Wangari Maathai’s Environmental Bible as an African Knowledge: Eco-spirituality, Christianity, and Decolonial Thought

Recent scholarship has acknowledged the contribution of the environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), to African ecological and decolonial thinking. As far as Maathai’s engagement with religion is concerned, scholarship emphasises her critique of Christianity for its links to colonialism and environmental degradation, and foregrounds her reclaiming of Kikuyu religion and culture as a form of indigenous African knowledge that enhances environmental awareness. However, Maathai’s simultaneous creative and constructive engagement with Christian traditions, in particular the Bible, tends to be systematically overlooked, perhaps because it seems at odds with her status as a decolonial thinker. This article examines Maathai’s engagement with the Bible, arguing that it presents an interrogation of the category of indigenous knowledge, which for her is not static but dynamic and can incorporate biblical scripture as an African knowledge. Hence, Maathai challenges scholars to take the Bible seriously as a relevant resource for environmental activism as well as for ecological and decolonial thought.

近年的学术研究已认可环境活动家、诺贝尔和平奖得主旺加里·马塔伊（Wangari Maathai，1940–2011）对非洲生态思想与去殖民思想的贡献。就马塔伊对宗教的参与而言，学术研究强调她对基督教的批判——因其与殖民主义及环境退化的关联，并突出她对基库尤宗教与文化的重拾，视其为一种可提升环境意识的非洲本土知识形式。然而，马塔伊对基督教传统（尤其是《圣经》）同时展开的创造性与建设性参与，却往往被系统性忽视；这或许是因为该参与似乎与她作为去殖民思想家的身份相悖。本文探讨了马塔伊与《圣经》的互动，主张这一互动构成对本土知识类别的审视：对她而言，本土知识并非静止不变，而是动态发展的，且能够将圣经经文纳入非洲知识体系。因此，马塔伊挑战学者们将《圣经》视为环境行动主义、生态思想及去殖民思想的相关资源，并予以严肃对待。