The More Than Just a Tree project is about remembering, recording, learning, and utilizing environmental literacy based in traditional African knowledge systems. We want to create engaging, accessible educational materials that help us to have a sustainable and conscious relationship with the natural environment.
Our goal is to shift the narrative and broaden our perspective on what it means to be literate.
We continue to become more and more removed from our environment. A recent study showed the average young American can identify 1000 corporate logos and not 10 plants and animals native to their hometown.
The village of Kokrobitey in Ghana is a community in transition. Just 30 years ago people were completely in tune with their environment. They were conversant with their natural resources. There were sacred water holes and abundant crabs along the shore. And you had to witness what people could do with a cup of water to understand how much they valued it. Everyone seemed to recognize every tree, leaf, and shrub. They knew what the bark could do, the leaf, the flower.
This knowledge is integrated into daily life and practices, whether it’s adding medicinal weeds and herbs to their meals to prevent sickness, or not fishing on Tuesdays to allow the sea to rest.
Ghanaian traditional culture, like many other traditional and indigenous cultures around the world, demonstrates that real literacy is not confined to the abilities to read, write and comprehend the written and spoken word. But, rather must include man’s ability to read their environment-to know what nature gives us, and what we are obliged to give it in order to secure a sustainable future.
Now, in the name of development and industrialization, Ghana and the village of Kokrobitey is changing. It is painful to watch a healthy ecosystem and the culture that sustained it being deluged with items the local people can’t afford it. People used the neem tree and charcoal to clean their teeth. Now a packaged version with a brush has come from abroad; earthen structures with natural cooling systems are replaced with cement blocks and tin roofs, disastrously hot for tropical climates. The once pristine and sacred water holes are choked with plastics and toxic waste.
Therefore, it’s important that we learn from and remember traditional knowledge about our ecosystems, wildlife, and interconnectedness and continue to pass it down to future generations. We want to ensure that citizens and youth are equipped with this knowledge to make sustainable environmental decisions.
A Tree is at the center of every traditional Ghanaian compound, which is usually built around a courtyard. People gather beneath it’s shade. Trees are super heroes. They supply everything humans need to support life and other organisms with our ecosystem.
Improves air quality
Trees act as carbon sinks, absorbing CO2 and leaves filter pollutants from the air.
Reduces temperature
Leaves provide shade, they also cool the air through evapotranspiration.
Raw materials
Fuel, tannin, building material and fibers for weaving.Used to clean and filter water.
Improve community health
The benefits of Trees
Trees can positively impact people’s physical and mental health, as they increase people’s propensity to walk, be active, and socialize outside.
Habitat for wildlife
Leaves, roots, and trunk provide habitat for birds, mammals, and insects. Also supports interaction between humans and wildlife which is key to human well-being.
Medicinal benefits
All parts of the tree have medicinal qualities.
Drainage system
Roots can prevent soil erosion and reduce flood risk.
Provides coverage
Branches and leaves reduce wind speed and block rainfall. They also can absorb sound.
Reduce noise
Leaves and branches
can absorb sound.
The Benefits of Trees
We wanted to learn more about plants so we created a plant index, documenting local plants in our environment. We have documented over 150 plants, recording their medicinal, environmental, and material uses.
According to secondary research, in Ghana and many other countries that have rich traditional and indigenous cultures, the increase of acculturation and urbanization is leading to a lack of application of this knowledge and practices. Younger generation are betwixt and between two landscapes of existing that of the fading traditional culture and that of the emerging market economy. They don’t have the requisite skills to thrive in either one.
We then surveyed the Kokrobite community about their knowledge of plants, because we wanted to see if this knowledge is still valued by older and younger generations in the community. We centered questions around the medicinal uses of plants because plants are one of the primary examples of traditional knowledge.
It was clear from the people we talked to that this knowledge is still valued.
Our findings also highlight the urgency to ensure the continuation of the transfer of traditional knowledge, specifically in school and formal education settings.
This project aims to reconnect and share the wisdom of traditional knowledge systems.
These educational materials are used to encourage future generations to be curious about their environment, for citizens to consider the intelligence of their traditional culture, and people beyond our orbit, to provide a different perspective of how we view the environment.
Educational materials are workshopped with local Ghanaian educators as they apply their cultural knowledge and ensure content authenticity. We also aim to introduce games by their nature from a Ghanaian perspective exposing some of the values in traditional Ghanaian culture.
