The Earth is what we all have in common: Centering Environmental Knowledge in the History Curriculum in South Africa

For centuries, humans, informed by Euro-Western modernity, colonialism, capitalism, and now coloniality, have been at the forefront of much of the current environmental challenges we face today. This ecological violence has significantly contributed to climate change, which is noticeable, especially in the Global South generally, and Africa specifically, through extreme weather events like erratic rainfall, floods, droughts, heatwaves, air and water pollution, desertification and wildfires. Thus, the world continues to witness unprecedented numbers of people being displaced from their indigenous homes, deaths and migrations that continue to threaten ‘long term stability’ locally, nationally and internationally. However, this environmental history continues to be erased from the school history curriculum (SHC) in South Africa. I use coloniality of nature and decolonial ecojustice as my theoretical lenses to argue for the inclusion and centering of environmental history within the SHC. This is because history as a discipline has a greater role to play towards conscientizing the world to understand the evolution of environments, including the topical subject of climate change emergency. So, history is better positioned to play an even more significant role in generating and disseminating knowledge on the nexus between societies and the environments, through for instance; teaching about human activities on the environment, and how these have shaped local, regional, and global environments in the process conscientizing learners about stewardship of the earth’s natural resources.

Keywords: CAPS, Decolonial ecojustice, Environmental history, School History, South Africa