Animals and African Ethics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction: Ethics on the African Continent

   • Kai Horsthemke

   Pages 1-14

3. African Philosophy

   • Kai Horsthemke

   Pages 15-29

4. Religion and Ethics in Africa

   • Kai Horsthemke

   Pages 30-36

5. African Creation Myths and the Hierarchy of Beings

   • Kai Horsthemke

   Pages 37-43

6. The African Ritual of Animal Slaughter

   • Kai Horsthemke

   Pages 44-62

7. Traditional African Perceptions and Current Practices — Taboos, Totemism and Spiritualism

   • Kai Horsthemke

   Pages 63-77

8. Ubuntu/Botho/Hunhu and Nonhuman Animals

   • Kai Horsthemke

   Pages 78-92

9. Ukama and African Environmentalism

   • Kai Horsthemke

   Pages 93-100

10. Animals and the Law in East, West and Southern Africa

    • Kai Horsthemke

    Pages 101-117

11. Environmental Justice

    • Kai Horsthemke

    Pages 118-146

12. From Anthropocentrism towards a Non-Speciesist Africa

    • Kai Horsthemke

    Pages 147-156

13. Back Matter

    Pages 157-187

    PDF

The claim is frequently made on behalf of African moral beliefs and practices that they do not objectify and exploit nature and natural existents like Western ethics does. This book investigates whether this is correct and what kind of status is reserved for other-than-human animals in African ethics.

• African philosophy
• moral anthropocentrism
• relationality
• speciesism
• taboos
• totemism
• ubuntu
• ukama
• ethics
• law
• morality
• philosophy
• religion

• University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

  Kai Horsthemke

Kai Horsthemke is Associate Professor in the Wits School of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, UK. Apart from animal rights, his research interests include African philosophy, indigenous knowledge (indigenous science, ethnomathematics, ethnomusicology), as well as humane and environmental education.

Policies and ethics