Between Anthropocentrism and Ecocentrism

Environmental Ethics in Mafi-Eʋe Indigenous Thought

Abstract

The paper examines the environmental ethics of the Mafi-Eʋe of Ghana's Volta Region, asking whether their indigenous practices are anthropocentric, ecocentric, or both. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with thirty-four participants including traditional priests, elders, hunters, and oyster pickers, the study analyses land cultivation, hunting, fishing, and oyster picking alongside sacred groves, totemic beliefs, hunting taboos, communal ethics, and folklore. While certain practices reflect human-centred motivations, the culture's religious beliefs, cosmology, and social norms collectively express a deep reverence for the natural world that transcends purely instrumental reasoning. The paper concludes that Mafi-Eʋe environmental ethics is best described as indirect ecocentrism a life-centred ethic rooted in indigenous religion and communal responsibility with significant implications for environmental ethics and sustainability in Africa.