AFRICAN RELIGION AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES IN POST COLONIAL AFRICA

The relationship between religion and the environment has been one of contest. But in African belief it is a rested argument because the cosmos is conceived as a whole and subsumed under God, the creator. This traditional belief has come in contact with serious Western ideologies on the environment that calls for a re-evaluation of the role of the moral agency in African Religion, namely, the ancestors. It is argued that in spite of the Western influences that have vitrified the traditional belief in the place and potency of the ancestors, a transformative-ecozoic model, with its all-compassing moral, social, cultural and educational contents, provides African Religion with challenges it must rise up to in the context of the comity of global religions. Through analytical and contextual framework, the paper argues further that African Religion still has crucial roles to play in the maintenance of the environment in the 21st century, but that these roles are anchored on its ability to match academics with praxis.