IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 125 SENDING THE GODS TO EXILE: THE EFFECTS OF DEFORESTATION ON SHRINES IN AFRICA Gideon Y. Tambiyi, PhD Department of Religion and Philosophy University of Jos, Nigeria tambiyig@unijos.edu.ng DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31258.06083 & Nenman Danjuma Wapwera Department of Religion and Philosophy University of Jos, Nigeria wapweran@unijos.edu.ng DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31258.06083 Abstract The rate of deforestation in Africa is always growing in an alarming rate. Despite all the awareness and campaigns on the effects of deforestation, the problem kept on continuing on daily basis. This study aims at assessing the effects on the deforestation on the habitation of the gods in some parts of central Plateau state and southern Kaduna. The researchers in this study argued that deforestation in African soil is an intentional activity initiated by the colonialists to weaken the activities of African traditional worshippers who have high regards for the forests habitations. This the researchers claimed was for them (colonialists) to have easy access to introduce their foreign God thereby relegating the assumed powers of the African gods to the background. This research employs a historical, descriptive and analytical approach to some African existing and already destroyed shrines and how it affects the religious activities of the people of some parts of Ngas land of Plateau State and the Bajju people of southern Kaduna. Keywords: Ngas, gods, Bajju, Southern Kaduna, Kajju, Africa, deforestation, and shrines Introduction Many observers have criticised the global political response to environmental change, which largely seeks to institutionalise scientific solutions to contemporary environmental problems. Some of these authors, according to Shehu and Molyneux-Hodgson, argue that scientific approaches tend to undermine the role of cultural and social forces that shape perception and adaptation to environmental change within societies and can alienate peoples who are most vulnerable to climatic and environmental change. In an effort to mailto:tambiyig@unijos.edu.ng mailto:wapweran@unijos.edu.ng IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 126 relate environmental change with religion, they also stated that, in many societies across the world, religion provides an important lens for understanding human worldviews, attitudes and behaviour regarding major issues such as social and environmental change.61 Apart from Shehu and S. Molyneux-Hodgson, there are other scholars who have researched the role of religious beliefs in environmental conservation. These studies were based on surveys conducted in Western countries, where Christianity is the dominant religion, although differences between Christian denominations were evidenced; particularly among those having a more literal interpretation of the Bible (some Evangelical churches), which were found to have less environmental concern than Catholics or Orthodox communities. However, previously distinguished research does not assess whether Christianity is more or less environmentally friendly than other major religions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism.62 It is evident that such environmental changes have had great influenced on the religious life of the African people particularly in the aspect of deforestation and the gods in traditional African societies. This work examines the effects of deforestation on the African traditional religion and its roles in decongesting the abode of some of the African gods thereby sending them on exile. It considers the concept of a forest and how it is viewed within an African context. It also looks at the idea of deforestation in African countries and studies the influence of deforestation on religious activities particularly on the gods and their shrines in Traditional African Societies, sampling the Ngas land of Plateau State and Kajju land of Southern Kaduna. The work equally discusses some socio-econmic and religious effects of deforestation on the African societies and it also makes some recommendations on curbing the issues of deforestation and to save the African gods from being exiled. The Brief Concept of a Forest Forest in African thoughts, as viewed by Omorovie Ikeke, is held and revered to be a sacred entity and in most cases the habitation of supra-human forces, and as such preserved and protected from endangerment. Ikeke adds that 61 M. Shehu, and S. Molyneux-Hodgson, “Faith communities and environmental degradation in Northeast Nigeria.” International Journal of Environmental Sustainability. Vol. 10, No. 1 (2014): 27- 40. 62 Emilio Chuvieco, Mario Burgui and Isabel Gallego-Álvarez, “Impacts of Religious Beliefs on Environmental Indicators: Is Christianity More Aggressive Than Other Religions?” Worldviews 20 (2016): 253. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 127 forests hold great value in every local community and global world as they are not only important to human lives but also important for the survival of other non-human lives and species that depend on forests environments for survival and flourishing.63 The implication of this submission is that the make-ups of forests includes both trees and other lives inhabiting the forests. As a result, Forest, according to Webster’s Dictionary of English Language, refers to “a large area of land covered with trees and bush growing thickly”.64 Forest involves land, trees and bushes. Africa has been considered to contain so much undeveloped land and has so many trees and bushes growing around the societies. Of the many problems in Africa, environmental problems constitute and integral part in many African societies. Amongst the concerns raised is the issue deforestation. Deforestation and land use is being a problem to the coming of the colonialists into Africa. They argued that before the coming of the colonialists, Africans were environmentally friendly, as they are good in the preservation of the nature.65 Ikuenobe summits that traditional African thought sees nature as holistic and as an interconnected continuum of humans and all natural objects which exist in harmony. According to him, People’s actions and ways of life reflected the efforts to exist in harmony with nature. These efforts led to the preservation of nature. Many of these traditional African values, ways of life, and the moral attitudes of conservation were destroyed by the exploitative ethos of European colonialism and modernity.66 Science Daily records that “the first study to link pre-colonial African leadership and current levels of deforestation has shown a strong correlation between areas with historic leadership structures more susceptible to corruption and higher rates of forest loss today”.67 Their report also submits that, areas with 'social standing' leaderships in pre-colonial times have approximately 50% more deforestation than the average rate of forest loss for Africa over this period. This is indication supports the assumption of the intentional deforestation of Africa by the colonialists, using African machineries to achieve their aim of frustrating the African gods, thereby sending them packing in their motherland. 63 Mark Omorovie Ikeke. “The Forest in African Traditional Thought and Practice: An Ecophilosophical Discourse”. Open Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 3, No. 2 (2013): 345. 64 Merriam-Webster, Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language (Bendon, 2014), 358. 65 P. A. Ikuenobe, “Traditional African Environmental Ethics and Colonial Legacy”. International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 2:4 (2014), 1. 66 Ikuenobe, “Traditional African Environmental Ethics and Colonial Legacy”, 1. 67 University of Cambridge. “Traditional Authority’ Linked to Rates of Deforestation in Africa”. Science Daily, Nov. 24, 2015. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 128 There are different types of forests in Africa and all these forests did not actually carry out the same function and also some forests may be perceived differently in different areas with different imaginations. Some forests are restricted to some people and one may even discover some parts of the forests that is still being feared by many, such as the cases of evil forests. Africans believed that plants, animals and other living things that lives in the forests possess some spirits but the spirits are not the same and some may be possessed by good spirits while others with evil spirits.68 This briefly presents an idea of what constitutes a forest within the African continent. Deforestation in Africa According to Chakravarty, Ghosh, Suresh, and Shukla, “deforestation is the conversion of forest to an alternative permanent non-forested land use such as agriculture, grazing or urban development.”69 They see “deforestation to primarily become a concern for the developing countries of the tropics as it is shrinking areas of the tropical forests causing loss of biodiversity and enhancing the greenhouse effect.”70 Deforestation could also be defined as the depletion and exploitation of forest resources, as well as the conversion of forested land into alternative land uses.71 There have been a lot of deforestation activities in Africa. Many of them started during the colonial period in the 19th century. For example, commenting on when deforestation began in Kenya, Flannery Bethel wrote: The path toward deforestation began when Kenya became a part of the British Empire in 1895 and ownership of public forestland was transferred from ethnic communities to state control. With this western presence came western approaches to forestry, conservation, and land tenure decisions. In the 1930s, large portions of the Mau forest were cleared in order to establish plantations of primarily exotic tree species for logging purposes and tea plantations. The colonial government did not recognize the Okiek people’s claim to the land, and chose to move forward by displacing them into designated reserves in other forests across Kenya. These land use changes escalated over time, and over the 68 Ikeke, 347. 69 Sumit Chakravarty, S. K. Ghosh, C. P. Suresh, A. N. Dey and Gopal Shukla, “Deforestation: Causes, Effects and Control Strategies” in Clement Akais Okia ed., Global Perspectives on Sustainable Forest Management. Croatia: InTech, 2012, 1. 70 Chakravarty, Ghosh, Suresh, Dey and Shukla, 1. 71 Flannery Bethel, “Deforestation threatening Practical and Cultural Livelihoods: Lessons Learned from Participation in Tree Planting by Rural Women in Kenya and Ghana. June, 2016. , 8 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d537/caa9eefd265e9a41b026c4f2b26b3a13238c.pdf IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 129 last two decades, over 107,000 ha of forest, accounting for over 25 percent of the Mau complex, has been destroyed.72 Citing the work of Klopp and Sang, Bethel notes that the forests of Kenya had never suffered such extensive devastation rather than before the destruction of this large closed canopy forest beginning in the 1930s. He notes that in 1963, ten percent of Kenya’s land was covered by forest (5.81 million ha), but as of 2011 that figure was close to dropping below 6 percent, leaving total area in forest loss comparable to the size of Puerto Rico.73 Bethel further cites the growth of the community as a major cause of deforestation. According to him, 80% of the people rely on fuel and space for agriculture, hence resorted to cutting down of trees.74 Bethel identifies logging and harvesting, fire and conversion of forests into lands for agriculture and human settlements, and the increase in climate change, intensified droughts and floods which forced poverty driven people and those in the rural areas to rely on forest resources in order to maintain their livelihoods as causes of deforestation in Kenya.75 According to Daniel Asante Boamah, deforestation is a major problem in Ghana. He notes that according to a report, an estimation of 33.7% of the forest cover of Ghana was lost between 1990 and 2010. Together, deforestation and land/soil loss have led to loss of significant biodiversity.76 These environmental issues have created a lot of problem in Ghana and many parts of Africa. In a study in Ghana on deforestation, Abubakari Sadik Mohammed states that “deforestation has affected crop production in the areas of delayed commencement of planting seasons, pest and diseases infestation, level and quality of crop yields and reduction in the income levels of farmers. The study recommended among other things, the continuous education and sensitization of farmers, strengthening of the public institution stakeholders and promotion 72 Bethel, 21. 73 Bethel, 20. 74 Bethel, 20. 75 Bethel, 22-23. 76 Daniel Asante Boamah, “Akan Indigenous Religio-Cultural Beliefs and Environmental Preservation: The Role of Taboos.” Master’s Essay submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Arts in the School of Religion at Queen’s University August, 2015. p.3. https://www.queensu.ca/religion/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.rlgnwww/files/files/rels/grad/Daniel%20Asante%20Boamah%20MRP.pdf https://www.queensu.ca/religion/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.rlgnwww/files/files/rels/grad/Daniel%20Asante%20Boamah%20MRP.pdf IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 130 of active research that will ensure a decline in deforestation.”77 Apart from these issues, there are also religious challenges which deforestation has caused to the gods and shrines in Africa, which this work will survey among the Ngas people of Plateau State and the Bajju people of Southern Kaduna. Exiling the Gods and their Shrines in Traditional African Societies Shrines in African religious thought are sacred places where rituals are performed and they are predominantly located in the forests or sometimes at homes. It is believed that all the objects of worship are domiciled in the shrines, so also some of the gods. Setting aside a sacred place where certain rituals are performed is one of the core features of traditional religions in Africa. In African traditional thought, the gods inhabit the shrines in search for safer abode. Shrines and sacred lands are common in Ngas land. These areas, as noted by Gontul et al, are “strictly prohibited from all forms of human exploitations except for acceptable and prescribed uses.”78 Any attempt to carry out any activity or duty that is not prescribed or accepted within the sacred place or shrine is strongly frowned at and usually attracts punishment. African traditional religion plays a vital role in environmental conservation and this may not be unconnected with the fact that Africans believe in the powers or spirits that reside in the conserved environment. The advent of Christianity in African soil has seriously affected the views of the Africans on the preservation of the shrines and the sacred places. This decision is informed by the fact that many of the Africans have accepted the new faith and therefore are seeing nothing good emancipating from the existing traditional religion. The new religion has disapproved all the religious practices of the Africans with its sacred places and shrines. This notion has resulted in exposing the hitherto conserved shrines to all forms of exploitation such as grazing, hunting and wood extraction.79 Polycarp Ikuenobe argues that prior to colonialism, the activities that have raised environmental concerns in Africa did not exist. In his argument, he insists that Africans had conservationist values, practices and ways of life. He notes also that the people’s ways of life reflected the efforts to exist in harmony 77 Abubakari Sadik Mohammed, “Deforestation and its Effects on Livelihood Patterns of Forest Fringe Communities in the Asunafor North Municipality.” .; McKinney, “The Bajju of central Nigeria” 264-268. 98 J.J. Van Der Leeuw, Gods in Exile (Chicago: The American Theosophical Society, 1926). http://dice.missouri.edu/docs/niger-congo/Jju.pdf IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 138 connected with humans, nature and the universe.99 Their views on the forests are virtually the views of many African societies on forests. Forests, as noted above, are mostly revered in Africa because they are sometimes referred to as the homes or the abode of the gods and ancestors; thus, activities around the forests are in most times monitored to ensure that the activities are not detested by the gods and do not also disturb their activities so as not to incur the wraths of the deities. Traditional Africans see mountains, trees rivers, and different animals as representations of the deities and as such, they are divine, sacred and are highly revered.100 This view of the traditional Africans cannot permit them to partake in any activity that can lead to the destruction or anything that can affect the nature as any attempt to do that can affect not only the natural object but the people at large. Deforestation has serious effects on the bio-diversity of the Africans, the religion of the people, and the entirety of the people. Many of the adherents of even the newly found religions even complain about the disappearance of the forests and the sacred areas. For the adherents of the traditional African religions, it seems that the distance created between them and their gods makes it difficult to access the favours and the blessings of these gods who now live away from them. These disappeared bio-diversity could have served as places for tourist attraction even if they are not used for religious purposes. It has become obvious that these trees have been cleared and the essential purpose for which they were planted has lost its place. Africans need to understand that there are virtues associated to the trees and religious places. Tropical deforestation increases uncertainty and risks for food production due to direct physical changes that alter temperature and rainfall, both near and far from where forests are cleared. Deforestation in the tropics is also therefore beneficial at both local and global scales.101 However, its influence on human and animal societies could be seen to have dominated the benefits. 99 Asante, Eric Appau, Stephen Ababio and Kwadwo Boakye Boadu. “The Use of Indigenous Cultural Practices by the Ashantis for the Conservation of Forests in Ghana.” SAGE Open January- March 2017. Doi 10.1177/2158244016687611. Journals.sagepub.com/home/sgo p. 1. 100 Ikuenobe, “Traditional African Environmental Ethics and Colonial Legacy”, 5. 101 Effects of Tropical Deforestation on Climate and Agriculture.” In Nature Climate Change. http://www.climateandlandusealliance.org/wp- http://www.climateandlandusealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Effects_of_Tropical_Deforestation_Policymaker_Summary.pdf IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 139 Also, forest conservation should also occur inside private land. Private forest- reserves and permeable agroforestry systems may be the key components of the landscape to maintain the connectivity among large public natural reserves, if they act as biological corridors, stepping stones or even as permeable matrix for some forest species.102 Deforestation has reduced the amount of rainfall in Jos and Kaduna. Some years ago in the eighties, the weather and climate in Jos and Kaduna was dense. However, recently, Jos and Kaduna particularly Southern part, has become extremely hot. The amount of rainfall has reduced drastically. There is need to reinstate the planting of trees and enforce their religious significance in Africa, particularly in Jos and Kaduna. Because of development, these trees have been deforested and most exposed the ground to heat. Even if the religious significances are not advocated, it is good for the society as the trees preserve sheds to the earth, making the amount of heat to reduce on the face of the earth. Conclusion This work argues the effects of deforestation on religious beliefs within the people of Ngas people in Plateau State and Kajju land in Southern Kaduna State. The attitude of cutting down trees in the society has succeeded in exiling the gods, which our traditional fathers’ worshipped and such idea of worshipping the gods has contributed in protecting them from their enemies. But today Christians in the villages are killed despite the belief in God as the ultimate. Such an orientation needs to be instated among Africans which will help redefine our beliefs in God and Jesus or the gods in order to avoid being slaughtered in our own homelands. There is need to engage in afforestation in our societies to safeguard the presence of the gods and God in our lands. This collaborative effort would make our societies experience a touch of ancestral demarcation from the God that is being worshipped by Christians today. content/uploads/2016/02/Effects_of_Tropical_Deforestation_Policymaker_Summary.pdf Accessed March 16th, 2020. 102 Jean Paul Metzger, “Effects of deforestation pattern and private nature reserves on the forest conservation in settlement areas of the Brazilian Amazon” http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bn/v1n1- 2/a03v1n1-2.pdf Accessed 24th April, 2020. http://www.climateandlandusealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Effects_of_Tropical_Deforestation_Policymaker_Summary.pdf http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bn/v1n1-2/a03v1n1-2.pdf http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bn/v1n1-2/a03v1n1-2.pdf IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 6. No.10. ISSN: 2488-9210 (Print) 2504-9038 (Online) 2020. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University 140 Bibliography Asante, Eric Appau, Stephen Ababio and Kwadwo Boakye Boadu. 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