Lehae La Rona: Epistemological Interrogation to Broaden our Conception of Environment and Sustainability

Abstract

This paper develops and explores lehae-la-rona and its potential value in environment and sustainability discourse. It draws on African-centred concepts and critiques of dominant Eurocentric theoretical frameworks. In particular, Ani's concepts of asili, utamawazo and utamaroho and Indigenous knowledge theory are applied to appreciate the nature of Indigenous knowledge in Lesotho. Against this backdrop, the concepts of revealed knowledge, pono, and pono-tebo are applied to conceptualize lehae-la-rona. It is argued that lehae-la-rona can enable a holistic conceptualization of environment and position it and the local language, Sesotho, at the centre of Education for Sustainable Development discourse to offer a more African centred worldview.