Community Led Conservation Initiatives and Ecological Crisis in Africa: Towards an African Eco Theology

Abstract

In as much as climate change complaints and effects are ubiquitous and global, these concerns can be resolved if the community reflects on their own way of life; especially when the doctrine of creation is well understood. This doctrine claims that during creation, God blessed mankind, gave them dominion to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. This teaching is further complicated by the story of the fall of man where Adam and Eve fell into temptation and sin entered the world. This resulted in God’s curses coming into the world, including that the ground was cursed. Based on this position human beings can determine their environment by creating their own initiatives using their God-given abilities of creativity and taking care of the natural world by practicing responsibility. Traditionally, Africans identified with nature by conserving some trees as sacred or naming children and places after natural things like animals and plants. Similarly, in the teachings of Saint Augustine, people discover God through His works of creation or natural theology, and so nature ought to be preserved. In an attempt to solve the ongoing ecological crisis and the anxiety it is causing humanity, steps like using renewable energy, circular economy, and reforestation have been done. However, the proposed methods have not satisfactorily offered a solution to the current ecological crisis, as people are still anxious of its effects. Using the correlation of eschatology by Jurgen Moltmann of hope and the ecological crisis, this article creates an understanding of the creation mandate. It explores the correlation creativity theory of Paul Tillich and the human potential for creativity and proposes a theology of care and ecological stewardship as an African Eco theology as a solution to the ecological crisis.