Grandmothers Carry the Knowledge the Climate Crisis Needs
- Lecturer, Philosophy Department, North West University
African grandmothers hold a reserve of environmental knowledge that is both practical and profound, yet largely overlooked. As the climate crisis intensifies, their experience and ancestral insight could guide sustainable, community-centred solutions. Instead, this wisdom is slipping away because society refuses to see its value.
Stereotypes have shaped how many people view elderly women. They are often portrayed as passive figures in need of saving, rather than the resilient knowledge keepers they truly are. A recent study, titled “The Roles of a Grandmother in African Societies – Please Do Not Send Them to Old People’s Homes,” challenges that narrative. It shows how grandmothers remain central as caregivers, advisers and community anchors. In rural areas, their daily lives reflect a form of environmental expertise that stems from generations of living in close proximity to the land.
I grew up in Pretoria but spent long stretches of my childhood visiting my grandmothers in rural settings. It was there that I learned how deeply their lives were shaped by nature. My paternal grandmother had a remarkable ability to predict the weather with startling accuracy. On sunny mornings, she avoided drying fruit because she knew rain would come later, even when the sky showed no warning. Her intuition was a form of environmental observation that had been built up over decades. This type of knowledge is rarely recognised by modern science, yet it has helped shape fields like environmental gerontology and climate gerontology.
During recent interviews with two elderly women from a Western Cape community, I saw the same depth of understanding. Naomi Julius, an 86-year-old retired teacher turned agricultural specialist, and 72-year-old retiree Cynthia Dodenburg both spoke of grandmothers who taught them how to read the land. They still grow their own herbs and produce, and credit their passion for the environment to the elders who raised them.
They also expressed concern. Both women said younger people seem disinterested in learning this inherited knowledge. Naomi spoke about the disconnect she sees, describing it as a kind of emptiness in the eyes of the youth. Her sadness comes from watching a relationship with nature weaken in a world that desperately needs it.
Across Africa, grandmothers continue to pass on environmental practices through everyday tasks such as collecting water, cultivating food, and managing natural resources. These routines teach conservation long before it becomes policy. Yet their voices are often excluded from environmental planning, even though their lived experiences could inform and reshape climate action. They deserve recognition as environmental defenders who safeguard ecosystems in ways that often go unnoticed.
Climate change is hitting rural Africa hardest. The 2022 Afrobarometer survey reported that more than half of African women live in rural areas where survival depends on resilience and adaptability. Many of these women are grandmothers who have created local solutions out of necessity. The Environmental Grantmakers Association highlighted a South African group known as the Bucket Brigade Grandmothers. They found ways to use rainwater to reduce air pollution in their community. Their innovation is a clear example of indigenous knowledge that works yet is seldom included in environmental planning.
South Africa’s Bill of Rights promises citizens an environment that is not harmful. That promise often collapses in rural areas where droughts, floods and crop failures have become routine. The KwaZulu-Natal floods and ongoing water shortages show how climate impacts deepen existing inequalities. Excluding elders who understand these landscapes is not only short-sighted but unjust.
African grandmothers are reservoirs of ecological intelligence. Their understanding of soil, seasons and survival is grounded in daily practice, not theory. Their absence from environmental decision-making is a missed opportunity that weakens climate strategies. It is also a form of environmental injustice. Scholars, activists, and policymakers should advocate for their inclusion at every level, as the solutions they offer are rooted in cultural wisdom and practical experience.
True environmental justice requires paying attention to age, race and class and recognising who carries knowledge that can strengthen community resilience. Women like Naomi and Cynthia hold values shaped by land, memory and responsibility. Naomi often speaks about the idea that the Earth is borrowed from future generations and must be cared for with intention. Cynthia anchors her outlook in a belief that true wealth lives in the soil. Together, these perspectives reflect a worldview shaped by care, continuity and responsibility rather than extraction or profit.
Honouring the wisdom of African grandmothers is not a sentimental gesture. It is a crucial step toward developing effective climate responses. The next generation deserves to inherit not only the land but the knowledge required to protect it.