**8. Indigenous lifeways and the environmental crisis—limits and conundrums**

In this essay, I have presented indigenous and modern epistemologies, for heuristic purposes, as opposite ends of a spectrum. It bears reminding, however, that dynamic interaction has taken place between these ever since the inhabitants of these two worlds met and continue to meet. The very nature of the habitus is that it is continually changing as interactions take place between peoples inhabiting different cultures traveling at different stages of a journey. This raises the question of how far modern and postmodern travelers are prepared to go down the road with their pre-modern fellow travelers and, indeed, how far indigenous people are prepared to go down the road with their modern fellow travelers. In the above discussion, for example, while

<sup>6</sup> For an example of the use of Latour's Actor Network Theory as an analytical tool, see my article on an indigenous mass greening movement in southern Zimbabwe. In this essay, I argue that the dynamic relationship that existed between all the entities in the field of study, including the religious practitioners, the rituals that were being performed, the beliefs that were behind these rituals, the trees themselves, and the money that was being put into it from overseas funders, were all part of the panoply of forces that were behind its rise as well as its fall. The movement could be best understood only when these relationships acting together in a meshwork were taken into account [22].

it is clear that there are numerous areas in which the counter modernist trend learns from indigenous religion, especially in terms of its monistic ontology, it has not, indeed arguably cannot, go the way of complete re-enchantment. Not even in the most radical of postmodern worlds is there the belief in spirits or spirit possession. Though this does exist in various forms of contemporary Christianity. Many African Christians, for example, have no doubt at all that spirits, and spirit possession, exist, as do many Pentecostal Christians. This demonstrates that the pre-modern, modern, and postmodern conditions continue to exist as coeval realities in the contemporary world and should not be categorized in evolutionary or developmental terms.

So here is the conundrum: If, as it has been argued by many others besides myself, that Christianity, at least in sub-Saharan Africa, has become so insinuated into the African habitus, cannot it also be argued that it has become indigenized? [22]. Many of its Western adherents would be hard pressed to recognize some of its African forms as the same religion that they belong to. This has profound significance for an African eco-theology. If, as I have argued, indigenous religion is exhibit A when it comes to environmental care and Christianity is exhibit A when it comes to environmental destruction, then what happens when Christianity becomes the most popular religion in Africa? This is one of the crucial questions that scholars of ecological religion need to face. I have made the argument that ecological theology in the West attempts to emulate some of the basic elements of Indigenous Religion. These are the numinous presence of the divine, the enchantment of nature, and the recognition that humans are vulnerable and interdependent beings among other beings who are not human. Now if all of these are characteristic of Indigenous Religion, which continues to exist in various forms in Africa at least, then why can they not simply be appropriated into an African theology of the environment? Unfortunately it is not that easy. The Western theological project is largely taking place against the backdrop of secularism and the practical obliteration of the original indigenous religions. Emulating Indigenous Religion where it poses no threat whatsoever to one's essential (secular) beliefs is quite different from a situation where indigenous beliefs are an ever-present reality, where the lines are continually being drawn and where contestations continue to take place between it and Christianity. The worldview shared by these religions in an African context is fundamentally the same. God, the devil, and the supernatural, are existential realities, and theology is to do with understanding them and negotiating with them in a way that concretely affects the way people live their lives.7 There is no place for the kind of intellectual "play" with different, interesting theological ideas that might be useful for particular purposes that characterizes theology in the West. This became clear in the Templeton funded research mentioned above. When there is the widespread belief, for example, in the notion of spiritual marriage where people may enter, often against their will, into relationships with spiritual beings, the option of recognizing enchantment as a possible way to protect the environment becomes a little more consequential than in a context where such a notion is ludicrous. More specifically, to reintroduce as a theological necessity the notion of a spirituality of nature to someone who has recently been "saved" from a situation of "spiritual bondage" (that is the belief that they were subject to spiritual forces that were part of the panoply of spiritual powers against which they have been struggling) is clearly a risky proposition.

Blasu's work, cited above, is illuminating in this regard. He argues that the holistic but precarious nature of African cosmology means that multifarious spirits vivify the cosmos, but malevolent ones may discourage belief in Christ and prevent people from

<sup>7</sup> Birgit Meyer's work among the Ewe of Ghana illustrates this very well [22].

#### *Indigenous Religions as Antidote to the Environmental Crisis: Surveying a Decade of Reflection DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105209*

living the fulfilled Christian life. Hence, salvation is understood as redemption from sin and evil forces, transformation into a new person, and turning away from creation by waging war against the evil forces. If the taboos and rituals that lead to the protection of nature are motivated by fear of punishment from spiritual entities residing in nature and conversion amounts to freedom from such entities, then further consort with them through some kind of "re-enchantment" project in order to recreate a scenario where nature can be protected will surely not be an option.

This, then, is the essence of the conundrum that is at the heart of the African religious world: while Indigenous Religion offers an example of best attitude when it comes to the environment and many Western thinkers recognize this, it does not remain an option for converts from African Religion to Christianity who consider it an existential threat in their lives.

This begs the question of what an African Christian theology of the environment might look like. Blasu's is the best text on this topic that I have come across. He argues, as it turns out rather ironically in the light of Western eco-theologies that attempt to mitigate the transcendent nature of theism in the panentheist turn, that what he calls African "theocology" will be more orthodox in nature with a strong emphasis on theo-centrism and the vice-regency of God, while appropriating certain aspects of African culture that are friendly to the environment.

### **9. Conclusion**

This essay has attempted to summarize some of the writings I have published over the past 10 years or so that are relevant to the topic of indigenous beliefs and environmental crisis. It is impossible to cover all the topics that I have addressed in these writings but rather to highlight some of the essential themes that have shown up during the course of my peregrinations around the topic. These mainly revolve around the notions of enchantment and disenchantment, which constitute the core characteristics of the indigenous and modern worldviews, respectively. Using a variety of sources I have attempted to unpack what these mean for those who live within the worlds that they create and how this shapes certain behaviors that impact the environment. I have also suggested that the epistemological shift in the West in reaction to alienating and destructive relationships with the environment have given way to postmodernist attitudes, which indicate a move in the direction consistent with the values and epistemologies of Indigenous Religions. This is indicative of a recognition that we need to learn from indigenous ways of being in the world. However, from a Western perspective, there are intellectual limits to this journey into an enchanted world. Recognition, for example, of the validity of ontological oneness is one thing, acceptance of the existence of spiritual beings is another. However, I have also pointed out that in Africa there is no such intellectual aversion to spiritual beings and a full-on belief in an enchanted world continues to exist in many ways and in many places. This is particularly the case concerning the most popular religion in sub-Saharan Africa— Christianity. This has posed a conundrum in the light of the critique that Christianity has given legitimacy to alienating and destructive attitudes to the environment and such attitudes are discernible in converts to Christianity from African Religion. This necessitates a different approach to an African Christian theology of the environment than a Western Christian approach.

If an ecosystem is a biological community of entities that live in an interdependent relationship with each other, each affecting the integrity of the life of the other, then

it must surely be clear, from the above discussion, that indigenous people understood this concept long before the advent of postmodernity. The notion of the ecosystem is now commonplace in our everyday parlance. We use the word to describe a host of communities that interact with each other in order to survive and flourish, in all areas of life, including the political, the economic, the social, and the religious. We need to remind ourselves that Indigenous communities have known about it, even if they have not used the word that we use, from time immemorial.

Finally, we need to be reminded that this whole discussion takes place against the backdrop of the pending state of disaster for the world due to environmental destruction. This in turn demands that we fundamentally interrogate the value systems and the epistemologies that lead to the unrestrained exploitation of the earth's resources. The question of how this destruction can be avoided is constantly bedeviled by the fact that we (that is, Westerners) seem not to be able to live in this world other than in such a way that is hardwired to conquer and control it. We demand that the earth and all its resources meet the ever-increasing voraciousness of our need for ever increasing levels of ease, comfort, and longevity, not realizing that in the process we are putting impossible pressure on these resources. The indigenous way will never be able to "develop" the world and meet these increasing levels of demand because it does not create the needs that create the demand in the first place. This is because it understands the world and relates with it differently to us. When the world is a person who you have to listen to and negotiate with and not an object that you can manipulate and control, this makes a universe of difference to the way you treat it. To a Western mind, this fairy tale talk. To an indigenous mind, it is the way of survival.

#### **Key texts**

Re-Enchanting a dis-enchanted universe – Postmodern projects in Theologies of Space. Religion and Theology. 2009; 16:67–77.

The Metaphysics of Participation – Exploring an Idea whose time has returned. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa. 2013;145:18–34.

Of Iron Cages, Double Binds, and Environmental Destruction – the fragmentation of the Western Worldview and gestures towards another way of being in the world. Religion and Theology. 2014; 21:358–379.

Indigenous Worldviews and Environmental Footprints: The case of Prometheus vs Hermes. In: Devy G, Davis G, Chakravarty K. editors. Knowing Differently – the Challenge of the Indigenous. New Delhi: Routledge; 2014. p. 158–167.

Christianity in Africa – watchdog of Imperialism or 'drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth'? Alternation – Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and humanities in Southern Africa. 2015;14: 8–21.

The War of the Trees – Analysing the Rise and Fall of an Indigenous Mass Greening Movement amongst the Shona in Southern Zimbabwe using Actor Network Theory (ANT). Journal of Theology for Southern Africa. 2016; 154:28–42

Spirituality and Hope in Africa: A Study in Five Countries, International Bulletin of Mission Research*.* 2017; 41:336–348.

The Porous and the Buffered Self – the relevance of Charles Taylor's characterizations for the African context. Religion and Theology. 2019; 26: 233–254.

African Christianity and the Ecological Crisis – tracing the contours of a conundrum. Scriptura. 2019; 118: 1–14.

Counter-modernism, the Primal Imagination and Development Theory – Shifting the paradigm. Journal of theology for Southern Africa. 2017;157: 44–58

*Indigenous Religions as Antidote to the Environmental Crisis: Surveying a Decade of Reflection DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105209*
