By Fr Edward Kanyike MCCJ
The word ‘nature’, whose Latin etymology is ‘nascere’ (to be born) literary means ‘what is born.’ While in many African languages, it is rendered ‘creation,’ maumbilein Kiswahili and obutonde in Luganda would mean ‘what is created in the Western mentality and ‘what is created in the African thinking. This implies that nature is not our property but the property of God, the Creator. If traditional Africa has no record of endangered species, it is because of the way she sees and treats nature.
As a property of God, nature is sacred. It is a mediator between man and the spiritual world. Sacred bushes and trees, hills and mountains, stones and sacred objects, water bodies, animals, birds and insects, etc. are all found in nature. Many African tribes do not build temples or sanctuaries; their only places of worship are in nature. Nature then is seen as a gift from God that helps man to create contact with the spiritual world. It is the finite that helps man to reach the infinite; the visible helps humans to get into contact with the invisible and with God himself.
Every sacred entity is ambivalent. It is both attractive and awesome. In it, you find allies and enemies of man: poisonous creatures and useful things, wild animals and games, bad spirits and good ones. Nature is not man’s domain, it is ‘other’. Given this fact, man cannot struggle to dominate nature. He can only live side by side with it. He should therefore handle it with care and respect to enjoy its benefits and guard himself against the enemies found in it, without destroying it. Human beings can even convert enemies into allies. The body parts of fierce animals can be medicinal; their skins can be used in worship.
The horn of a rhinoceros is medicinal while leopard skins are sacred vestments since time immemorial. The destruction of nature is dangerous because nature is a partner. Man lives fighting death and nature fights along with him: medicine, building materials, food, material for clothes, instruments for all human activities, etc are all gifts of nature to man. Moreover, nature is a book, which for those who know how to read it, contains advice, warnings against danger and useful knowledge.
Both bad and good omens tread in nature. Many proverbs come from the observation of nature: Olam mamit pe nyak wang aryo (A nice fruit tree does not yield fruit twice a year). This is the Acholi way of saying that good things are not always available; use them well when you get them; it is a piece of advice against letting chances go by.
Nature, for some tribes, is a place of initiation for young men and women into adulthood. They are taken to the bush or forest. Nature then is seen as a mother, from whose womb people are born to maturity and civilization. At the end of the initiation, they share the conditions of their very first ancestors who left the bush/forest in order to create the culture that generations of their tribesmen have inherited. Moreover, the belief in totems and the conviction that some human beings can transform themselves into animals or birds creates a deep bond between nature and humans.
In Africa, the biblical order of God to dominate nature does not make of it a commodity to be used. It is an ally to be promoted. In the destruction of forests, bushes, animal species, birds, insects, particular trees and types of grass for money, we have lost what we can never get back. The African universe is like a cobweb; once you touch one point, the whole thing shakes. The universe is already shaken and scientists cannot deny this fact, only that the countries, which have polluted the world most cannot stop their destructive activities because their economies depend on it.
On the other hand, this traditional African way of understanding nature may not lead us to great discoveries but it may lead to the conservation of nature that will save Other Earth and humanity. Whoever appreciates this African world-view should plant a tree anywhere near him or her.
