African indigenous knowledge systems and ecologies have often been marginalised in global environmental discourses due to their ‘unscientific’ and non-empirical nature. There is, however, a growing appreciation that African cosmology and ecologies are spiritual, theistic, and ordered where one mode of existence presupposes all the others and that a balance must be maintained among the different forms of life for harmonious coexistence. One way of maintaining balance among the different forms of existence was through totemic taboos. Using the Kipsigis community of Kenya, particularly the belief and practice of totemism, this article examines through oral history and storytelling, how totems created physical and spiritual bonds between the community and environment through taboos. Acknowledging that these invaluable indigenous ecological knowledge systems have eroded due to urbanisation, modernisation, and Christianisation, this article makes an autobiographical case for how young people can revisit such knowledges to inspire an eco-spirituality that, combined with scientific and technological efforts, will enhance environmental conservation. (This article is published in the thematic collection ‘African ecologies: the value and politics of indigenous knowledges’, edited by Adriaan van Klinken, Simon Manda, Damaris Parsitau and Abel Ugba.)

This article offers an introduction to the special section about the theme of ‘African ecologies and indigenous knowledges’. It explores the interest of scholars, policy makers and activists in indigenous knowledges as a resource for addressing global challenges, particularly the challenges in relation to the environment and climate change in contemporary Africa. Reviewing current literature and discourse on the subject, this Introduction foregrounds the considerable political, epistemological and methodological significance of indigenous knowledges, especially in the light of ongoing debates about decolonisation, and it highlights their relevance for understanding African ecologies. It further introduces the three articles included in this special section, embedding them in broader fields of scholarship. (This article is published in the thematic collection ‘African ecologies: the value and politics of indigenous knowledges’, edited by Adriaan van Klinken, Simon Manda, Damaris Parsitau and Abel Ugba.)