Abstract

This book explores indigenous sub-Saharan African agrarian beliefs, values, practices, institutions, as well as contemporary agrarian issues and challenges connected with a changing historical, economic, social, and political landscape in Africa. The book is hinged on the idea that wherever human beings have lived, they have been preoccupied with finding ways to ensure sustainable management of the natural resources at their disposal to take care of their basic needs: food, shelter, and security, and that agriculture is an essential, but generally neglected, determinant of the emergence and orientation of all philosophical traditions. In the quest for food security and subsistence of the group, different beliefs, knowledge systems, moral norms, cultural practices and institutions emerged to guide societies on how to manage the natural environment, to (re)produce and to nurture plants and animals. In this introductory chapter, I sketch out the general features of agrarian philosophy and African agrarian philosophy in particular.