Paper short abstract:

This paper will show how religion plays a crucial role in interpreting, defining, and shaping responses to climate crises among the Makhuwa people in northern Mozambique despite being marginalized by technoscientific approaches.

Paper long abstract:

Religion plays a crucial role in defining and framing climate crises among the Makhuwa people in northern Mozambique. However, interpretations and responses to the climate crises predominantly take biospheric, environmental, and vulnerability approaches, which lend themselves to macro and institutional approaches to climate action. These approaches marginalize religion because it cannot be objectively observed, validated, and measured. The paper is based on participatory methodologies and ethnographic research in Nampula province in northern Mozambique. It will show how indigenous religion, Christianity, and Islam play a crucial role in interpreting, defining, and shaping responses to the impacts of climate change. It will critique the dominance of technological innovations not because it finds the science behind them wrong or unnecessary but because there is more to the story than the technoscience conveys. Furthermore, it will argue that religion provides meaning to climate crises and influences the everyday practices that affect people's vulnerability and adaptive capacity.