening global human development. The environmental crisis is manifested in different interconnected ways such as global warming, climate change, frequent and intensive draughts, wildfires, storms, floods, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, deforestation, loss of animal and plant species. It is undeniable that the global environmental crisis is persistently putting more pressure on governments, communities and world organizations to find solutions for the environmental crisis. The Western moral theories such as animal liberation, biocentrism, ecocentrism and ecofeminism as well as scientific approaches that include mitigation and adaptation have been utilized in order to solve the problem. These theories and approaches seem not to be enough. This is proven by the continuing and escalating environmental crisis in the whole world. However, the African theories and approaches that can complement the Western approaches have not been employed. This chapter seeks to argue that the Western ethical theories have deficiencies that make them ineffective. The paper further argues that the African ethics of Botho can positively contribute to the current environmental crisis discourse that aims at reducing environmental risks for global human development. The ethics of Botho advocates for the establishment and maintenance of humane relations between all human beings and nature. This implies that the environmental crisis that the world is experiencing today, is rooted in the existing inhuman relations between human beings and nature. Therefore, the chapter concludes that the ethics of Botho as an African philosophy should be taught globally from early childhood in families to adulthood at tertiary level in order to address the prevailing environmental crisis that is threatening the global human development.