Environment involves all entities; human, and non-human, living thing, non-living things existed in universe. Environmental ethics deals the ethical relationship of all environmental entities with human being. Because of the existence of diverse ethnic groups, the understanding of environment is varying form one ethnic group from another.
In this paper I will deliberate the similarity and difference between Confucius and African environment.Confucius was a Chinese philosopher lived in 6th century. Confucius worked in ethics, politics, and religion in the time. Confucius was a transmitter of a principle called Confucianism. The core principle of Confucianism principle is harmonious living of one with his fellow. Related to environment Confucius believes the harmony of things in the environment, but there is hierarchy among elements of the environment.
Africa is an owner of heterogeneous ethnic groups and each ethnic group has its own way of understanding of politics, ethics and religion, it does not mean African ethnic groups has no mutual understanding in things. Especially concerning environment, most of African ethnic groups have almost similar account. For example; we can take Ubuntu society from South Africa, Nso ethnic group from Cameroon, Yaruba society from Nigeria, Maati ethics from Egypt and Oromo ethnic group from Ethiopia; all these ethnic groups believe in the harmony of all entities in the environment.
African and Confucius environment is similar and different in several ways. They are similar in believe in the harmony of entities in the environment, non-anthropocentricand both have holistic approach in environment, they are similar in the cause of environmental degradation is the domination ofhuman being up on environment. I will deeply discuss each similarity later on.
However Confucius and African understanding of environmental ethics is not completely similar, there are some sorts of contrasting views. They are different in view of harmony, non-anthropocentric view, and they are different in using the view of animism. I will discuss deeply in later on.
The first similarity between African and Confucius environment is that both are believe in the harmony of entities in environment. Here in side Africa we take Yaruba ethnic group from Nigeria. Yaruba ethnic group believe in the harmony and independence of things in the environment. Kazeem, Ademola claims Yaruba peoples understanding of environment as this, harmony and independence sense. He wrote as following:
The metaphysical structure of the Yoruba conception of the nature of reality falls within the binary complementarity scheme.” Binary complementary metaphysics is grounded on interdependence, on inseparable and harmonious relationships of both the visible and the invisibles constituting the environment. This “indissoluble solidarity between humanity and the environment, implies sharing certain norms that foster harmonious relationships not only, among humans but also between humans and non-human visible components of the environment as well as the non-visible constitution of the environment(Kazeem, 2016: 581-582).
In the case of Confucius, even if different scholars oppose the harmony of all entities in the environment, TuWeimingsupports harmony existence of environment. According to Wong expression TuWeiming believes in harmony of all things in the universe. He noted as following:
TuWeiming characterizes Confucian (environmental) philosophy as an anthropocosmic philosophy, which takes human beings to be “an integral part of the ‘chain of being’, encompassing Heaven, Earth, and myriad things {but, at the same time, distinguished by their} intrinsic capacity of the mind to ‘embody’ the cosmos in its conscience and consciousness (Wong, 2015:30).
The above quotes and statements imply that both African and Confucius believe in harmony of entities in the environment. So they are similar in this case.
The second similarity between African and Confucius ethics is that both are non-anthropocentric and address holistic approach of environment. Non-anthropocentric refers human is not the center environment, but one element of environment. In this case we take maati ethics of ancient Egypt. According to maati ethics “…humans are the part of nature” (Kelbessa, 39).Holistic refers the interconnection of the part to create whole. Environment is created by interconnection of its parts; like human, non-human and others. Kelbessa also supports this view. As he noted: “…African holism insists that human beings are related to both one another and their ecosystem” (Kelbessa, 40).
Confucius environment is also non-anthropocentric, because it accepts the harmony and holistic approach of entities of the environment. Weiming claims Confucius has holistic environment approach, because he noted as following: “…the most significant contribution the Confucian tradition can offer the global community is the ideal of unity of heaven and humanity, a unity that Confucius also believes embrace earth” (Weiming. 2001:243). So in this case non-anthropocentric and holistic approach African and Confucius ethics are similar.
The other similarity between African and Confucius environment is that both believe because environment degradation is the domination of humans over environment by the development of technology and failure of existing or native moral consideration on environment. As Kazeem expression “Environmental crises results from human actions and dereliction and since axiological system informs actions” (Kazeem, 2016: 367).
When Icontrast African environmental ethics with Confuciusthere are following difference. The first difference is that the harmony of Confucius is not on sameness whereas the harmony of Africans is based on sameness. In Confucius world view harmony refers each part of the society or hierarchies of society do its own role and give respect for the highest. For example: Nuyen had noted in proper family could be formed “If the father is father, the mother is mother, the son is son then the family is proper family” (Nuyen, 2011: 557). This implies that Confucius view of harmony is not based on sameness. But in African world of view harmonious stands from sameness. This makes Confucius non-anthropocentrism weak and African non-anthropocentrism strong.
The other difference between African and Confucius environment is using animism; refers everything in the environment have spirit. Confucius does not accept his view. In contrast African accepts this. Traditional Nsoethinic group in Cameroon accepts animism. Tangwa noted their view as following:
…Because the Nso’ attitude toward nature and the rest of creation is that of respectful coexistence, conciliation, and containment, there are frequent offerings of sacrifices to God, to the divine spirits, both benevolent and malevolent, to the departed ancestors and to the sundry invisible and inscrutable forces of nature (Tangwa, 2004:389-390).
Traditional Yaruba ethnic groups are believed in animism. Kazeem view supports this idea he notes: “… Perhaps this explains why earth, forests, rivers and wind and other natural objects are traditionally believed to be both natural and divine” (Kazeem, 2016: 368).These two quotes imply that according to African environment, all things in the environment have spirit.
In generally in this paper I have discussed the similarity and difference of African and Confucius environment. In some cases they are similar and in other cases they are different. African and Confucius environment is similar and different in several ways. They are similar in believe in the harmony of entities in the environment, non-anthropocentric and both have holistic approach in environment, they are similar in the cause of environmental degradation is the domination of human being up on environment.They are different in view of harmony, non-anthropocentric view, and they are different in using the view of animism.