environmental messages in stories. It can be seen that in spite of the moralistic character of many stories none of them has a direct lesson that corresponds to the message of the regular environmental or nature conservation organisations. Only a very few stories contain a message of the usefulness of protecting nature for strictly utilistic reasons. Even the stories that start with a problem or statement that seems to be rather environmental finally turn out to be purely social. Apparently, a clear environmental message is not what we should expect from these stories.
Does this mean that local stories are useless for any environmental discourse? This conclusion could be drawn too hastily. There could probably be other, more indirect levels on
5 It may be interesting to draw attention to a few written stories from the Islamic traditions that have been indicated as ‘environmental’. In the 12th century there appeared a so-called ecological fable that was anonymously published in 1978 under the title: The case of the animals versus man before the king of the Jinn. A tenth-century ecological fable of the pure brethren of Basra. The story deals particularly with the first theme
of this section: nature that asks for attention. In the story the domesticated animals start complaining about being badly treated by people. People say they have the right to use the animals the way they want since animals were created for the sake of serving mankind. Finally this leads to a conflict that has to be solved by the king of the Jinn. In contrast to the stories collected in Cameroon, this story remains focused on this theme until the end. It should be noted, however, that the story merely deals with the problem of domesticated animals. Although later in the story the domesticated animals are supported by the wild animals, no reference is made with respect to other environmental themes such as the danger of extinction of species or the value of the environment, be it eco-centric or anthropocentric. Moreover, at the end the judge gives the right to people citing the Koran about the place that animals have in the universe. The concluding idea is that animals were made to serve mankind. People are free to treat the animals any way they want.
Another story that appears to have environmental value is the story of Hayy ibn Yaqzan. This story tells of the life of a boy who has grown up on an island, completely isolated from the rest of the world. He starts investigating nature, including the determination of animal species and in this way achieves a perfect scientific knowledge of nature. Although the story very much focuses on the beauty of the natural world, no direct references for environmental protection are made, simply because there is no need for it. On the island, nature is flourishing and there is no environmental problem at all.
It should be noted that although environmentalists often refer to messages in old texts such as the Bible, this does not mean that environmental messages are explicitly present in these documents. After all, the environmental movement in Europe has only arisen in the last century, previously no problem had been experienced. Taking fragments from these documents to strengthen one’s argument would be probably nothing more than losing yourself in the myth of ecological wisdom (see section 2.5).
which stories can be useful in one way or another. In the following part of this chapter I will further explore the meaningfulness of the stories with respect to the subject of environment in general.
Let me start from the premise that stories provide knowledge. This knowledge is very important for the environmental dialogue. After all, motivations for action are based on knowledge. As explained in section 2.2, I distinguish two levels of knowledge: a concrete level of factual knowledge and a deeper level that contains underlying assumptions related to someone’s worldview. Although both levels cannot be clearly separated and definitely influence each other, I will for practical reasons use this division for further discussion starting with the most concrete factual level (informative knowledge). The question is thus what literal and direct information or knowledge can be obtained from stories? I will focus on two different subjects: knowledge about animals and plants, and general knowledge about the environment people are living in.
6.4
Stories and concrete factual environmental knowledge
When comparing factual knowledge in local stories with what is known by supra-locals, there are three possibilities. Assuming that supra-locals build this type of knowledge on science, these three possibilities are: 1) local knowledge agrees with scientific knowledge, 2) local knowledge complements what has not (yet) been discovered by scientists, 3) local knowledge contradicts scientific findings.
Theoretically, only the third case may cause problems for the environmental dialogue. Contradictions between local perceptions and scientific insights may also be caused, however, by perceptions that go beyond the realm of pure factual observation. A story may touch on more spiritual or supra-natural matters and therefore touch on the deeper levels and the assumptions behind it. To give one example, locals describe the behaviour of elephants in Moutourwa (see section 5.5.3) as very human-like, because of the assumption that shapeshifting had taken place.
The factual information that is transmitted by stories is very diverse. It may include simple information about the environment and its characteristics but also more complex issues such as behavioural instructions on how to deal with the environment. An example of the latter is the story in the Far North that explains a certain technique to breed fish (Box 6.3). Information about sensitive issues may also be given in stories, such as in the story in Mindif (section 5.6.5) in which a villager tells how a man developed a way to obtain ivory. It should be clear that this sort of information may promote certain behaviour that could have a positive or negative impact on nature.
Box 6.3: The man with his fishing channel
Guividig: Moussa Aoula, age 20, male, Peul.
Once there was a man who lived with his daughter. Since the village had become too small, they decided to leave and go into the bush. In the bush they found a water hole filled with fish. The water hole became their property. Once they had eaten all the fish they had to look further away for new fish. In the course of time, however, they developed a kind of fishing strategy. They started growing small fish in the water hole in order to have bigger ones later.
One day, the father had to travel. His daughter stayed in order to look after the water hole. Nobody was allowed to touch his fish. Some strangers came to visit the girl but the girl did not have any food to prepare for them. She went to the waterside and called the fish in order to catch one. She called: "Pati pati (small Heterotis niloticus), abo'odi (big Heterotis niloticus), Hiya (Alestus nurse), Goumbouloum (Clarias spp.)." But none of the fish wanted to come. Finally she kneeled at the waterside to clean the dishes. One Pati pati came along to see what she was doing. Suddenly she moved towards it and cut its tail with a knife. She prepared a meal with it.
When the father returned, he asked the girl if there was any news. The girl replied that nothing had happened. The man went to the waterside to see his fish and discovered that one fish had no tail anymore. He became angry and went to his daughter: "Kayamouli, what did you do?"
Finally the girl had to confess.
"Stand up", said the father, "I am going to punish you by selling you. With the money I am going to buy new fish."
The girl started crying but the father took her very far away in his pirogue. Suddenly a mermaid appeared asking the man where he was going to. The man explained that he wanted to sell his daughter. The mermaid said: "Give me your daughter and I'll fill your boat with any fish you like." So it happened. The mermaid took the daughter under the water and the man returned with his boat full of Hiya. He was very satisfied. But when he arrived at the water hole he saw a lot of birds gathered round it. They had already finished all his fish. He started regretting what he had done to his daughter.
And then there was a man called Kidaf. He was the father of ten children and his wife was pregnant again. He was thinking of how to feed his family. He was the friend of a fish species called Lareau (Heterotis niloticus). One day he said to the fish: "I would like to invite you for a party at my home." Lareau was very pleased to go but he wondered how to get to the house of Kidaf as there was no water. Kidaf said: "I will solve this problem."
He asked his whole family to help him dig a canal from the river to his house. Once they had finished, he invited his friend and all the other fish to come. While the fish were amusing themselves, Kidaf sent his wife to the beginning of the canal to make a dam to close the canal so they could catch all the fish.
Lareau, however, noticed this and suddenly he understood that it was a trap. He warned all his brothers and all the fish got panicked. They tried to swim as fast as they could to cross the dam, but it was too late. Lareau, however, knew how to jump and jumped into the dam. After three times, the dam broke and all the fish could flee. Lareau jumped out of the water and hit the stomach of the pregnant woman with his tail. After this he left. Because of the blow the woman gave birth to a child that fell right into the water. Kidaf thought it was Lareau falling into the water and with his spear he killed his own child. While retrieving it from the water Kidaf discovered that he had made a big mistake. They cried the whole year long.