By David Maillu
Published September 28, 2023
I have just listened to a presenter on BBC talking about the diminishing
glacier in Austria and its devastating consequences to the socio-economics
of the community. Then another comment was made by another speaker
regarding the threatening fast dying of species in England, expressing the
fear that, in the near future, most species would be extinct. This, they
said, is happening because of the alarming man-made climate –warming,
leading us to the consequences of standing face-to-face with fast-growing
droughts, destructive cyclones, islands being submerged by rising
seawater, wildfires swallowing environments, waves of catastrophic heat,
rivers, and lakes dying… The story of the man-made disaster has become a
household name. In search of economic development, man is engaged in
self-destruction.
In a nutshell, are we hurting Mother Earth by tempering the balance of
Natural Forces? Or, are we offending the Almighty God hence the
consequences? Can we separate the Almighty God from the Force Nature? What
is the difference between Nature and the Almighty God? Could the two be
one at the same time delivered in different names? What are the dimensions
of Nature? What is Nature? Can praying to the Almighty God day and night
and building more churches and mosques bring down the warming global
climate? If they can’t do that, of what value are they to the world when
the world is burning?
African spirituality believes and thinks that the powers of the Almighty
God are manifested in everything created by God. The might of an artist is
judged by his/her work. That is why in Africa it is commonplace to hear
about god of water, god of rain, god of love, god of woman, god of man,
god of forest, gods of the sky, and so on. That is, we are surrounded by
gods. In that framework, earth is a goddess.
Pharaoh or King Akhenaton (1372-1354 BC) established the worship of the
SUN as the greatest force of the Universal God. His religion would be
perceived by Christians as worshipping idols, instead of worshiping the
Almighty God and his son Jesus. Yet, remove the SUN from it place and
every living thing on earth dies. So, how should we perceive the SUN which
has that ultimate force? Besides, how should we perceive the EARTH whose
present features are dictated to by the SUN? We are all creatures of the
earth-born by the EARTH. Is the EARTH, like the SUN, another god?
African Spirituality worships these things because they are made by the
Supreme Force of creation. The EARTH is the only home we have in the
universe. The EARTH is our God representative of the Supreme God. It is
from this premise that the African understands his responsibility in the
environment. The Bible preaches that the EARTH is but a station in a way
of our journey to heaven and, come of the Judgment Day, the EARTH will
pass. In other words, our responsibility to the world, if any, is limited
because we need the earth temporarily. What is the value of this religion
in addressing our global responsibility? Where does the Bible or Koran
show that the human being must worship the environment in which he lives?
What are the dimensions of the word worship mean? Perhaps the African
concept of God is the one the world needs to adopt in other to address the
global climate.