Environmental Determinism: Its Ghanaian Existence

After a long unforgiving break from blogging, I’m finally here with a piece which I believe was sent from above. I was writing down my bathing schedule for this harmattan period when the title dropped within my spirit. I decided to ignore but while bathing (cos I don’t plan on bathing tomorrow) the topic kept ringing in my mind and I couldn’t resist putting down something to that effect. So kindly follow my scattered thoughts on this, I will try my best to make sense.

Environmental Determinism – big word but nothing much. It is a dualism concept of Determinism and Possibilism which basically talks about how man is influenced by his environment with weather or climate being the basic. Wikipedia best puts it as the study of how the physical environment predisposes societies and states towards particular development trajectories. Hippocrates in his book, “Airs, Waters and Places” said that civilisation was influenced by the climate of man’s environment. Scholars such as Al-Jahiz argued that the skin of people and livestock were determined by the water, soil and heat of the environment within which they dwealt. Arab sociologist, Ibn Khaldun also linked the skin of blacks people to the hot climate of the sub-Saharan Africa and not the African lineage. While this has been widely criticised for being one of the major causes of racism in the world, it is in a way not far from true. A perspective of which this article seeks to elucidate.

While a school of thought believes man is the master of his environment and that man determines his conditions, it seems to be the inverse in Ghana ooo. Chai!!! See this harmattan – this small harmattan that remove its head some few days ago. The harmattan that was afraid to come because of Nana Addo’s taxes. It came recently and Ghanaians were all over social media talking about how their bathing is going to change. Eeeiiii!! This modern era of firewood, coalpot, gas and electric kettle, children of Adam and Eve, still have excuses not to bath? Did we go or did we come? For me the only reason why I can’t bath much this season is because my dermatologist told my mum to tell me too much bathing is not good and there’s literature to back my claim – just Google it yourself. Some have even gone to the extent of making videos from this. Oh! my generation.

Let’s move a bit away from harmattan. What happens in the raining season? That is when you see the true display of environmental determinism. Children of Billy and Becky (Nana Addo and Rebecca) are never slow to remind us that the appearance of Stratus, Cumulus and Nimbus is for keeping warmth and they jump all over social media typing “Weather for two”, “Weather for 4 legs”. It looks like almost every sexually active person in Ghana gets horny at the ‘frowning of the clouds’. I bet you this is the period where sexting is peaked. The School of Leaked Sex tapes also has it that there is a positive correlarion between the rainy season and mass production of the tapes. I mean, what happened to rain harvesting or even Nana’s Planting for Food and Jobs? Instread of shouting “weather for two” we can make it “weather for farming” and as you may not want to be naughty about this, remember whatever you plant you may harvest in 3 months or 9 months, whichever way you are good with.

As a Geographer, it is difficult to defend the non-existence of determinism in Ghana as the two scenarios show we are controlled by our weather.

But as French historian, Lucien Febvre said, “there are no necessities but everywhere possibilism, and man, as a master of the possibilities, is the judge of their use.”

Therefore, I urge you fellow Ghanaian youth to cancel the bathing schedule and go and boil water and bath. (S)He who doesn’t bath has no right to mock the trotro mate.

Sources: Some selected websites on Determinism and Possibilism

Image Credit: Favim.com