Abstract
In his creative activity recorded in Gen 1-2, God interacts with a formless, chaotic, space. It is stated that God began to speak things into being and that at the completion of everything he created; God saw that it was good. As a Motswana woman, I see in God's concluding remarks a hope for the future. In a world characterized by panic due to the impending ecological decline and crisis, it is necessary to go back to the beginning of all things. One can safely conclude that God loves all his creation, human, animate and inanimate. However due to the patriarchal structures of our world, there has been domination over women and the natural world. The structures of suppression and abuse of the women by men have modelled into those of humans over non-humans. In this paper I endeavour to show that there is an interconnection between the oppression of women, in particular black women and the subjugation of the ecosystem leading to its depletion. My argument is that there is need to re-visit the idea of an overall good creation. Domination over women, land and animals is against the creator's vision of a good world. An appreciation of women across all cultures, classes, races, sexual orientations etcetera, as part of the good creation can be a starting point for an appreciation and care of all God has created.
Highlights
In his creative activity recorded in Gen 1-2, God interacts with a formless, chaotic, space
Kebaneilwe, “The Good Creation,” OTE 28/3 (2015): 694-703 695 related to ecofeminism whose aim as defined by Ruether is “to examine the interconnections between the domination over women and nature in order to liberate or heal these interconnected dominations by better understanding of their aetiology and enforcement.”[2]. To borrow the words of Nancy Howell in her definition of ecofeminism, ecowomanism is the womanist theory and activism that is informed by ecology
It allows a space for biblical texts to be read and interpreted in the light of multiple oppressions experienced by black and other non-white women which include: racism, sexism, classism, and other sexual orientations outside of the dominant heterosexuality[4] and how these have modelled into the abuse of nature and the natural world.[5]
Summary
It seems reasonable to begin by explaining the methodology employed in this paper. The exercise is meant to orientate the reader to understand the backdrop against which my reading and interpretation of Gen 1 and 2 is based. Ecowomanist reading may be defined as a multidimensional approach that seeks to read texts in the light of the intersection between the domination over black women and other women of colour and the domination over and abuse of nature. It is a combination of a womanist and an ecological theory. In the same vein Mark Edwards et al maintain that there is growing global environmental crises with profound implications for the long-term viability and welfare of natural environments and human social and economic systems.[7] issues of ecological nature are progressively taking centre stage in many meetings, workshops and seminars throughout the world. This paper seeks to suggest that the biblical text, in this case Gen 1-2, read from an ecowomanist perspective, might have something of value to add to the possible solutions regarding the impending ecological crisis
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