Contextualising environmental theology in African society

Background

`From the masses to the masses' the most Revolutionary consciousness is to be found Among the most ruthlessly exploited classes: Animals, trees, water, air, grasses.

Gary Snyder

In 1984 chimurenga - the Zimbabwean liberation struggle - came to an end and the lands which had been `lost' politically were recovered. But it immediately became apparent that these same lands were being lost all over again, this time ecologically. The new struggle in postwar Zimbabwe was to restore these lands through extensive tree planting, conservation of water resources, nature conservation and the protection of wildlife.

Professor Daneel, the author of the next article, has been involved in research projects in Zimbabwe since 1967. One study determined the role played by the traditional religions and Christianity during chimurenga. He and his researchers knew that the part played by spirit mediums and the prophets of the African Independent Churches had not been fully recognised. They had inspired the guerilla fighters and mobilised peasant support for the struggle. It was decided that ecological effort should be based on the same worldviews and belief systems. The rationale was that if the quality of life were to be improved holistically, all creation and not merely humankind had to be freed from mindless exploitation and abuse. Thus began what the spirit mediums referred to as the `War of the Trees'.

Professor Daneel founded a movement which was unique in that the environment was kept as the basis of African worldviews, religious perceptions and philosophy. Salvation in this context was the salvation of all creation and not individual souls. Because of his vision three institutions were established to guide and give continuity to the activities in the rural communities.

The first was ZIRRCON (Zimbabwean Institute of Religious Research and Ecological Conservation), an umbrella organisation which evolved from Professor Daneel's research and comprises himself and his fieldworkers. Later ZIRRCON founded two sister organisations: one for traditionalists and one for African Independent Churches.These were Aztrek (Association of Zimbabwean Traditional Ecologists) and AAEC (Association of African Earthkeeping Churches)

In the next article Professor Daneel gives a background sketch of his research and environmental involvement in Zimbabwe, and outlines proposals for a chair and centre or institute for Religious Research and Environmental Reform at the University of South Africa (Unisa).

Contextualising environmental theology in African society and at the University of South Africa

Inus Daneel

ABSTRACT

This article sets out the main objectives of a new chair and related centre or institute at the University of South Africa for Religious Research and Environmental Reform which Professor Daneel has envisaged for several years. The objectives of: teaching environmental theology at various levels (including contextualised courses for African Initiated Churches at the grassroots of African society); initiating empirical research projects (as feasibility studies for new environmental projects, studies for monitoring project implementation, the gauging of societal response to environmental initiatives, etc; and introducing a wide range of field operations through the motivation and empowerment of religious or other communities, are closely related to the religio-ecological models already developed by the Zimbabwean Institute of Religious Research and Ecological Conservation (ZIRRCON) in Zimbabwe. These objectives also correspond with the threefold mission of Unisa, namely teaching, research and community service.

BACKGROUND

An existential commitment

My own commitment in this field does not derive primarily from reading and rational reflection on ecological issues. I do not, for instance, consider myself an environmental theologian in the traditional or theoretical sense 1. On the contrary, my interest lies in empirical study of the human factor in the exploitation of natural resources and in facilitating the mobilisation of grassroots communities in effective earthkeeping projects. It is also a product of my direct identification with the growing concern in African peasant society that something radical should be done about deforestation, soil erosion, pollution of water resources and related ecological ills. Throughout my career empirical research has enabled me to identify for extended periods with rural communities, to determine local needs through existential involvement, and eventually to participate in project implementation by way of planning, fund- raising, mobilisation and structure formation for the sake of continuity 2.

My growing engagement in environmental projects -- which has earned me a few nicknames, such as Boomplant Daneel (by Unisa students) and Muchakata, the wild cork tree which symbolises mystical ancestral protection and is not to be felled according to Shona customary law -- dates back to youth experience. Much of my childhood was spent adventurously in the lush forests on the holy Mount Mugabe at Morgenster Mission, four miles from the Great Zimbabwe ruins. It was a sanctuary comprising miles of virgin territory: wild loquat, sour plum, wild custard apple and many more indigenous trees, virtually holding hands in closed-canopy forests, looming over huge ferns, green moss, orchids and little mountain streamlets; a world where the wingflap of louries, bulbuls and flycatchers was constantly heard and where little children fantasised about the dwelling-places of dwarfs and fairies. It was a world protected by massive granite domes, by the laws of missionaries who held more land by the grace of Cecil Rhodes than they were entitled to, and by the customary African prohibition of any tree-felling in the marambatemwa (holy groves, the burial places of senior ancestors). As a child one had the feeling that one was living in an impregnable mountain fortress which could endure every onslaught of nature, be it flooding or drought. So the mountain fortress of my youth became an emotional anchorage, a symbol of stability in later life, a counterweight to the vagaries and upheavals of my nomadic existence.

Then, after Zimbabwean Independence, came the assault on Mount Mugabe. The exploiters moved in unchecked, chopping down the wild loquat, muchakata and other wild fruit trees to make a quick buck selling firewood. The holy grove was desecrated. Squatters, ignoring threats of eviction, ripped open the mountainside. They cleared the bush and started planting their maize and millet crops in places totally unsuited for cultivation, thus triggering a process of erosion such as the mountain had never known before.

To see the mountain dying was traumatic. The invasion of the holy grove was also an invasion of the inner soul of those who had grown up on the mountain, whose conception of privacy had been moulded by the endless murmur of mountain streams among mosses and ferns. Gone were the streams, the abundance of fruit, the mushrooms and the wingflap of birds. The laughter and banter of the invading squatters could not compensate for all that lost forest beauty and peace, now replaced by rutted surface of erosion gullies, rough tear streaks on the old mountain's distorted features.

Out of the anger and emptiness I experienced every time I saw those ravaged, fruitless slopes grew a new ecological awareness. The missiologist in me could no longer confine empirical research mainly to religious beliefs and ceremonies; no longer could I maintain the Western dualism of spiritual as opposed to physical reality. African holism became the hermeneutic for theological reorientation. Soul salvation remained an important part of the gospel message, I thought -- but never at the expense of the salvation of all creation. For the first time I really experienced myself as part of an abusing and abused creation which was reaching out for liberation. The biblical concept of a new heaven and new earth increasingly appeared as a challenge to be realised here and now, even if only by way of human `signpost activity'. The myth of my childhood mountain fortress had to make way for a new myth -- a myth born of vulnerability, but emerging from the unknown recesses of our common African subconscious. In this myth the Christian Mwari (Shona name for God) in his or her African guise as the true muridzi venyika (guardian of the land) is calling all of us to heal the wounded country 3.

Declaring the war of the trees

At the time I was researching the religious factor in Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, chimurenga. Many interviews were conducted in former guerrilla mountain hideouts (poshitos) from where one overlooked the ecological devastation of the overpopulated, deforested and badly eroded communal lands. From my Morgenster experience I was now much more open to the lament of the peasants. Although couched in different terms, my informants' nostalgia for a past of agricultural abundance, nurtured by a still healthy environment, was similar to my own. The chiefs and spirit mediums in particular were complaining about dried up and silted rivers where the drumbeat of the njuzu water spirits 4 was no longer heard, about treeless, barren plains where the women could no longer find firewood, about ever deepening erosion gullies. We shared our concern, agreeing that chimurenga 5 had indeed brought political liberation, but that ecologically the land was still lost, in bondage, and therefore in need of liberation. Something drastic had to be done -- not just in token gesture, but on a massive scale -- if the situation was to be remedied. We agreed that nothing less than another liberation struggle was required: chimurenga had to be extended from the sociopolitical to the ecological field.

Together with the chiefs and spirit mediums I was convinced that the ancient religious forces that had united African communities in the struggle (in contrast to the impotence among the peasants of Marxist-socialist ideology) could once again be harnessed to mobilise and inspire a mass movement. These forces are the ancestral war council, consisting of national ancestors such as Kaguwi, Nehanda and Chaminuka, plus the senior varidzi venyika (guardians of the land) of each district, all operating through their living spirit mediums. Acting on behalf of the war council, the mediums to a large extent determine the strategy of war. `Chairperson' of the war council is Mwari, the creator-God. Emissaries, moving between battlefields and the oracular deity's shrine centre in the Matopo hills near Bulawayo, bring divine sanction and directives for military field operations 6.

Together with the prophets and bishops of the African Independent Churches, I was convinced that the Holy Spirit could once again activate church communities throughout the country to engage in a liberating war. Once again the black Jerusalems and Holy Cities would become strategic centres 7, the war prophets in this instance being the earth-healers, their weapons nurseries and woodlots. Instead of pointing out traitors to the struggle, collaborators with the white regime (as the prophets had done during the war), the Holy Spirit was bound to identify in their prophecies the wizards, the earth-destroyers of the new struggle: wanton tree-fellers, cultivators of river banks, those who neglected contour ridging, poachers and the like.

Out of these shared convictions, in both the traditional and the Christian camp, grew the resolve to launch a green revolution. We simply declared the war of the trees (hondo yemiti), the main objective of which was to clothe the barren earth (kufukidza nyika). The environmental objectives were threefold: afforestation, wildlife conservation and the protection of water resources. But from the outset trees -- particularly indigenous trees, to be cultivated in nurseries and planted in woodlots -- were focal. My house in Masvingo was converted into the headquarters of our fledgling green army. Here the executive meetings were held, constitutions drawn up, fund-raising and tree-planting campaigns planned, while our first official nursery, containing some 17 000 indigenous trees, took shape in my backyard.

Our high command consisted of an intriguing assortment of characters. Tribal chiefs -- still wearing their white helmets and bronze disks, insignia of a bygone colonial era -- and spirit mediums in leopard skins, plumed headdresses and other accoutrements demonstrating their authenticity, accepted my environmentalist Old Testament readings at the opening of meetings, then followed these up by spilling their snuff all over my floor in honour of the guardian ancestors of the land. A weekend conference saw my house accommodating up to twenty tribal dignitaries, sleeping all over in corridors and rooms at night and filling the atmosphere with the rather heavy smell of the new struggle's ancestral snuff. Indeed an earthy earthkeepers' movement!

Then came the AIC bishops and prophets in their colourful robes, holy cords and cardboard crowns, holding their frayed Bibles and their holy staffs. They too overcrowded my house over weekends and invaded what privacy was left, if not through endless discussion and singing, then through loud prophecies or prayers in the deep of night, communicating to the good Lord in no uncertain terms the special needs some of them thought I should know about. Some of the church elders whom I had known for nearly 30 years were deeply concerned about my close identification with the traditionalists. I allayed their fears by insisting that interfaith dialogue and fighting the same war (as they had done alongside traditionalists in chimurenga) would not impair their religious identity or allow traditionalists to encroach on their domain.

And so the people's religio-ecological revolution gradually gained momentum. There was no clear cut-and-dried blueprint for action. After all, written constitutions are Western inventions, necessary for legal confirmation andregistration in the bureaucratic order -- not for field operations. Out in the communal lands the affiliated chiefs and spirit mediums were given free rein to develop their own tree-planting strategies. Such ceremonies included ritual beer libations, addresses to the guardian ancestors of the region, pouring beer on seedlings, symbolic rituals to protect new woodlots and festive celebration of new life placed in the soil with traditional war dances and songs adapted to the new struggle. Likewise the Independents, used as they are to enacting rather than writing their theology,8 spontaneously started improvising in environmental action. Written reflection would follow later, if at all. The main thing was to start healing the earth. So the bishops spontaneously invented new liturgies: reinterpreting conversion and baptism in relation to environmental stewardship, introducing a public confession of ecological sins and adopting a tree-planting eucharist so as to integrate earthkeeping at the very heart of church life. As founder and architect of the movement I did make suggestions about contextualised earthkeeping strategies. Yet, as a fellow Independent my task was that of recruiter for the green army, facilitator through the raising and control of funds, and ecumenical conciliator in inevitable interchurch conflicts.

It can therefore be said that the process of contextualising the struggle 9, in both the traditionalist and Christian camps, was a result of essentially grassroots initiative and innovation. Empowerment and mutual trust are contributing to the birth -- through action -- of a genuinely African environmental ethic, one which uninhibitedly portrays African worldviews and philosophies. It is an operational ethic, moreover, which can be studied on the ground by the people and for the people and their environment, with a view to effective policy and project implementation -- prior to purely academic consideration.

The structures and performance in our earthkeeping struggle

The organisation structures10 of what has become a mass movement are briefly as follows. ZIRRCON (Zimbabwean Institute of Religious Research and Ecological Conservation), of which I am the unsalaried director, is the think-tank, the fund-raising and fund-controlling agency, the final authority behind all project implementation -- in short, the heart of the movement. Its ten office workers include salaried representatives of both the traditionalist and Christian earthkeepers, so that all executive meetings at ZIRRCON headquarters fully represent the entire movement. Other salaried workers include an assistant director (who handles finance in my absence), a field operations manager, research workers and some 20 nursery keepers who tend our nurseries in outlying districts -- hence a team of 30 salaried staff members. The existing departments of finance, ecology and research are likely to be augmented soon by a development desk, which will seek to combine ecology with community development, vocational training, small-scale industries, (eg clothes manufacture) and income-generating agricultural schemes. The ecological department, in turn, will be subdivided into afforestation, wildlife and water resource units. We hope to appoint or train professionals in these fields to help with research, feasibility studies and project implementation. At present we are negotiating the appointment of a trained forestry officer to help monitor existing nurseries and woodlots and set up vitally important research programmes in addition to those already under way.

On behalf of ZIRRCON and ZIRRCON-Trust (the latter now an officially registered NGO in Zimbabwe) I am at present negotiating, with the support of the Ministries of Finance and the Environment, a five-year budget of some Z$18 000 000. The European Community and a German sponsor, both of whom have supported us in the past, are seriously considering our application. Institutional continuity therefore appears to be safe for the foreseeable future.

ZIRRCON helped create and is part of two green armies:

AZTREC (The Association of Zimbabwean Traditionalist Ecologists) comprises the majority of chiefs, headmen and spirit mediums in the Masvingo Province (the largest and most densely populated province in the country). Their rural constituency runs into several million peasants, all of whom still readily respond to the mystical urgings of guardian ancestors and the ancient oracular deity when it comes to earth-clothing afforestation and wildlife projects. Integrally related to and financially empowered by ZIRRCON, AZTREC is legally autonomous, with its own executive council and constitution.

The AAEC (Association of African Earthkeeping Churches) comprises some 110 African Independent Churches, with a total of between two and three million adherents all over Zimbabwe. This movement too is autonomous, with its own executive council and constitution. Owing to financial constraints the earthkeeping potential of this formidable task force (as much as that of the traditionalists) has hardly been touched. Yet the conscientisation of core leaders has been effective, training programmes are in place and the field strategy -- already tested in numerous tree-planting eucharists and related ceremonies -- is simply waiting for full-scale operations, the opening up of the battle front.

What has been achieved so far?

We have established ten nurseries, each cultivating 50 000 to 100 000 seedlings annually. We aim at developing another 40 to 60 nurseries throughout Masvingo Province and further afield.

Over the past four years we have planted more than one million trees in some 600 community woodlots. In the near future it should be possible to plant one to several million trees annually.

Owing to the mystical motivation at work, aftercare of woodlots has been excellent, with survival rates of exotic and some indigenous tree species well above average for Africa.

The Forestry Commission officially recognises ZIRRCON as the largest grassroots ecological movement in Zimbabwe, outperforming Forestry itself and all other Zimbabwean institutions in the planting of indigenous trees, and currently Masvingo Province's main provider of seedlings for the National Tree-Planting Day.

Having already started developing regional branches in Manicaland and Matabeleland, ZIRRCON plans to expand its activities to all provinces in Zimbabwe, without relinquishing its basic focus on Masvingo Province.

Probably the most significant achievement of ZIRRCON's afforestation programmes (through and with its sister organisations) is that participant rural communities increasingly believe that they can curb deforestation, that they have a say in their environmental destiny. Subsistence farmers are beginning to accept that in order to survive on the land they must produce their own fuelwood and that they must grow fruit trees for personal and commercial use; exotic trees like bluegums for building; indigenous trees to protect the eroded earth -- lukina for cattle fodder and the slow-growing kiaat (mukurumbira) and red mahogany (mukamba) as a long-term investment for coming generations. The only real hope of checking desertification and healing the barren earth throughout the continent, it seems, is for African peasant communities to take up the challenge of earthkeeping -- afforestation in particular -- with the full support of those First World countries who benefit by the exploitation of Africa's natural resources.

IMPLEMENTATION OF RELIGIO-ECOLOGICAL PROPOSALS AT UNISA AND FURTHER AFIELD

One cannot become part of a liberation struggle of the magnitude described above and not be deeply touched by the dedication and religiocultural innovativeness of the masses of relatively poor members of a rural subsistence economy. I for one cannot continue to carry out my routine academic duties at Unisa as if ecological events north of the Limpopo are incidental and/or peripheral to political and ecological issues elsewhere in southern Africa. ZIRRCON has established a model of environmental reform, based on African religiocultural holism -- a model which works! I am convinced that ZIRRCON's war of the trees presents a challenge to Unisa, for the simple reason that its objectives and premises are, broadly speaking, the same as those of this University. 

First, the movement originated in sustained empirical research over many years. The insight, inspiration and commitment which led to project implementation all derived from field research. Second, continued action depends largely on a teaching process of conscientisation conducted by grassroots leaders -- chiefs, spirit mediums, bishops and prophets. They teach and lead by example, directing field operations. But the preparation of training materials, the written reflection on environmental strategies and events, the conscious merging of religiocultural motivating forces and effective modern ecological methods, take place in the ZIRCCON office. Here teaching expertise is refined. From this base regular rural workshops are conducted. In the third place community service is rendered -- not through top-down manipulation but through bottom-up empowerment. Peasants are enabled to serve their own communities, (e g by producing fuelwood and commercial wood) and thus to make a contribution of national significance.

In outlining how our Faculty could respond to ZIRRCON's challenge, I should mention that my proposals rest on two basic assumptions. The one is that the environmental liberation struggle is integral to the current sociopolitical struggle in South Africa. One can readily understand people's inclination to give priority to political liberation and reconstruction, an attitude of `first sort out politics and then pay attention to the environment'. The fact of the matter is that the quality of human life is interwoven with the environment to such an extent that there is no justification for this -- very natural -- attitude: by the time South African politics is sorted out we'll have no environment left! There can be no either-or on a time-scale. The environmental liberation struggle is on, right now, the integrity of all creation being on a par with and integral to political justice and peace.

The second assumption is that, with all respect to the specialised, Western- subsidised and predominantly elitist conservation activities in South Africa, the only hope of reversing the tide of environmental degradation, deforestation and desertification countrywide lies in the empowerment and mobilisation of all the people, particularly grassroots communities, to take full responsibility for the land through earth-healing activities.

On these assumptions, and given the will in our Faculty to have a wide-ranging impact in this field (something which still has to be tested in depth and which I am not taking for granted), I suggest that the introduction of a new chair will be the first step towards the establishment of an institute for religion and ecology. The mandate of the chair would include fund raising and the building of an institute which could well be called: `Earthkeeping: contextualised resource management in South Africa'.

I propose the following aims for both chair and institute:

Teaching environmental theology

This can be done at three levels. First, existing courses in the Faculty, such as the one on Environmental Ethics, (based largely on a modern creation theology, currently being developed by David Olivier of the Department of Systematic Theology), and certain Old and New Testament courses dealing with environmental issues, could be extended and developed through interdepartmental clustering. In addition interdisciplinary cooperation should be promoted. Representatives of the theological, anthropological, sociological, geographical and philosophical disciplines could, for instance, initiate a workshop or forum for environmental issues, where they could consider joint course development, multidisciplinary use of existing courses and similar issues. Such interaction and course enrichment would fall entirely within the existing structures of degree courses in the various disciplines, observing the standards of our `modern' or Western-oriented academia.

Second, an intermediate diploma course on environmental ethics, specifically based on African ecology, African worldviews, philosophy and religion and/or an African Christian theology, could be developed for purposes of conscientisation and practical commitment. Such courses may well be developed in consultation with existing environmental institutions. The main thrust, however, would be empirical feasibility studies to determine the grassroots requirements in a multicultural situation. Experimental at first but relating to growing research insights, such a course can be expected to increase in contextual effectiveness over time.

In the third place, courses specifically based on AIC theologies should be written to reach the host (some 6 000) South African movements, together representing approximately 50 per cent of the total black population of this country. Courses already developed by ZIRRCON could be used, particularly with a view to liturgical renewal, a fully Africanised creation and liberation theology, and the integration of environmental ethics in the sacramental and ceremonial life of the Independent Churches. Materials of this nature should preferably be written by one or two AIC representatives appointed to the Institute, and be fed into existing TEE networks already serving a large number of AICs. Depending on how effective the outreach of these networks is, the proposed institute may consider establishing its own TEE system to augment the existing ones, capitalising in the process on Unisa's expertise in distant education. There can be little doubts that instruction of this nature can become valuable not only in promoting AIC ecumenical endeavour and theological advancement generally, but specifically in preparing the ground for united action in the green revolution through environmental awareness-building. Training programmes should dovetail with AIC implementation of ecological projects, thus realising an imaginative expression of Unisa's third objective, community service.

Promotion of empirical research

The main focus of the proposed institute's research programme will be African traditional religion and worldviews, African Independent Churches and environmental issues as they relate to religion and culture.

African traditional religion has often been neglected in studies of so-called `world religions' and in interfaith dialogue. The study of African belief systems, ritual life and symbolism (much of it in a state of flux and transition) is vitally important, however, in relation to such matters as crosscultural communication, the Africanisation of Christianity, sociopolitical change, African attitudes towards and involvement in rural economic development, urban industrialisation and ecology, etc.

African Independent Churches are no longer considered `sects' or `separatist' movements on the periphery of Christianity. On the contrary: in terms of recruitment strategies, growth rate and contextualised theology they may be more properly qualified as `mainline churches' in the African context11. The statistics cited above (50 per cent of the South African black population belong to AICs) and a growth rate which currently significantly surpasses those of the older `historical' or `mission' churches convincingly substantiate a call for in-depth research and ecumenical interaction.

The writing of course material, the planning of new projects, the formulation of policies for the green revolution, the assessment of contextualisation processes, etc, all require extensive field research. ZIRRCON's fieldworkers, for instance, are continuously surveying the persistence of customary hunting laws, ancestral rest days in relation to agriculture and soil conservation, the honouring of water spirits as a way of protecting water resources and the role of the high-god cult in land ownership and land husbandry, with a view to developing training materials for AZTREC, our traditionalist association. Likewise, over the past few years I have had numerous church tree-planting ceremonies and related interviews with key-figures in the AAEC tape-recorded in an attempt to define liturgical innovation and the emerging profile of a contextualised AIC theology of the environment. To improve our afforestation programmes we are currently negotiating the employment of a professional ecologist to study such matters as soil types with a view to tree planting, the germination of indigenous tree seeds, the survival rate of trees in our woodlots and improved nursery techniques. Without feasibility studies to map the still existing holy groves (marambatemwa) in communal lands, to determine the wildlife carrying capacity of these areas and the positioning of water points and assess the vitally important response of local communities and schools which are to participate in the envisaged schemes, it would make no sense to proceed with game-fencing and the reintroduction of wildlife into densely populated areas. Because such surveys do not necessarily culminate in academic publications this does not detract from their importance in initiation and management of field projects.

The objectives of promoting empirical research on these subjects include the following:

Further existing research: Special attention will be given to training in research methodology. Master's and doctoral students in particular will be visited in the field and will be put in touch with experienced researchers. Research seminars will enable scholars to subject field papers to the scrutiny of interdisciplinary panels as a sort of a sounding board, helping them to assess and improve their research techniques and emerging information in the course of their fieldwork. Past experimentation on these lines has already led to excellent publications of field surveys by students, notably those of Michael Stebbing, Stan Nussbaum and Allan Anderson 12. ZIRRCON is providing the facility to postgraduate students doing field research under its auspices. In the course of this year both Marcelle Manley, who is studying the changing religiopolitical roles of Shona chiefs in post-Independence Zimbabwe, and Irma Aarsman, a Dutch anthropologist from the University of Utrecht who is studying the influence of ancestral beliefs on AZTREC's afforestation projects, will be reading research papers to multidisciplinary seminar audiences (comprising professors and lecturers of theology, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, history, etc) at the University of Zimbabwe for the sake of critical appraisal and academic guidance. There are also a number of post-graduate Unisa students currently doing field studies of AICs, African Theology and similar subjects under my supervision. These can be offered similar facilities in the context of the proposed institute.

Initiating new empirical research projects: At least two major projects are urgently needed in South Africa. First, a multidisciplinary study of the history, organisation, economic and political activities, and rituals and belief systems, (i e theology) of the Zion Christian Church of Lekganyane -- the largest and fastest growing church in southern Africa today -- should yield illuminating results. With large numbers of ZCC members employed in the mining industry, factories, on farms and as domestic workers throughout South Africa, publications on this church could be adapted to meet the requirements of both academics and a more general readership in this country. Besides, the contribution of the ZCC to an emergent African Theology and the prospects of its involvement in the environmental struggle need to be assessed. A research team for such a study could include theologians, a social-anthropologist, an economist, an ethnohistorian and several junior fieldworkers. Having myself studied the ZCC's counterpart in Zimbabwe, I would be in a position to produce a geographically comprehensive history of ZCC expansion in southern Africa. Dr Allen Anderson and Reverend Stephen Hayes could well be persuaded to undertake, in conjunction with prominent ZCC theologians, an analysis of the church's theology.

Second, the role of African traditional religion and AICs in South African urban and industrial environments requires attention. Individual urban studies, such as the one recently undertaken by Dr Anderson or more extensive team efforts, could be conducted. Attention should be paid to the role of religion, religious group loyalties and worldviews in labour motivation, the creation of socially stabilising in-groups, politics, and the emergence of urban rituals and beliefs.

• Encouraging written contributions by Independents: The research component of the proposed institute will be well placed to encourage and assist Independents to do research and write about their own movements. Thus new forms of grassroots theology -- whether African, Christian, indigenous or liberationist -- which have hitherto been enacted and celebrated in dance, songs, sermons and innumerable patterns of social service will be made accessible to a wide readership within and well beyond the confines of South African Independentism. The contribution of this section of Christianity to the world church will then be given greater exposure and more accurate definition.

• ZIRRCON is already developing facilities for Zionist theologians (eg --- Reverend Solomon Zvanaka and Reverend Rueben Marinda) to produce written materials based on sustained empirical research. At another level support can be given to research already undertaken in South Africa by members of the Institute of Contextual Theology (ICT) in Johannesburg, notably Dr L August and bishops Ntongana and Ngada13. The rendering of such a service to Independents would require prior negotiation, as cooption will only provoke reaction. It should be possible, however, to arrange regular workshops for studying and refining the art of research, deepening theological reflection and promoting publications in direct relation to the specific needs of the AICs.
  

• Hosting an annual forum or conference: In addition to seminars and workshops a more comprehensive gathering could be arranged -- either annually or biannually -- to consider religiocultural and environmental issues. This would provide another opportunity for researchers and other professionals in related fields to meet and produce field materials for short-term publication. These conference publications could augment the long-term monographic works produced by the institute. Needless to say, such a forum would be interdisciplinary. Participants would also represent a wide spectrum from grassroots environmentalists to prominent academics. Conference themes would cover a wide range from praxis- oriented evaluations of afforestation and wildlife projects to highly theoretical considerations of the religiocultural, economic and political dynamics which characterise the context in which the green struggle takes place.

Again ZIRRCON's experience could provide valuable guidelines. It recently held a conference representing both AZTREC and AAEC (contingents of some 50 chiefs, headmen and mediums, and of 50 AIC key figures, bishops and prophets). An interesting feature of the conference was interfaith dialogue: heated debates on highly divergent traditional and Christian approaches to environmental projects, leading in most cases to agreement on common religious ground from which to pursue a united struggle in earthkeeping. While the traditional spirit mediums indicated that the guardian ancestors could be provoked into mystical retaliation if the holy groves containing their graves were game-fenced, the prophets supported such fencing, provided they could have their own game-sanctuaries which they considered calling `the Lord's Acre' or `the Lord's Dwelling-place' in contradistinction to the traditional marambatemwa groves. A new spirit of determination to step up the struggle in unison was described by traditionalists and Independents alike as a major earth-healing breakthrough, the first they had ever witnessed in Zimbabwe.

Another remarkable feature of this conference was the presentation of several papers and speeches by politicians, representatives of Forestry, Campfire, Parks and Wildlife, ZIRRCON research workers and myself, to which our multicultural and religiously diversified audience responded. The upshot was an interaction between more or less academic input, grassroot wisdom and government interests, putting together a rich medley of views and experience in the field of contextual earthkeeping. Thus new ecological strategies and the merits and demerits of existing programmes were considered away from the theoretical drawing boards, where the opinions of the men and women responsible for community action could have a decisive impact.

Depending on the attitudes of participants, the envisaged institute at Unisa could certainly orchestrate similar experimental conference events. If successful, the next step might be to consider the formation of a Pan-African Earthkeeper's Union. This would allow cross-sections of government representation, including ministries of the environment, ecological NGOs, scientists, religious representatives and particularly key figures from grassroots society in the various African countries to have a platform where they can assess Africa's natural resources, resource management and policy making in this regard and, if possible, promote Africa's environmental liberation struggle 14.

Mobilisation and empowerment as a form of community service

A minimum staffing requirement to begin with will be two field operations managers with at least some basic qualifications and/or experience in forestry. They will have to establish contacts with AIC leaders and their rural congregations, and with chiefs and traditionalist communities, where fuelwood shortages and other environmental problems are acute. Ecumenical clusters of Independent Churches can then be helped to develop nurseries and plan the establishment of church-controlled woodlots by planting trees in the rainy season. Once a few examples of the new earthkeeping strategy have taken shape in African society and the benefits of community-controlled afforestation is evident, the struggle is bound to escalate through conscientisation and commitment deriving from ecological action. As in Zimbabwe, interchurch competition and a will to form a united front in the green struggle could lead to the growth of a mass movement and a geographically wide sphere of influence in a relatively short time.

As healing institutions with extensive organisational networks throughout the country, the AICs -- particularly the pentecostal-type prophetic movements -- are tailor-made for earthkeeping endeavour. Much will depend on the institute's ability to capitalise on contacts already established with key figures in the ICT and to persuade AIC leaders to join the struggle during the initial phase of recruitment. In Zimbabwe I admittedly had the advantage of many years of service and ecumenical work among the Independents. By comparison, and because of the greater complexity of ethnic and political factors in South Africa, mobilisation may come up against delaying obstacles. Nevertheless, I anticipate that once the church leaders realise that they can share responsibility in a potential environmental people's movement, and that they will be free to relate and adapt church praxis to the earthkeeping challenge according to their own insight, they will succeed in building the kind of ecological task force required for mass action in afforestation and related projects.

Powerful incentives for environmental action could be provided by exposing local AIC delegations to ZIRRCON's programmes in Zimbabwe. Judging by the enthusiasm South African visitors have shown when participating in AZTREC's and the AAEC's tree-planting ceremonies, I have little doubt that the commitment of ZIRRCON's green forces and the contextual innovation of ceremonial procedure will provide and strengthen the motivation of their southern counterparts.

Consider, for example, the following excerpt from our tree-planting liturgy, developed by Zionist bishop Rueben Marinda:

Look at the stagnant water
where all the trees were felled
Without trees the water-holes mourn
without trees the gullies form
For the tree roots that bind the soil
are gone!
These friends of ours
give us shade
They draw the rain clouds
breathe the moisture of rain
I, the tree ... I am your friend
I know you want wood
for fire
to cook your food
to warm yourself against cold.
Use my branches ...What I do not need
you can have
I, the human being
your closest friend
have committed a serious offence
as a ngozi, a vengeful spirit
I destroyed you, our friends.
So, the seedlings brought here today
are the `bodies' (mitumbu) of restitution
a sacrifice to appease
the vengeful spirit
We plant these seedlings today
as an admission of guilt
laying the ngozi to rest.
Strengthening our bonds with you
our tree friends of the heart
Indeed, there were forests
abundance of rain
But in our ignorance and greed
we left the land naked.
Like a person in shame
our country is shy
in its nakedness.
Our tree planting today
is a sign of harmony
between us and creation.
We are reconciled with creation
through Jesus' body and blood
which brings peace
He who came to save
all creation (Col 1:19--20).

This is the water of purification and fertility
We sprinkle it on this new acre of trees
It is a prayer to God, a symbol of rain
So that the trees will grow
so that the land will heal
as the ngozi we have caused, withdraws.

To the Western mind this liturgy may sound simple and relatively insignificant. In the African context and language, as part of spontaneous ritual activity, however, it is a powerful statement of commitment to the healing of creation. The close identification with trees and nature reflects African religious holism. Personifying the vengeful ngozi spirit in terms of earth destruction is an imaginative way of accepting responsibility for deforestation. Presenting the trees as mitumbu (sacrificial beasts required to appease the destructive ngozi) illustrates human appeasement of the environment, a new compassion for trees. Sprinkling holy water on the barren earth is a symbolic act of earth-healing, entirely consonant with prophetic faith-healing practice. This is indicative of ecclesiological change -- a broadening of the conception of the church as healing mainly human beings to one that encompasses the liberating of all of creation. Christ's salvific work is also presented as spanning the universe and incorporating humans in bringing salvation to full manifestation in thisexistence. It is this kind of contextualisation growing from the underside -- theministry of earth-healing practised by relatively poor and underprivileged people-- which is bound to capture the imagination of South African Independents.

As in Zimbabwe, once the war of the trees is under way, additional projects in the areas of wildlife conservation, water resource protection and combatting urban pollution can be planned and implemented.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Ideally, the envisaged institute would require about ten staff members to start with if the objectives listed above are to be realised on a worthwhile scale. These would include two theologians to develop and present course materials; two permanent researchers assisted by a team of fieldworkers, two ecological field operations managers liaising between the institute and field projects (e g nurseries and woodlots); two secretary typists, a full-time fund-raiser and public relations person; and the director, whose position will either be incorporated in or additional to the new chair for religion and ecology. With a view to permanent institutionalisation the target figure for fund-raising could well be R20 000 000, preferably in the form of an endowment or trust fund. I am not suggesting that this goal is realistic in our current depressed economic situation in South Africa. But it is realistic in terms of the targeted objectives, even if the raising of these funds will take years of persistent graft in the somewhat daunting world of donor agencies.

I am not volunteering at this point to take full responsibility for such extensive fund-raising. Nevertheless I am investigating at present the prospects of raising sufficient funds to establish the proposed chair. In the event of success the mandate of the new chair will obviously include institutional development and continued fund-raising.

If you were to ask why I am contemplating this rather onerous and seemingly ambitious course at a stage of my life when I should be concentrating on publication of a rich harvest of research material, my response will be:
First the African environment -- indigenous trees and wildlife particularly -- matters to me. Or is it just the conscience of a hunter belatedly demanding restitution?

Second, over the years Unisa has enabled me to devote attention to Zimbabwean projects. Now I would like to plough back something of that privileged experience and insight into the University and into South African society -- even if it is only setting the ball rolling in a new venture.

In the third place, a changed mandate could in fact enable me to pursue the religio-ecological course I have found myself on of late with greater effect than my current position allows. Or is it just a thinly veiled attempt to overcome self-imposed marginality at Unisa, which the Zimbabwean connection entailed?

Finally, let me point out that I have no illusions about personal indispensability. We all have to work as best as we can until the lights go out. I have been centre-stage in Zimbabwe's war of the trees for some years now. But during the recent drought in that country it was brought forcibly to my notice that the untouchable and religiously protected muchakata tree -- from which I derive my chimurenga name -- is the first to die when the land dries out and the water table drops. Sic transit gloria mundi!

NOTES