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- Convenors:
-
Hans Olsson
(University of Copenhagen)
Francis Benyah (Åbo Akademi University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Streams:
- Religion (x) Climate Change (y)
- Location:
- Neues Seminargebäude, Seminarraum 23
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 31 May, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
How are religious actors engaging the future of 'green' Africa considering impeding climate changes? Against debates about the ‘greening of religion’ we explore culture-nature tensions, disruptions and transgressions in the still understudied area of green religious activism in Africa.
Long Abstract:
How are religious actors engaging the future of green Africa? How are religious communities mobilizing and responding to impeding environmental concerns and climate change?
The rationale for this is threefold; 1) African contexts will be hit hardest when temperatures rise and weather patterns changes; 2) religious ideas, values and practices are influencing African culturally diverse and religiously plural settings; and 3) articulations of religious green activism in Africa remain largely overlooked in comparison to the northern hemisphere (Nita 2016, Baugh 2016).
The works on African religious environmentalism(s) that so far exist (e.g. Daneel 2001; van Klinken 2022), primarily remain situated in a Christian context with a leaning towards ‘progressive’ environmental engagements. We want to broaden the study of green religious activism to African Traditional Religions, African Islam(s) as well as African Christianities, and are encouraging contributions that engage ‘progressive’ and/or ‘conservative’ expressions, mobilization and articulations from the perspective of any of the above mentioned religions.
We are particularly interested in analyses that explore culture-nature tensions, disruptions and transgressions in relation to:
-religious green spaces, infrastructure and rituals
-spiritual ecologies/geographies
-religious education and articulations of ecological justice
-cultivation practices and soil conservation
-dark green religious expressions
-eco-fascism and ecologies on the far right
-ecology, evangelization and da’wa
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 31 May, 2023, -Francis Benyah (Åbo Akademi University) Shelta Gatsey (University of Ghana)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, we explore the ways in which Akan Religious ideologies and oral histories could be used as an adaption strategy to reduce the destruction of water bodies through illegal mining activities.
Paper long abstract:
Ghana is notably one of the endowed countries with natural mineral resources in sub-Saharan Africa. While there are companies (both national and multinational) licensed by the state to mine these natural resources, others are also engaged in similar practices without official approval from the state. What has become worrying as part of their illegal mining activities is the destruction of water bodies that serve as a source of drinking water and livelihood for most communities in Ghana. In this paper, our aim is to explore the ways in which Akan Indi Religious ideologies and oral histories could be used as an adaption strategy to minimize or reduce the destruction of water bodies through illegal mining activities. We ask the question; if most of these water bodies are regarded as sanctuaries of important national deities, what religious philosophies could be adopted in educating and orienting the local communities about the consequences of the destruction of water bodies? Other more overarching question would include, in what ways would this religious ideology help to sanitize and promote practices that will safeguard the environment? How do we integrate these indigenous religious ideas to green activism project? Our method will include engagement with literature on Akan indigenous religions especially those that focuses on Akan deities and their role in society. We also aim to interview traditional leaders and residents who live around the communities where some of the major water bodies are affected by illegal mining.
Mayke Kaag (African Studies Centre Leiden)
Paper short abstract:
With a specific focus on Senegal, this paper explores African Muslims' contributions to Eco-Islam conversations and initiatives, and the ways in which these build on, reflect, and influence African Muslims' global connections.
Paper long abstract:
Eco-Islam or Islamic environmentalism has its roots in the 1970s and was mainly led by Islamic scholars and activists from the UK, USA, and Indonesia. They started to think about Islamic principles that would help to combat environmental degradation and climate change. The Islamic notion that human beings are the stewards of the Earth that has been entrusted to them by God is a guiding inspirational principle. In the years 2000, often in preparation of high level diplomatic meetings around the environment, Muslim leaders convened for issuing their official statements and proposing their plans for action. In these earlier meetings, African participants were mostly only from Morocco, Egypt, Libya and South Africa. One of the few Black African Islamic leaders who played a role at this stage was Cheikh Hassan Cisse from Senegal. His following is not that big in his own country but all the more in other parts of West Africa and especially also in the United States – and it this latter link through which he got involved. This illustrates how pre-established global connections help determine who gets included in certain conversations (and how).
Apart from these high level initiatives which proliferated over the years, the more interesting conversations - and non-conversations - are nowadays to be found online. One would expect that such platforms facilitate global connections between Muslims who are interested in eco-Islamic initiatives, including between African Muslims and Muslims in other parts of the world. It appears however that often, the logics of these platforms tend to reproduce rather neocolonial perspectives, Africa merely featuring in the form of projects for which one can donate funds.
Beyond this, African environmentalist action based on Islamic values is happening on the continent, often also supported and sometimes initiated by African diasporic groups, such as ‘Touba ville Verte’, which aims to green the holy city of Touba in Senegal, and is very much financially supported by Murids in the diaspora – who, exposed to specific forms of environmental initiatives in the West, may feel attracted to this kind of action, thus creating transnational interaction and synergy. In my preliminary research, however, I also found that African Muslims still find it important to be included in more global conversations on the role of Islam in environmental conservation and eco-Islamic action and this on an equal footing, especially because Africans may have other problems and priorities in dealing with climate change and the like, and possibly also other solutions.
In this context, it should be clear that perceptions of climate change vary among African Muslims like among other groups, which makes that also in this field it will be important to study conversations over truth among African Muslims and between African Muslims and others, including the influence of religious traditions and experiences of environmental problems, the ways in which both Islamic environmentalism and climate change denial may fit in political agendas, and how social and other media are put to use in this. In this paper, I will do so by specifically looking at examples from Senegal.
Oulia Adzhoa Sika Makkonen (Uppsala University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper will focus on the concept ‘sacrifice’ imaged in two ecofeminist films "Pumzi" (2009) by Kenyan Wanuri Kahiu, and "This is not a Burial, it’s a Resurrection" (2017) by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese from Lesotho.
Paper long abstract:
"Pumzi" (2009) is a short science-fiction film set in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland where life can survive only underground. "This is not a Burial, it’s a Resurrection" (2017) is a feature drama that explores destruction and forced displacement provoked by the construction of a dam. Aside from water being the common denominator signified in both films either by its absence or its looming destructive force, the sacrifices of the main female protagonists drive both narratives. The experiences brought by global capitalism, war, extractivist logic are interwoven with the personal suffering and sacrifice of the protagonists. In this paper, I propose to explore how the characters’ resistance to environmental destruction and ultimate sacrifice articulate the visceral link between their bodies and the land/earth. Not bound by one specific religious tradition, I argue that the spiritual journeys portrayed in the films, on the one hand, echo an African ecofeminist outlook on exploitative practices and their consequences, and on the other, forces us to rethink the spiritual, physical and epistemological relations between nature and peoples. In this sense, the films can be considered as cultural expressions of spiritual ecologies in African contexts.
Joram Tarusarira (University of Groningen)
Paper short abstract:
Sacred beliefs and practices influence indigenous communities in Kenya when they respond to climate-induced conflicts. I will argue that addressing these conflicts effectively requires knowledge about these beliefs and practices which are founded on religion.
Paper long abstract:
My paper will consider the mobilization of indigenous religious beliefs by indigenous communities in Kenya against climate-induced conflicts as religious activism. Climate change is fueling intense conflicts among Maasai, Samburu, Turkana and Pokot communities in Kenya when they clash over dwindling resources or climate change exceeds their adaptive capacities. These communities survive on natural resources such as land, water or cattle, which they consider sacred. And in conflicts that may involve natural resources, conflicting parties can build alliances along religious lines. Yet the dominant climate security and sustainable development discourses concentrate on economic and material aspects that lend themselves to positivist epistemology and quantitative methods. Consequently, they overlook non-economic and non-material factors such as sacred worldviews and values that cannot be measured, quantified, or traded in markets. Yet, they are integral to how some communities understand the world and their place in it. In the communities in question, non-economic factors, such as sacred worldviews and values, may be more significant than economic ones. Based on research I carried out among indigenous communities in Kenya, I will argue that addressing climate security risks holistically and effectively requires knowledge about the affected people's norms, values, beliefs, worldviews, and perspectives, which in some communities are founded on religion.