Abstract

Africa’s indigenous environmental knowledge and traditional conservation approaches have attracted substantial academic interest, whereas the role of totemic institutions in how the Esan people of Edo State, Nigeria managed their environment has barely registered in historical scholarship. Drawing on indigenous cosmological beliefs, oral traditions, colonial administrative records, and contemporary environmental policies, the study explores how totemism and associated taboos, known as ebane or awaa, functioned as informal yet effective regulatory mechanisms for biodiversity protection and sustainable ecosystem management in pre-colonial Esan society. The paper investigates the disruptive impact of British colonial governance on these indigenous conservation practices through the colonial legislative instruments and judicial codes which reclassified communal territories as state-controlled assets, dismantled clan-based stewardship, criminalised totemic prohibitions, and prioritised resource extraction over sustainability. The paper traces post-colonial efforts to reclaim indigenous heritage through the resurgence of traditional festivals, language revitalisation, and the integration of traditional ecological knowledge with modern conservation strategies. It concludes that the marginalisation of totemic cultural practices under colonialism precipitated ecological imbalances that persist in contemporary Esan communities, and that effective conservation requires integrating indigenous knowledge with modern strategies to achieve sustainable development.

Keywords: Totemic taboos, Natural resource conservation, Colonialism, Esan people, Indigenous ecological knowledge, Cultural decolonisation.