ABSTRACT
This chapter explores one dimension of how colonialism contributed to environmental violence through an epistemic shift, in an age called the Anthropocene (the current geological age, during which human activity notably has the most profound effect on climate and the environment). It argues that the Anthropocene thrived on epistemic shift often unaccounted for in environmentalism and colonial history. By epistemic shift, I mean the ways in which indigenous human–environment kinship was severed and altered during British colonialism in Africa. Focusing on autonomous indigenous groups in southwestern Nigeria who shared similar cultures, as they faced colonial domination in the 19th century, this chapter investigates how “Yoruba” emerged as a political identity that colonial authorities used to shift the epistemic and ontological premise of indigenous human–environment kinship. Colonial authorities employed this “Yoruba” to manufacture and consolidate land tenure systems, treaties, and ordinances. These colonial tools in turn facilitated colonial capitalist extractions and legalise the severance and erasure of indigenous human–environment kinship. I identify this erasure using the case study of changing relations with land and palm oil. By identifying changing human–environment kinship in colonial Southwestern Nigeria as a key element of contemporary environmental violence, I indict colonialism and centre Africa in the dialogue on the Anthropocene.
