Ecocriticism and environmental knowledge of Asante oral traditional poetry

摘要

ABSTRACTudThis thesis deals with the theme of the environmental worth and the contemporaryuddevelopmental relevance of traditional oral poetry. The specific subject matter is theudworth of the traditional oral poetry of Asante/Ashanti (one of the groups of the Akanudcultural group in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo in West Africa) and its relevance as audsource of inspiration for the raising of environmental consciousness. The premise of theudthesis is that there existed within traditional oral literature some environmentaludknowledge which responded to the needs of traditional society. The knowledge in thisudliterature can be revamped and harnessed to help direct the environmental aspect ofudcurrent developmental approaches. For that reason, the thesis takes as its point ofuddeparture and primary data some traditional Asante proverb-poems. These proverbpoemsudhad the status and role of myths engendered by society to fashion and guideudhumans’ interaction with Nature. This assimilation between proverb-poem and society’sudenvironmental precepts implied that society had (consciously or unconsciously) cast theudproverb-poem in the role of an environmental preceptor to guide society.udBeliefs about Nature and the practices thereof which are enshrined in these proverbpoems,udtherefore, contained the knowledge which guided the use of natural resources andudhence the direction of development and sustainability in traditional Asante society.udInvariably, the environmental outlook of society, its values and interests, its projectionsudand directions, and its development, all came to be informed by the knowledge containedudin this myth/proverb-poem. udIt is pertinent to note that the type of environmental demands required by contemporaryudAsante is reminiscent of the sustainability which oral literature helped traditional Asanteudto attain. This comparison is validated for two main reasons. The first is the fact thatudtoday development in perceived as a shift from the prioritization of the military securityudof states and regimes to an emphasis on seven cardinal areas which complement state andudregime security. These are - Economic security, Food security, Health security,udEnvironmental security, Personal security, Community security, and Political security.udThis thesis focuses on the environmental aspect. Second, development focuses onudexploring local alternative approaches to the problem of environmental degradation. Inudthis regard, the thesis argues that aspects of the manner in which cultural communitiesudexpress their relationship with Nature is recoverable through a literary study of theudimages and belief system found in their rendition of Nature.udThese images, their perceptions, and the attitude they express toward Nature, offer audframework within which to evaluate possible culture-specific solutions to contemporaryudenvironmental problem. It is for the above reason that this work evaluates a selection ofudtraditional Asante proverb-poems to find out the extent to which they served to mediateudenvironmental consciousness and Nature conservation in traditional Asante.udIn order to arrive at a more reliable conclusion, this investigation first evaluates the waysudin which institutions and practices such as Asante political system, the nature of theirudmyths and taboos, their impact on their environment, their relation with colonialudenvironmentalism, the nature and the archival function of their poetry and their entire udcosmovision can be said to resemble or reflect the manner in which the Asanteudformulated the relationship between humans on one hand and flora, fauna, and landscapeudon the other. It is revealed that their predilection for co-existence with nature advocatedudin these literary texts largely resembled the normative values and institutional structuresudof traditional Asante community.udUsing Structuralism and Ecocriticism the work presents each persona of the variousudproverb-poems as opposing some prevailing attitudes to nature by critiquing, teaching,udencouraging, condemning, exalting the audience to perceive nature as kin, nature as audbeneficent agent to appreciate, nature as a danger to avoid, and nature as a domain toudwhich humans are accountable. The thesis also advances the opinion that those attitudesudwhich sustained environmental viability could be reworked and adapted to feed into theudcreation of a mind-sets which can enhance human perceptions about Nature today andudcontribute to the search for solutions to environmental degradation.udIn addition to the above anthropo-developmental dimension, the analysis reveals someudspecificities of the literary analysis of oral environmental texts of traditional societies. Itudequally shows the nature of the peculiar challenges faced in the environmental arena byuddevelopmental objectives. The work is, therefore, inspired by the need to contribute ideasudand perceptions that can eventually feed into the debates around solutions toward theudsolving of environmental problems. Thus, the work seeks to do this by using literaryudapproaches to highlight and draw on traditional knowledge to enrich the present search for indigenous ways of conceptualizing human-Nature relations and of solving currentudenvironmental problems.