Philosophy of Care: Iemanjá as Cosmology, Ecology, and Collective Consciousness

In Yoruba metaphysics, the world is not a collection of separate objects, but an intricate network of forces (ashe)—divine energies in motion. Every river, tree, wind, and ocean current is animated with life, spirit, and purpose. Iemanjá, mother of the sea, is more than a deity; she is a divine embodiment of collective memory, nourishment, and equilibrium. To honor her is to honor the matrix of life that sustains all beings.

This philosophy does not view environmental care as a service to nature—but as a form of self-recognition, of remembering who we are within the great web of existence. Pollution, then, is not just ecological disruption—it is a spiritual amnesia, a forgetting of our sacred place within the world.

What began as a strategy for beach cleanups and youth engagement becomes, under the Yoruba lens, a re-alignment of human life with divine order (orun and aye). The environmental crisis is not just material; it is metaphysical. Plastic in the ocean is a manifestation of disconnection—from ritual, from ancestry, from the deep knowing that water is life, and life is to be revered.

Change Is a Return to Right Relationship

Our work is not about innovation as rupture—but innovation as remembrance. Through this initiative, we return to a Yoruba principle of iwa pele—gentle character, balance in all relationships. This is the change we seek: not only cleaner beaches, but cleaner hearts, clarified intentions, and communities who live as if the ocean were their mother—because she is.