Our Good Mother Who Feeds Us

Hello all!In the last episode, we examined the case of Kenya’s Chonyi people’s fight and ultimate victory in preventing a cement plant from being established on their lands. We ended that episode with a question: How should modern Africans navigate a future which will continue to demand land and other natural resources to support much needed economic development? Here’s another question: What attitudes can modern Africans adopt to ensure that the same exploitative and extractive attitudes we condemn in foreign entities don’t poison our own activities? In this week’s episode, we go to Ghana’s Atlantic coast to examine yet another case of foreign exploitation and explore how traditional beliefs might offer a pathway to more sustainable development.References* Adjei, Joseph Kingsley, and Solomon Sika-Bright. “Traditional beliefs and sea fishing in selected coastal communities in the Western Region of Ghana.” Ghana Journal of Geography 11.1 (2019): 1-19.* Addo, Christian. Singing in fishing: A culturally-centred exploration of the meanings and functions of singing to sailors. MS thesis. Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Fakultet for samfunnsvitenskap og teknologiledelse, Psykologisk institutt, 2013.* Battle to stop Africa’s waters being ravaged by China’s dark fishing fleets* What is bottom trawling?* Cameroon: Foreign trawlers devastate fisheries in Cameroon, navy deployed to seize illegal vesselsMeanwhile…The Watkins Book of African Folklore (…or The Mythological Africans Book) is out!The Watkins Book of African Folklore contains 50 stories, curated from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. The stories are grouped into three sections:* Creation myths and foundation legends* Stories about human relationships and the cultural institutions they created* Animal tales (with a twist…the folktales are about some of the most unlikely animals!)I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the historical and cultural context out of which the stories, their themes, and protagonists emerge. There is something for everybody!Mythological Africans is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe