Women

and Nature in African Traditional Religions 1

Kongo cosmology myths paint a picture of the universe. The earth is a mountain that

towers over a body of water. The mountain is traditionally referred to as nza yayi, or this

world, while the ocean underneath, Kalunga, hovers over nsi a bafwa, or the land of the dead.

Within NKongo tradition, there are two mountains, each representative of a different realm. The

two realms are the land of the living and Mpemba, the land of the dead. Mpemba is in many

ways similar to the land of the living. There the sun rises and sets in the same way, in fact, night

and day exist because the two worlds must exchange the sun back and forth. Water is a vital

element that not only plays an important role in everyday living, but also in religious

understandings and practices. Within both traditional African cosmological understandings, the

body of water plays a vital role: it is not only a great passageway, but also a barrier between the

two realms.1 From understandings of divine design to various rituals, water is important, but it is

also vital for survival. Through water, engineering and religion are brought together. As David

Suzuki importantly pointed out, We are waterthe oceans flow through our veins, and our

cells are inflated by water, our metabolic reactions mediated in aqueous solutionsAs air is a

sacred gas, so is water a sacred liquid that links us to all the oceans of the world and ties us back

in time to the very birthplace of all lifeIt is the tide of life itself, the sacred source.2 As

engineers, scientists, and designers brainstorm more and more ways to combat water availability

issues within developing nations, it becomes increasingly apparent that an awareness of culture is

indispensable.

Those who are involved in the global water crisis are beginning to shift to a more well-

rounded and culturally inclusive approach, as they understand that water should not be reduced

1 Wyatt MacGaffey, Religion and Society in Central Africa: The BaKongo of Lower Zaire, (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1986), 43
2
David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance (Vancouver, B.C.: Greystone Books, 1997) in Gary Chamberlain, Troubled
Waters: Religion, Ethics, and the Global Water Crisis, (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Litttlefield Publishers, Inc.,
2008), 156
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 2

to nothing more than an economic resource. Political scientists Joachim Blatter and Helen

Ingram explain that, water must be unbound from the narrow strictures within which it has been

considered in the past and revived as part of a more inclusive natural and human environment.3

In their book Reflections on Water, they stress the importance of understanding the meaning of

water across different cultures and how that meaning has changed over time. Looking at point-

of-use water treatment methods that are reliant on local, natural materials also requires that the

materials used to treat water and the role of the individuals most closely involved also be

understood. Therefore, the role of women and religiously determined relationships with nature

must also be analyzed through a social lens. Religion provides the perfect means through which

to look at those social aspects, as psychologist I.D. MacCrone thought, it is religion, not race or

ethnicity that provide the fundamental vocabulary of difference in intercultural human relations.4

African traditional religions have very strong relationships with nature, therefore, an

understanding of how water is regarded and other natural materials that can be used to make it

potable is necessary when asking populations to use their environment is such a manner. Taken

even a step further, traditional religions have rituals of reciprocity and respect for nature that

enable them to leave an especially small environmental impact.5 That mindedness must be

maintained throughout any water projects, especially when working with cultures that value the

environment to such a high degree. For billions of people, their fundamental conceptions about

the natural world and water are influenced to some degree by religious considerations, whether

those are feelings of disdain, indifference, respect, or even love.6

3
Joachim Blatter and Helen Ingram, Reflections on Water, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001), 338
4
I.D. MacCrone, Race Attitudes in South Africa: Historical, Experimental, and Psychological Studies, (London:
Oxford Univ. Press, 1937)
5
Gary Gardner, Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable World (Washington
D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 2002), 18
6
Gary Chamberlain, Troubled Waters: Religion, Ethics, and the Global Water Crisis, 3
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 3

African Traditional beliefs are rich and, in many circumstances, should not be considered

continentally uniform as practices vary across ethnic groups and regions. Respect for nature is

largely widespread, therefore for purposes of this paper, a wide range of traditional examples can

be analyzed. Unifying themes lead many to prefer to think of African Traditional Religions as

single faith with local differences.7 The Democratic Republic of the Congo is politically a

secular state, but a wide range of religions are practiced by those living there: Catholicism,

Kimbanguism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy, Islam and Salvationism, and there are also

several independent denominations, and a number of animist sects.8 But even when

looking at a specific area, traditions from across the entire country can be analyzed because

all help to describe the African mentality towards their environment. E.B. Idowu said there

is a common Africanness about the total culture of religious beliefs and practices in Africa.9

For this analysis, African Traditional religions will be looked at as a whole. Even though

different groups have different practices, when it comes views on nature and women, looking at

a wide range actually provides a more in-depth understanding.

When looking at the religions that the West is much better acquainted with, research will

generally take root in the reading and interpretation of various scriptures. If one were to look at

the relationship between Christianity and water, a myriad of Biblical stories could be referenced.

From Noah and the Flood as the basis for the first covenant to the baptism of Jesus by John the

Baptist in the River Jordan10 setting the precedence of baptism for all Christians to Jesus washing

7
Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, PewResearch Religion and Public Life,
(A P R I L 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 ) , a c c e s s e d J u n e 3 0 2 0 1 4 , http://www.pewforum.org/2010/04/15/executive-summary-
islam-and-christianity-in-sub-saharan-africa/#quickdefinition
8
United Nations, International Human Rights Instruments, Core Documents Forming Part of the Reports of States
Parties: Democratic Republic of the Congo, (18 March, 2013).
9
David Westerlund, Insiders and Outsiders in the Study of African Religions: Notes on Some Problems of Theory
and Method, in Jacob K. Olupona African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society, (St. Paul, MN: Paragon
House, 1991), 16
10
Oremus Bible Broser, Matthew 3:13-17, New Revised Standard Version, http://bible.oremus.org/
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 4

the feet of his disciples,11 the Bible provides very concrete and easily accessible examples of the

role water plays within the faith. However, when looking at areas of Africa, the analysis is not

that simple. Across Africa a recent trend has populations no longer purely practicing traditional

African religions, instead they are converting largely to Christianity and Islam. However, the

influence of the traditional belief sets still holds strong. African versions of Christianity and

Islam are infused with traditional African religious practices.

The analysis of traditional religions are different than that of any scripturally based belief

set, they are based on oral tradition and the beliefs have been passed down for generations.

When looking at a religious culture without a written scripture, primarily resting on oral

tradition, the approach must be reliant on a different range of sources. As Joanne Punzo

Waghorne said, "Historians of religion have too long looked only at words...The word of

bureaucratic documents, the paraphernalia of the court, the style of dress, the colors of a painting

- all these 'things' must be added to the words of theological and mythic discourse we have

learned to read so well."12 Faith is expressed through oral traditions, such as myths,13 proverbs,

riddles, and legends, but also through rituals14, festivals, shrines, art, and symbols. All of these

traditions hold rich collections of knowledge that have accrued over the generations.

Luis Lugo, the director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life said, "From the

importance of religion in people's lives, to attendance at religious services, to belief in God, to

prayer, you name it, one after another Africa ranks at the highest level in terms of global

11
Oremus Bible Broser, John 13: 1-17, New Revised Standard Version, http://bible.oremus.org/
12
Joanne Punzo Waghorne, The Rajas Magic Clothes (1994) in John E. Corts, Art, Religion, and Material
Culture: Some Reflections on Method
13
Myths are used to describe everything from how the world was created and populated to the difference between
men and women, but it does not require that the characters involved are in any was sacred beings or semidivine
heroes. V.W. Turner, Schism and continuity in an African society, (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
1957), 576 in Wyatt MacGaffey, Religion and Society in Central Africa, 42-43
14
Rituals serve to remind the congregation just where each member stands in relation to every other and in relation
to every other and in relation to a larger system E.R. Leach, Magical Hair, (Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, 1968), 524 in Wyatt MacGaffey, Religion and Society in Central Africa, 42
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 5

comparisons."15 The religious composition of Africa has been changing rapidly since 1900 as it

is estimated that the Muslim population has grown from 11 million to approximately 234 million

in 2010. Christianity has grown even faster, rising from about 7 million to 470 million. Sub-

Saharan Africa now holds 21% and 15% of the worlds Christians and Muslims, respectively.16

Despite the strong presence of these religions, of the 820 million people living in Sub-Saharan

Africa, many who are deeply committed to Islam or Christianity still practice elements of

traditional African religions.17 A Pew survey shows that despite the dominance of Christianity

and Islam, traditional African religious beliefs haven't diminished; large numbers believe in

witchcraft, evil spirits, sacrifices to ancestors, traditional religious healers, reincarnation and

other elements of traditional African religions.18

The practicing of traditionally infused Christianity and Islam shows how integrated the

beliefs are within African lifestyles. Populations are generally unaware that what they are

practicing can be categorically defined to them, that is simply how one is supposed to go about

their life. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz described this by breaking cultural practices into two

categories: experience-near and experience-distant. Experience-near is one that can be defined

by the population itself, such as coming of age rituals. They were consciously constructed by the

culture with a specific purpose. The combination of African Traditional Religions and

Christianity or Islam would be experience-distant. Even though some traditional practices may

conflict with certain Islamic and Christian beliefs, many continue to practice them, because for

them, that is how one is supposed to live. It is experience-distant because their high respect for

15
George Thomas, Africa: The Most Religious Place on Earth, (CBN News: World, Friday, July 08, 2011)
accessed on July 2, 2014, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/November/Africa-The-Most-Religious-Place-
on-Earth/
16
Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, PewResearch Religion and Public Life
17
ibid.
18
ibid.
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 6

nature would only stand out to, and therefore can only be categorized by, an outside observer.19

Geertz explained that putting matter in this wayreduces the mystery of what seeing things

from the natives point of view means,20 as the observer is better able to understand the

difference in how practices can be interpreted. To be aware of how their high regard for nature

affects their everyday lives, and that they are not necessarily making the conscious decision to be

careful with the environment, makes a difference. These are behaviors so deeply ingrained that

they may no longer be aware of them of thing of them as unique in any way. The motivation for

and type of role that behavior plays in a practitioners life is much different from the belief that

they must constantly remind themselves to comply with.

Women, the Environment, and African Religion

All cultures seek to establish a social order concerning the nature of the world and the

place of man within it.21 This includes the organization of the world in space and time, the

differences among people, animals, and things, between life and death, and the genders.22

Nature plays an especially prominent role in African everyday life. Mutupol refers to a religious

principle held by the Shona and Ndebele societies native to Zimbabwe where one understands

her life in relationship to all other people and the world. The Mutupol worldview, and largely

African Traditional Religions as a whole, focus on an intrinsic oneness or unity which translates

into a status of egalitarianism of all forms of nature. All of nature is perceived as imbued with an

19
Clifford Geertz, "From the Native's Point of View: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding, (Bulletin of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1974), 26-45
20
ibid.
21
D. Ford, African Worlds, (London: Oxford University Press, 1954)
22
Wyatt MacGaffey, Religions and Society in Central Africa, 3
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 7

energy force which manifests itself in diversified forms as reality or nature.23 Prominent

anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined religion as, a system of symbols which acts to establish

powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions

of a general order of existence and clothing them with such an aura of factuality that the moods

and motivations seem uniquely realistic.24 For those who practice Traditional African

Religions, nature is comprised of a myriad of powerful symbols that actively influence and shape

the way they conduct their lives. People are in a community with all of creation, which means

that all of nature is viewed to be of equal value. People are not the reason creation exists, all

aspects of nature were created for the same reason and have equal rights to live freely. Nor was

the universe created to be exploited it was created to sustain. Since nature is so highly

respected in many parts of African culture, when looking to employ natural materials in the

water treatment process, it must be done in a respectful manner.

In recent years, this respect for nature has only increased. Granted, growing

industrialization is also polluting the environment, but several political actions have been taken

to try and combat the damage before it becomes terrible. For example, section twenty-nine of

the new South African Constitution reads, Every person shall have the right to an environment

which is not detrimental to his or her wealth or well being and that they must have secure

ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable

economic and social development.25 Now, South Africa has earned a reputation for being

trendsetting in its political documents, as it was that same constitution that was one of the first

23
Tumani Mutasa Nyajeka, Shona Women and the Mutupo Principle, in Women Healing Earth: Third World
Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford Reuther, (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis
Books, 1996), 138
24
Clifford Geertz, Religion as a cultural system, (1965) in Anthropological approaches to the study of religion,
edited by M. Banton. (Association of Social Anthropologists, Monograph no. 3. London: Tavistock)
25
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, No. 108 of 1996, accessed on July 8, 2014,
http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/1996/a108-96.pdf.
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 8

documents to recognize water as a human right. Also, their 1998 water law declared that

providing the populations with drinking water is the number one priority when distributing the

resource.26 These documents were written right after apartheid was overthrown so the increased

environmental awareness would be the result of the return of black politicians to high political

positions where their traditional beliefs would influence legislation and a simple desire to right

all the wrongs that had occurred over the previous few decades. As it clearly states in the

constitutions preamble:

We, the people of South Africa,

Recognise the injustices of our past;

Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;

Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and

Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.

We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme
law of the Republic so as to-

Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and
fundamental human rights;

Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of
the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;

Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and

Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the
family of nations.

May God protect our people.27

In South Africa, there is an overwhelming desire to make up for the past, as because of

traditional African views on nature, improving the environment seems like one of the natural

places to start.

This awareness affects how men and women live their lives in this area, but in different

26
Gary Chamberlain, Troubled Waters: Religion, Ethics, and the Global Water Crisis, 133
27
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 9

ways. The environmental roles women and men play are often very heavily gendered, and it is

very important to understand that difference in order to see why women28 and men would not be

equally as influential in the determination of what water treatment methods are accepted.

Gender affects the division of labor, knowledge, responsibility, and control.29 Women are the

ones who collect the water and firewood, grow the crops, and much more. Writer and West

Africa Elder Malidoma Patrice Some is deeply observant of traditional African religious beliefs.

In his book Of Water and the Spirit he reflects upon the relationship he had with his mother as

she completed these everyday tasks, Until I was three years old, my mother would carry me tied

onto her back whenever she went in search of wood or grain or simply to the farm. I loved to be

knitted so closely to her, to watch her collect wood and carry it home on her head singing. She

loved music and perceived nature as a song.30 From her he learned his appreciation of nature

and grew close to it, but from that he also learned the gendered division of labor.

For women, there is a downside to increased environmental action on the part of the

government. Not only is the environmental degradation that started this governmentally fuelled

consciousness trend making womens work more difficult; for example, as the soil worsens, it

becomes more difficult for women to grow crops.31 Because of increased environmental

awareness, a large portion of the blame for the damage has been placed on women because they

are innately connected to nature. The tasks they are responsible for, which the entire community

relies on for survival, such as water collection and firewood collection, regardless of how

necessary these tasks are, are being called detrimental for the environment. Within African

28
Among the Lugbara, women are not considered people, but rather are referred to as things. Wyatt MacGaffey,
Religions and Society in Central Africa, 4
29
Sara C. Mvududu, Revisiting Traditional Management of Indigenous Woodlands, in Women Healing Earth:
Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford Reuther, (Maryknoll, New
York: Orbis Books, 1996), 144
30
Malidoma Patrice Some, Of Water and the Spirit, (New York: G.P. Putmans Sons, 1994), 14-15
31
Sara C. Mvududu, Revisiting Traditional Management of Indigenous Woodlands, in Women Healing Earth:
Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford Reuther, 144
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 10

culture women have a deep and detailed understanding of how their natural environment can be

used; they know how to use natural resources for fuel, food, animal fodder, construction

materials, tools, artisan crafts, traditional medicines, water purification, and much more.32

Women in many parts of Africa are being blamed for destroying the environment even though

their jobs are completely being used by the accusers. As Mary Douglas said in her book Purity

and Danger, a polluting person is always in the wrong.33

Even though male tasks, such as hunting, occur in nature, it does not seem as if men are

carrying much of the blame for environmental degradation. There seems to be a historical

precedence for this single-sided blame placement, as, for seemingly all of time women have been

viewed as polluters in a myriad of areas and ways. To show how long this idea has permeated

societal thinking, Athenian writer Phylarchus wrote, No women, dogs, or flies which did not

mean that women maintained the same social value, but rather had the same capacity to pollute.34

There seems to be this cross-cultural notion that, Women are pollutable, polluted, and polluting

in several ways at once. . . They are intimate with formlessness35 and the unbounded in their

alliance with the wet, the wild, and raw nature. They are, as individuals, comparatively formless

themselves, without firm control of personal boundaries.36 Elizabeth Mandeville, who

conducted field studies in New Guinea in the 1970s wrote, If one draws up a list of ways of

carrying pollution mentioned by Kamano people, one finds a heavy preponderance of female-to-

32
P.J. Williams, Womens Participation in Forestry Activities in Africa, (Nairobi, Kenya: Project Summary and
Policy Recommendation Environment Liaison Centre International, 1992) in Sara C. Mvududu, Revisiting
Traditional Management of Indigenous Woodlands, in Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology,
Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford Reuther, 145
33
Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (Great Britain: T. & A. Constable Limited, 1970), 113
34
Christina A. Clark, To Kneel or Not to Kneel: Gendered Nonverbal Behavior in Greek Ritual (Journal of
Religion & Society, Supplement Series, 2009) accessed on July 14, 2014, http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2009/2009-
7.pdf
35
Such as how the shape of womens bodies change during pregnancy
36
A. Carson, Putting Her in Her Place: Women, Dirt, and Desire, 135-69 in D. Halperin, J. Winkler, and F. Zeitlin,
Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World, (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1990)
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 11

male pollution,37 and note that regardless of the culture, it is never the other way around. This

pollution is because the female body is innately impure, The example most frequently offered is

that of a man becoming thin and weak after eating food given to him by a woman who is

menstruatingWomen who are menstruating are not supposed to go to communal feasts because

their presence alone prevents the food from cooking properly.38 Nur Yalmans assessment on

female and male sexual existence said, it is, of course, better for men not to waste [their] sacred

qualityit is best never to sleep with women at all. Throughout time women have been seen as

the means through which, pure content may be adulterated.39 Specifically within

contemporary African society, The fact that women are more vulnerable to infection, such as

HIV/AIDS, reinforces African patriarchal notions of women as polluters.40 Many cultures

maintain a mentality of consistently placing the blame on women. And this double moral

standard does not only exist between men and women, but also women and nature. Across

cultures and tasks, women are innately impure while men are innately pure, therefore, they are an

easy scapegoat and will likely maintain this position in taking the blame for environmental

damage.

Third World women have borne the brunt of the environmental crisis resulting from

colonial marginalization and ecologically unstable development projects41 and as a result they

are taking action. In order to try and avoid the accusations and try to make their own work easier

(or simply possible again), many environmental awareness and conservation groups have been

37
Elizabeth Mandeville, Sexual Pollution in New Guinea Highlands, accessed July 14, 2014,
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
38
Elizabeth Mandeville, Sexual Pollution in New Guinea Highlands, accessed July 14, 2014,
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
39
Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (Great Britain: T. & A. Constable Limited, 1970), 126
40
Peter Delius and Clive Glaser, Sex, Disease, and Stigma in South Africa: historical perspectives, (African
Journal of AIDS Research, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2005) accessed on July 14, 2014,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16085900509490339#preview
41
Sara C. Mvududu, Revisiting Traditional Management of Indigenous Woodlands, in Women Healing Earth:
Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford Reuther, 144
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 12

started by African women. Womens knowledge base does provide them with an advantage:

since they are in charge of such a wide range of tasks, their understanding of the environment is

quite comprehensive. Denise Ackermann and Tahira Joyner, two ecofeminists from South

Africa, point out in their essay on earth healing,

The impact of environmental deterioration on womens lives is profound. It is,

therefore not strange that women should be the first to protest against
environmental destruction. For such protests to be translated into a country-wide
movement in which women, irrespective of class, race or ethnicity, come
together, we need to articulate and respect our differences and find our common
need to resuscitate and nurture all living things.42

That common ground is the shared responsibility in preserving the environment that women have

been tasked with, and the common respect for nature that much of the African population holds

dear because of the African Traditional Religious beliefs that are still very present in their

culture. This heightened awareness of the importance of nature means that when it comes to the

innovation of new water treatment methods, it is just important that the method be

environmentally friendly as it is important that it sufficiently remove contaminants from the

water.

An example of how women are key influencing factors in the design of a product can be

seen when looking at sanitation development in Kathmandu, Nepal. Until 1976, when the local

Department of Agriculture decided to install more sanitary latrines, the women in that

community had used a walled-off, outdoor enclosure as a restroom; within the walls there were

no cubicles or toilets, no privacy.43 When the department began constructing the new restrooms

they never consulted with the women of the community, but as the women saw it being built,

42
Denise Ackermann and Tahira Joyner, Earth-Healing in South Africa: Challenges to Church and Mosque, in
Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford
Reuther, 124
43
BR Saubolle, A womens toilet, Nepal, in Mitchell RJ, editor, Experiences in appropriate technology,
(Ottawa: The Canadian Hunger Association, 1980), 9-10
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 13

they could not understand why walls were being placed between individual latrines. The women

not only found the separating walls to be completely unnecessary, but they wanted them

removed as they would prevent conversation between women, as they had done for centuries.

The walls were removed before the construction process was finished; by not finding out about

the cultural norms and values of the community first, money was wasted. It is the social culture

created by women that matters most when designing devices that directly affect their everyday

tasks and living. There are countless examples like this that perfectly showcase how it is

necessary to understand the values of the community being designed for and how frequently

women are overlooked in the design process, ever when they are the primary intended user. In a

list of key recommendations from the latest United Nations World Water Development Report,

appreciate the context within which water issues must be approached was listed first.44 When

looking at the availability of drinking water in Sub-Saharan Africa, women shape that context

the most.

Women and the environment have a lot in common when it comes to how they are

regarded within various cultures. Vandana Shiva writes,

The patriarchal world view sees man as the measure of all value, with no space for
diversity, only for hierarchy. Woman, being different, is treated as unequal and
inferior. Natures diversity is seen as not intrinsically valuable in itself, its value is
conferred only through economic exploitation for commercial gainThe
marginalization of women and the destruction of biodiversity go hand in hand.

Shiva sees this marginalization as incredibly detrimental. She strongly speaks out against public-

private partnerships for water resource dispersion, because such arrangements usually entail

public funds being available for the privatization of a public good.45 The school of ecological

ethics that Shiva, and many other women, identify with places vital importance on a

44
The United Nations. Water: A Shared Responsibility. Berghahn Books; 2006.
45
Vandana Shiva, Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit, (Cambridge, Mass: South End Press, 2002), 89
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 14

commitment to meet the basic material needs of all life possible46 in a responsible way. Their

main goal is to increase water availability in a way that does not harm the environment. Aldo

Leopold posed an ecological categorical imperative that very much embodies their mission: A

thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic

community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.47 African ecofeminists understand water to be

a community resource, therefore, because of this understanding,

An indigenous environmental revolution is taking place and women are playing a

major roleThe traditional deep affinity for the earth in Africa, based on an
essentially religious understanding of the universe, is vividly illustratedThey are
proclaiming a widening message of salvation which encompasses all of creation
and they are dancing out a new rhythm in their services of worship which, in the
footwork, spells hope for the ravaged earth.48

Many different religious groups within Africa are fully embodying the environmentally friendly

and protective beliefs that they have maintained from their traditional religions and using that as

fuel for helping to repair their surroundings. The Association of African Earthkeeping Churches,

which was formed in 1991, is completely devoted to promoting afforestation, conserving

wildlife, and protecting water resources.49

There is a critical emphasis hereon womens participation in earth-healing

praxis[which] is directed at restoring relationships between [women] and all created life, and

is infused by a spirituality which reverences the sacredness of all creation.50 Tsepho

Khumbane, from the drought-stricken northern Transvaal, sought to combat soil erosion and fuel

46
Larry Rasmussen, Earth Community, Earth Ethics (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1996), 172
47
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 201ff
48
Denise Ackermann and Tahira Joyner, Earth-Healing in South Africa: Challenges to Church and Mosque, in
Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford
Reuther, 126
49
Jacklyn Cock and Eddie Koch, Going Green: People, Politics and the Environment in South Africa, (African
Studies Review, Vol. 36, No. 3, 1993), 209
50
Denise Ackermann and Tahira Joyner, Earth-Healing in South Africa: Challenges to Church and Mosque, in
Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford
Reuther, 125
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 15

availability problems in her town through the planting of trees over the course of five years.

Because of water availability issues, most of the trees did not live, but she did not let that

discourage her. With a focus on intercommunity cooperation she said, I dont think its so

hopeless nothing can be doneonce we have water, there will be a green carpet.51 They are

taking the beliefs that they have held about nature and using them in a very empowering way.

As David Morgan pointed out,

In addition to the preservation of social structure, belief affords the opportunity to

study agency in restructuring it. Belief is not only what people do to conform to
the limitations of gender roles as set by the prevailing economic demands of
producing heirs, promoting authority and social order, or amassing capital. Belief
is also what people do to expand their options, to wiggle from strict prescriptions
of behavior, or to imagine themselves beyond what they are told they must think
or feelbelief can assist people in re-creating themselves by seeking new roles,
new narratives, by reimagining their social presence, by changing their place
within the communities which they circulate.52

Women are making their beliefs their upmost priority and seizing the opportunity to make a

difference within their communities. By working to maintain their traditional beliefs in the value

of nature, they are also working to make themselves more influential members of society. There

are countless communities of women who are not only willing to, but driven to try and solve

environmental and resource availability issues that they are faced with daily their high regard

for nature, however, is one of the main influences in how they choose to approach combating the

problems. Women are the ones that will be leading the switch to homemade, point-of-use water

treatment methods.

Additionally, Christian and Islamic influences only help to strengthen the push to preserve

the environment. Now, there is one innate difference within Judeo-Christian tradition in how

practitioners approach and understand nature, and that is from the creation stories. As described

51
Cock and Koch, Going Green, 45
52
David Morgan, Religion and Material Culture (New York: Routledge, 2010), 60
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 16

in Genesis 2:19-20, the Lord So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the

field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and

whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all

cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field.53 Adams naming of the

animals is representation of dominion over nature; it set up a system of the world being here to

serve man, as man is here to serve God, and that idea is pervasive throughout a lot of Abrahamic

thought. Despite that, however, in recent years Christians have being trying to shift their

mentality towards nature.

There is a slight wording difference in the naming of the animals within Islam, but that

slight wording difference creates a completely different mentality. Instead of naming the

animals, God told Adam the names of them and he simply revealed them. Islamic texts insured

that man and nature are kept on much more equal levels, and By refusing to separate man and

nature completely, Islam has preserves an integral view of the Universe and sees in the arteries

of the cosmic and natural world order the flow of divine grace.54 Scholar Al-Hafiz Masri points

out that at the root of Islam is high regard for all natural elements: land, air, water, fire, sunlight,

and forests, and they were all recognized as the common property of all creatures.55 Early on

Islam recognized that people are not always living in harmony with their surrounding

environment, but for them, respect towards it is also an integral part of their beliefs. As it is

written in the Quran, Corruption has appeared on earth and at sea because of what the hands of

men have wrought; in order that God may make them taste the consequences of their actions; so

53
Oremus Bible Browser, New Revised Standard Version, http://bible.oremus.org/
54
Seyyes Hossein Nasr, quoted in Majorie Hope and James Young, Islam and Ecology (Cross Currents 44, no. 2,
1994), 187
55
Al-Hafiz B.A. Masri, Islam and Ecology, in F. Khalis and J. OBrien (eds.), Islam and Ecology (London:
Cassell, 1992), 6
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 17

that they might return to God.56

In turn, many Africans are disappointed in how the West treats its environment. Because

of this, any recommendations coming from the West on ways to treat natural resources may not

be well received. As Malidoma Some explained, The Wests progressive turning away from

spiritual values; its total disregard for the environment and the protection of natural

resourceswill eventually bring about terrible self-destruction.57 Therefore, it needs to be

made especially clear that these methods are environmentally sound. Now, I do recognize that

what is environmentally appropriate changes across cultures, as different materials and

organisms are respected to varying degrees, so later research will have to explore specific

African Traditions with nature in more detail to make sure that methods achieved and maintained

an appropriate regard for the environment.

Ideas on Pollution: Turning Dirt into Soil

When looking at cultures that do not have scriptural documentation of the beliefs that

maintain or practice, they are not as aware of how long these beliefs have been established. To

them, it may seem as if a certain ideology has existed forever because there are limited ways to

go and explore the history of their faith. As Mary Douglas points out, No one knows how old

are the ideas of purity and impurity in any non-literate culture: to members they must seem

timeless and unchanging.58 Therefore, when working with cultures that maintain such beliefs,

special attention needs to be paid to their conceptions of various materials, because then they

may be less likely to break from them. That being said, there is also the recognition that objects

56
Quran, Al-Rum, 30:41
57
Malidoma Patrice Some, Of Water and the Spirit, 1
58
Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (Great Britain: T. & A. Constable Limited, 1970), 4
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 18

are not static; their meanings are generally derivative of the stories of their travels throughout

time.59

Firstly, what is a material object and what shapes how it is understood by a culture?

The presence of a thingdepends on more than its physicality. Things exist

within spaces of value, the cultural marketplace of desire. In addition to desire,
use enfolds a thing into a register of value that is what we see or touch when we
apprehend a thing. If I have a use for a thing, I am especially aware of itThings
come to us with genealogies and biographies such that we see in the thing more
than what is there physicallywe see evidence of its previous states, of its
itinerary, of its trajectory to the present momentEmbedded in these things is
something that matters to usour relationship to the person, time, or place from
which the object issues.

Framed within the study of religion, the study of things assumes they are an
important and almost infinitely varied means by which human beings feel their
way into their worlds, feel themselves, feel the past, anticipate the future, feel
together.60

There was an analogy presented by Gerardus van der Leeuw that calls attention to why it

is important to pay attention to the value of a material within a certain religious ideology.

Whether something is sacred or taboo, a certain culture holds very strong feelings about it and

these feelings may be expressed in warnings. For example, a sign that reads Danger! High

Voltage61 is not what creates the electricity. They warning exists because the danger has been

discovered. The same holds true of feelings that surround material items. If something is

warned against or highly valued, it holds that place in the culture for a reason, therefore religious

ritual and material culture need to be taken seriously when analyzing a culture.62 African

religious culture is one that has especially close religious relations with material items:

59
Richard H. Davis, Lives of Indian Images (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997) in David Morgan,
Religion and Material Culture, 68
60
David Morgan, Religion and Material Culture (New York: Routledge, 2010), 71-72
61
Gerardus van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation, trans. J.E. Turner, 2 vols. (New York: Harper &
Row), vol 1: 44 in ibid., 63
62
David Morgan, Religion and Material Culture, 63
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 19

Tucked within the descriptive commentaries concerning virtually every kind of
object used for spiritual mediation in African cultural contexts are references to
tactilityAmong the Luba peoples of the Democratic Republic of the
Congoevery object valued in the West for its formal attributes of aesthetic
achievement was an object of tactilitywhether a throne to support ones weight,
a staff of office gripped in the hand, a headrest to dream upon, a cup from which
to imbibe palm wine, an axe worn ceremonially over the shoulder, or an ivory
pendant borne on the chest of a noble. Luba royal emblems interact with human
bodies. Furthermore, most objects of wood and ivory have been and are anointed
regularly with palm oil and other organic substances.63

The African focus on material items within their religion draws quite the contrast to ideal

Christianity. For example, throughout the history of Christianity, especially in its early years,

some practitioners abandoned any luxuries and lived under tough circumstances because that was

what they felt was the devout way to live. There are examples of these Christian aesthetics

depriving themselves of food and sleep. Part of this could be connected to the fact the

Christianity has a different approach to the appreciation of nature, especially scripturally. Paul

spoke about nature to describe God, Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and

divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has

made.64 What can be gathered from this is, nature, though glorious, is never worshiped by any

biblical writers. The Creator and created human beings are seen enjoying its beauty. This is a

distinctive variation from some thinking (past and present) where nature is almost (and

sometimes actually is) deified, positing a spirituality without God.65 Clearly, the Christian

approach to nature greatly varies from traditional African ideas.

The method of water treatment being analyzed in this report is largely dependent on

various types of soils and rocks, yet it is exactly those materials on which many religious taboos

63
Mary Nooter Roberts, Tactility and Transcendence: Epistemologies of Touch in African arts and spiritualties in
ibid., 79-80
64
Oremus Bible Browser, Romans 1:20, New Revised Standard Version, http://bible.oremus.org/
65
Jo Ann Davidson, The Bible and Aesthetics, Beauty of the Created World, (Silver Springs, MD: Institute for
Christian Teaching, 2000), accessed on July 18, 2014, http://fae.adventist.org/essays/26Bcc_201-265.htm#_ftnref35
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 20

focus. When asking a culture to use dirt to treat a resource that they must consume, their

relationship to that material must be understood. Additionally, the relationship to the material in

question, water, must be looked at. As religious anthropologist Webb Keane said, Religions

may not always demand beliefs, but they will always involve material forms.66 It plays such a

strong role that the idea of religion itself is largely unintelligible outside its incarnation in

material expressions.67 Materials play a very strong role in religious practices but one that is

sometimes harder to pinpoint as material practice is frequently unintentional, unarticulated, and

felt.68 Therefore, when looking at the role of specific materials within a culture, it is sometimes

harder to understand as the culture itself is not always fully aware of the power surrounding

something.

For Muslims and Christians, clay is written about as a positive material. In the Quran it

reads, Who has created all things well and He originated the creation of man out of clay.69 And

comparisons are made in Biblical texts: "Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this

potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potters hand, so are you in my hand, O

house of Israel."70 It is simple to find examples of the material being viewed as a powerful tool

in creation within Abrahamic faiths, but African Traditional Religions do not necessarily resort

to the same imagery. Therefore, clay, as what it is frequently seen as in everyday living must be

considered: dirt. As William James said,

We have the interesting notionof there being elements of the universe which
may make no rational whole in conjunction with the other elements, and which,
from the point of view of any system which those elements make up, can only be

66
Webb Keane, The Evidence of the Senses and the Materiality of Religion (Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, 2006) in David Morgan, Religion and Material Culture, 8
67
Elizabeth Arweck and William Keenen, Materializing Religion: Expression, Performance, and Ritual, (Oxford:
Ashgate, 2006), 2-3
68
David Morgan, Religion and Material Culture, 68
69
Quran 32: 7
70
Oremus Bible Browser, Jeremiah 18:6, New Revised Standard Version, http://bible.oremus.org/
Women and Nature in African Traditional Religions 21

considered so much irrelevance and accidentso much dirt as it were, and
matter out of place.71

Dirt is created through people ordering their surrounding environment. As everything is

classified and given meaning, dirt is the material forgotten, or not of enough value to be given a

better name. As Mary Douglas said,

If we can abstract pathogenicity and hygiene from our notion of dirt, we are
left with the old definition of dirt as a matter out of placeDirt then, is never
a unique, isolated event. Where there is dirt there is a system. Dirt is the
systematic ordering and classification of matterThis idea of dirt takes us
straight into the field of symbolism and promises to link-up with more
obviously symbolic systems of purity.72

Possibly, the simple action of giving dirt a purpose by using it to create a water filter will

give it value, but possibly not. In order to gain a better understanding of how various

African cultures would react to nature being used in such a way, more research must be

done. As this research continues, it will look more into purposes for dirt throughout

history and cleansing rituals, or ways religions have already come up with to turn the

unclean into the clean.

71
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (London, 1952), 129 in Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger,
164
72
Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, 35