On the spiritual concept of land in Africa
As a land administration lecturer, I consider my lectures on “the concepts of land” one of the most important sessions in shaping students’ understanding of what land is and is not. I always state that land can be viewed from different lenses – e.g. from spatial, economic, social, environmental, community, social, political, cultural, heritage, nature, human rights and spiritual perspectives. For obvious reasons, students tend to pick more interest in the “land as an economic commodity” aspect. Some equally essential parts of what land means, at least to us Africans, that students have less interest in are the perspectives of land as nature, deity and heritage. Another aspect they tend to find funny, and sometimes laughable, is the aspect of land as spirituality. The times I have insisted on teaching students about the deep spiritual meanings of land (a part of their curricula), I have received some passive backlash. In face-to-face classes, some students would act as though I was inspiring them to dump their Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and many other religious figures they hold dear to embrace ancestral worship or juju. In online (virtual) classes, I faced warning silence and respectful notifications of some people logging off from my class. I want to use this article to emphasise why the spiritual aspect of land is as important as the economic and other aspects.
WHY LAND REMAINS SACRED
Traditional beliefs in customary communities in Africa is that land is a gift from God, passed on to us from our ancestors. This notion makes sense when one considers God to be that divine force that created the land we live in. We hold this divine force so great that it is hard to describe it that we simply give it many names. Ancestors are those from whom we descended and inherited our land as a heritage. So, land is a gift from God that our ancestors have used and left for us (women, boys, babies, girls and men) to continue to use.
In Africa, spirituality is expressed in individuals or communities’ recognition of a belief that there is a force greater than the self. It is a consciousness of a supernatural power capable of rescuing us in times of grief, sorrow and despair. There are many reasons why spirituality cannot be isolated from land ownership in Africa. Several practices allude to the sacredness of land all over Africa. This is because land is the home of our ancestors (that is, where our ancestors have been buried). In many African communities, the umbilical cords of newborns are also buried. Also, when boys are circumcised in many communities, their foreskins are buried. Many ethnic groups all over Africa stand or kneel barefoot when they want to communicate with their ancestors. This they do through libations to revere the land where their ancestors lie. These practices make us spiritually attached to land.
Traditionally, land is considered a source of food, shelter, health and materials that enable better living conditions for people. This is not different from how it is conventionally conceived. During libations (traditional prayer) to God (directly) or ancestors (as intercessors), the importance of land as an embodiment of all human needs is usually chanted. This is because spirituality is part of the essential element in the existence of African communities. This spirituality is expressed in how we own land communally to show that no one person is superior, but only God. It is present in the grandeur and simplicity of African architecture. It is infused in our music, customs, tales, sayings, dances or art forms that relate to our use of land and natural resources. It also relates to divinity in how and for what we use the land. The absence of divinity in land affairs is viewed as disrespect to the creative force (God) that allows communities to use the land for living and sustenance.
Land and spiritualities are interwoven and embedded issues. The protection and use of land as an object of spirituality is heritage possible through generational transfer. It should not be caricatured. It should be the basis for social and cultural identities within African countries. Every genuine seeker of spiritual enlightenment has a longing to enter deeper communion with their God, and it is not different in Africa. That is why sacred places form a crucial part of popular and unpopular religions. Buddhists consider Bodh Gaya, near the banks of the Falgu River in India, one of their most essential lands (among many others). Shintoists have the Ise Grand Shrine in Japan as their sacred place. Judaists (and even Christians) consider their Holy Land, Jerusalem, sacred. Muslims embrace Mecca as their Holy City. African traditionalists make efforts to embrace their shrines. Still, they are usually (and unfairly) discouraged from having a place of their own or Holy Land. This is born out of the growing ignorance concerning the spiritual role of land in traditional African communities.
Religion aside, the veneration of land (part of the appreciation of nature) is the foundation for agricultural production, forest management and communal land governance in Africa. Long before mentioning sustainable development in the world in the United Nations’ Brundtland Reports of 1987, Africans have always sought sustainability through their spiritual engagements on land. Since time immemorial, spirituality in land use has been a principle for Africa’s conservation and protection of natural resources. It has been the basis of sustainability in Africa: caring for the land for our dead (ancestors), our living (us) and the unborn (future generation). This context of land and spirituality is not to be laughed at. In fact, it has been integrated into conventional sustainability studies and sold back to Africans as new knowledge called “sustainable development.”
* Uchendu Eugene Chigbu is an Associate Professor (Land Administration) in the Department of Land and Property Sciences (DLPS) at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The views expressed in this article are entirely his, and not that of NUST.