By: Jacqueline Ampaire
The natural blessings of rains sometimes cause calamity in form of floods in some areas like Kampala, leading to human and property loss. In certain other areas like Teso, Karamoja, floods destroy crops, property and lives. Landslides in Bududa have always caused the rude reality of how much we have offended Mother Nature. According to Giland Njopgang a cultural environmentalist, in Africa, a continent rich in biodiversity and cultural diversity, the relationship between culture and environmental conservation is profound and multifaceted. Traditional ecological knowledge that long ago passed down through generations, had long played a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance between human needs and environmental sustainability.
Societies with their cultural settings had believed that gods and spirits of good would protect families and all other lives which included animals and trees against calamities and death. Cutting down trees would attract the approval of elders. In a way, elders would strategically know which tree to eliminate without affecting the environment. To them the more trees they planted around their settlement, the more they attracted protection against calamities and bad omens. Elders used to “preach the gospel” about the use of having and or planting trees. These stories were told and retold to every generation. It meant every household that sought good health, wealth and protection was motivated to plant and protect trees. They even went as far as planting fruit bearing trees so as to make their homes attractive to young children. It was said once the children are happy after feeding on the fruits it meant the gods and ancestors were equally happy and this would be interpreted as multiplication of blessings to the host family. Trees became a source of life, happiness and defence.
The narrative looks archaic and uncivilised but it was psychologically designed to compel people to plant trees and to instil fear in young people not to unnecessarily cut them down. And indeed the story told worked miracles as every household or settlement started had trees around it.
Trees in the compound could create shelter and the big trees in the village arena would act as village halls to host very important meetings and as the legendary Chinua Achebe puts it, proverbs became the palm wine with which words were eaten as elders passed their wisdom to the young ones.
With our cultures being diluted by the western influence and modernisation that has eroded the practice of collective nurturing and guiding of society, arts becomes the biggest tool to revive our long cultural practices of conserving the environment.
Considering that in South Africa, during the time of apartheid, legendary artists, like Vyonne Chaka Chaka, Lucky Dube used music blended in afro beat to drum up support across the world against apartheid. A motivation that through music, drama and dance, the world got concerned about the plight of the blacks and Africans in South Africa. This culminated into the release of Nelson Mandela and the ushering in of a new rainbow nation in 1994.
The late Philly Bongole Lutaya will long be remembered for having set an example. He used his talent to create awareness on the HIV/AIDS scourge. His song alone and frightened quickly spread like bush fire to caution the people against the pandemic that then was mysterious.
Our artists in East Africa and Uganda in particular therefore need to be encouraged and motivated to use their talents to drum up support for environmental conservation.
The rate at which we are losing green belts in urban centres, playing fields and drainage channels, the rates at which trees are cut in rural areas; without replanting others is a case that not only policy makers and law enforcement agencies should address but also artists. Given that art and music are the food of the soul, mobilising Ugandans to conserve the environment through music, poetry, dance and drama, paintings demonstrating the relevance of trees is the magic bullet that will see us save our environmental from the destruction that is going on in form of unregulated development and unplanned urbanisation.
