My Family Environmental History

March 24, 2022 By: Christopher Anyadubalu

My grandparents were born and raised in small villages in Biafra land (Southeastern Nigeria) prior to the British amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates into what the English colonial masters named Nigeria. They were raised in natural native environment in line with the tradition and culture of the Igbo people. There were little contact with the Europeans. In other words, their environment was not exotic, and the impacts of European civilization have not yet taken deeper roots. They tied piece of rapper (clothe) just to cover their private parts. They were mainly subsistence farmers and small-scale animal husbandry. My grandparents used to grow cassava, maize/corn, yam, cocoyam, tomatoes, and a variety of vegetables in the farms. They were raised to be ecologically aware of the environment and seasons.

There were basically two seasons – rainy season and dry season. The rainy season was a period of rain fall in which they cleared the farmlands for agriculture. And the dry season was a period of harvesting and gathering, building the ban for the harvested farm produce, especially yam, cocoyam, and cassava processing. It seems that the farming season is a period of doing more labor and hard work in the farms, while the harvesting season seems more of a happy period with plenty harvests and farm produce to sell in the village market or exchange to obtain their household needs. Similarly, my grandparents used to raise free range chickens, ducks, and goats. They usually tie a long rope on each goat every morning and take them to graze on the fields where there are green pastures.

It is important to note that my grandparents lived in a society dominated by male (male chauvinism), and so observed cultural gender roles in all their life’s activities. For example, my grandpa (male) makes the big mound for planting yam, harvesting it, and making barn for yam preservation, and climbing of tree; while my grandma (female) makes the small mound for planting cocoyam, harvesting it, and making barn for cocoyam preservation, and never climb tree. Their upbringing and living in the context of Igbo culture and tradition inculcated in them the sense of the environment, and to care for the environment. For example, they had a composting site (big hole dug on the ground) behind my grandma’s Tash hut (a little shelter made of bamboo sticks and palm fronds) where they gather droppings from chickens, ducks, and goats, grasses, and other edible household waste. These decomposed to form manure which they used in agriculture. In other words, their daily activities and lives portrayed how they perceived and transformed their environment to serve their needs.

On the contrary, my parents were born in 1950 and raised in the African country already infiltrated and dominated by the European influence, an exotic environment of strong British presence, control, and leadership of the government. This was a period western civilization, European education, and western religions have already gained deep roots in the society. Then, the struggle for Nigeria Independence, and eventually the “paper independence” granted by Britain in 1960. My parents participated in harnessing their environment for economic growth witnessed in Nigeria for a few years after the independence before the Biafra-Nigeria civil war between 1967-1970. For example, my parents worked in the palm tree plantation, palm oil production, and small-scale industrial recycling of the waste products from palm-nut and its fibers to produce sponge, body cream (ude-aku), local soap, engine oil, and lubricants.

The Biafra-Nigeria civil war broke and destroyed the organically growing local economic environment. Being the victims and losers in the civil war, the British government sponsored policies targeted on Biafrans completely stifled the economic environment and made Biafra land almost inhabitable. At the end of the war and having lost most of their loved ones and everything they owned due to the civil war, lots of Biafrans left the Southeastern Nigeria and moved to the different parts of African and beyond to earn a living. My parents moved to the Southern Cameroon where my father worked as a carpenter, and my mother was a petite trade. The economic environment was not favoring my parents, and consequently they returned to Biafra land in 1974 when I was born to participate in building our homeland.

I was born and raised in the period our culture and tradition were not upheld; western education had become attractive, and English language especially the pidgin English (slang) had replaced the local dialect. There was overwhelming dependence on foreign-made and imported goods and processed foods (like cereal, crackers, Bon-vita, canned foods, Coca-Cola, and various beverages). Western style of dressing was the fashion of the day. I grew up at the period when expansion and development of cities, and building of houses, roads, railways, and social infrastructures did not consider the environmental concerns. Currently, another burden to the environment is that individuals are sinking private boreholes (for good drinking water) in their residences, digging sucker-away pits for toilet wastes, and disposing the wastes into the rivers. There is no central sewage disposal system. And all these cause environmental hazards and degradation.

Lastly, another environmental issue is the increase in private transportation. Many individuals and families are increasingly buying motor vehicles and motorcycles contributing to global warming in my generation than in the former generations. The increase in factory and industrial waste contribute to the air, water, and environmental pollutions more in my generation than in the former generations. The awareness of the need to preserve and protect the environment was practiced more in the former generations than in my generation. I wish environmental awareness and enlightenment campaigns shall spring up from the land of my birth to take care of the environment like our grandparents did.