Ubuntu-Ukama Epistemologies
Towards a Shift from a Colonial Grammar of Possession and Exploitation to Ecological Kinship and Community in Environmental Communication
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19480361 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mohammed Sakip Iddrisu (Texas Christian University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-15 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Communication (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1752-4032 • E-ISSN: 1752-4040 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17524032.2026.2636095 |
| OpenAlex | W7133949927 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 28 |
From an African Indigenous worldview, Ghana's artisanal gold mining industry evinces a troubling breakdown in relationality between humans and the natural environment. Such a breakdown, traceable to colonial-capitalist logics, is fueling increasing rates of environmental destruction. To restore this ruptured relationality, I argue for a shift from environmental communication practices which reify climate coloniality and resource colonialism to environmental relationality and ecological kinship informed by Indigenous African environmental knowledges, specifically ubuntu and ukama epistemologies. The paper contends that to reimagine environmental communication from African Indigenous worldviews, an ubuntu-ukama approach reorients us to advance two primary communicative praxes by: (1) shifting from a colonial grammar of possession and ownership of the natural environment which fuels environmental exploitation to an ecological kinship which advances sustainability and care; and (2) reclaiming “community” as a bureaucratic, exclusionary term from political elites and redefining it as a central ethic of being-in-community between humans and the natural environment
Colonialism · Grammar · Kinship · Possession (linguistics) · African cultural and philosophical studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Agriculture
On Environmental Communication as a Care Discipline
Reflecting on Care within an African Relational Framework for Environmental Communication
A Reflection on Imperialism in Nature Conservation from African Conceptions of Care
Nature's “Crisis Disciplines”
The Environment Under Colonialism
Bantu Sociolinguistics in Wangari Maathai's Peacebuilding Rhetoric
Policy narrative, policy understanding and policy support intention
The cognitive empire, politics of knowledge and African intellectual productions
Ubuntu, Ukama and the Healing of Nature, Self and Society
The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality
Sustainable Colonization
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |