The Domination of Mother Earth, Gender-Based Violence, and the (Dis)Ease of Eve
Main Article Content
Keywords
African diaspora, Christianity, Ecology, Gender-based violence, Intersectionality, Mother Earth
Abstract
The misuse of religious texts, particularly the Genesis creation story, has historically been used to justify the exploitation of both the Earth and women. This justification, rooted in patriarchal interpretations of scripture, has led to environmental degradation and gender-based violence (GBV) and disproportionately affected marginalized communities, especially women of color. This article examines the interconnectedness of these issues, exploring how the domination of “Mother Earth” and the subjugation of women are intertwined. By analyzing the historical context, religious interpretations, and societal structures that perpetuate these forms of violence, this article aims to shed light on the urgent need for an intersectional approach to address both environmental destruction and GBV. Through a critical examination of the “(Dis)ease of Eve”, this article challenges traditional narratives and seeks to reclaim the power and agency of women, particularly women of the African Diaspora, in the fight for a more just and sustainable future.
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References
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Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. London: Zed Books, 1988.
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https://www.academia.edu/93460679/An_African_ecofeminist_appraisal_of_the_value_of_indigenous_knowledge_systems_in_responding_to_environmental_degradation_and_climate_change.
Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.
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Zogbé, Mama. The Sibyls: Demystifying the Absence of the African Ancestress: The First Prophetess of Mami (Wata). GA: Mami Wata Healers Society of North America Incorporated, 2007.
Adamo, David T. “Christianity and the African Traditional Religion(s): The Postcolonial Round of Engagement.” Verbum et Ecclesia 32, no. 1 (October 31, 2011): 10. https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v32i1.285.
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, trans. The Qur’an: Text, Translation, and Commentary, 4th Edition. NY: Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, 1998.
Asala, Kizzi. “Africa Is the Root of Humankind.” Africa News, December 1, 2020. https://www.africanews.com/2020/12/01/lupita-nyong-o-s-dna-confirms-humankind-was-born-of-an-african-woman/.
Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola. Dark Mother: African Origins and Godmothers. CA: Authors Choice Press, 2001.
Campbell, Michael C., and Sarah A. Tishkoff. “The Evolution of Human Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Africa.” Current Biology 20, no. 4 (February 23, 2010): R166–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.11.050.
Chisale, Sinenhlanhla S., and Rozelle Robson Bosch, eds. “When Women and Earth Connect: African Ecofeminist or Ecowomanist Theology?” In Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology, 10:9–17. HTS Religion & Society Series. Cape Town: AOSIS, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2021.BK237.01.
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. London: Routledge, 2000.
Copher, Charles. “The Bible and the African Experience: The Biblical Period.” In The Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center | The First Pan-African Christian Church Conference, July 17-23, edited by Wilmore, Gayraud, Martin, Sandy D., Cone, James H., and Bingham, Reta L., 32–50. GA: The ITC Press, 1988.
Davidson, Joe P. L., and Filipe Carreira da Silva. “Fear of a Black Planet: Climate Apocalypse, Anthropocene Futures and Black Social Thought.” European Journal of Social Theory 25, no. 4 (November 1, 2022): 521–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310211067980.
Diop, Cheikh Anta. The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality. Translated by Mercer Cook. 1st ed. IL: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1974.
Finch, Charles. “The Bible and the African Experience: Response to Dr. Charles Copher.” In The Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center | The First Pan-African Christian Church Conference, July 17-23, edited by Wilmore, Gayraud, Martin, Sandy D., Cone, James H., and Bingham, Reta L., 51–58. GA: The ITC Press, 1988.
Heath, Kelly. “The Classical Definition of a Pandemic Is Not Elusive.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 89, no. 7 (July 1, 2011): 540–41. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.11.088815.
Holbrook, Jarita. “Celestial Women of Africa.” The Cultural History of the Universe, June 30, 2020.
Indigenous Values Initiative. “Dum Diversas.” Doctrine of Discovery, July 23, 2018. https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/dum-diversas/.
Ishaq-ur Rahman, Muhammad. “Climate Change: A Theoretical Review.” Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 11, no. 1 (January 1, 2013): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.7906/indecs.11.1.1.
John, Tierney. “The Search for Adam & Eve: Scientists Explore a Controversial Theory About Man’s Origins.” Newsweek 111, no. 2 (January 11, 1988): 46–52.
Kurth, Charlie, and Panu Pihkala. “Eco-Anxiety: What It Is and Why It Matters.” Frontiers in Psychology 13 (September 23, 2022): 981814. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.981814.
Lowe, Burdette. “Pharaoh Let My People Go, Christianity Is Air!!! A Black Church History Account Grounded in Truth Rather than Tradition, of African Americans’ Evolution into Christianity and Its Influence on Christian Education and Black Identity (Genesis 15:12).” Unpublished Embargoed Dissertation. Clark Atlanta University, May 2020.
Loyseau, Benjamin. “Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).” UNHCR Israel. May 23, 2024. https://www.unhcr.org/il/en/protection/sexual-and-gender-based-violence-sgbv.
Matthews, Kenneth A. Genesis 1-11:26: The New American Commentary. Edited by E. Ray Clendenen. Electronic. Vol. 1A. TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996.
Mbiti, John. “God, Sin, and Salvation in African Religion.” In The Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center | The First Pan-African Christian Church Conference, July 17-23, edited by Wilmore Gayraud, Martin Sandy D., Cone James H., and Bingham Reta L., 59–68. GA: The ITC Press, 1988.
Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. Reprint. NY: HarperOne, 1990.
Moreano Venegas, Melissa, Miriam Lang, and Gabriela Ruales-Jurado. “Climate Justice from the Perspective of Latin American and Other Southern Feminisms.” In Fundación Rosa Luxemburg Oficina Región Andina October, no. No. 20 (October 2021): 32.
Okpalaoka, and Cynthia B. Dillard. “(Im)Migrations, Relations, and Identities of African Peoples: Toward an Endarkened Transnational Feminist Praxis in Education.” In Journal of Educational Foundations 26, no. 1–2 (Winter-Spring 2012): 121–42.
Oliveira, Tulio de, and Houriiyah Tegally. “Will Climate Change Amplify Epidemics and Give Rise to Pandemics?” Science 381, no. 6660 (August 25, 2023): eadk4500. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk4500.
Plumwood, Val. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. NY: Routledge, 2002.
Porta, Miguel, ed. A Dictionary of Epidemiology. Sixth. NY: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Redd, Danita R. “Hatshepsut: The Female Horus.” In Black Women in Antiquity, edited by Ivan Van Sertima, Revised Edition., 6:188–226. Journal of African Civilization. NJ: Transaction Books, 1988.
Roesch-Wagner, Sally. “Christian Control of Women And Mother Earth: The Doctrine Of Discovery And The Doctrine Of Male Domination.” Doctrine of Discovery (blog), April 8, 2023. https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/christian-control-women-mother-earth/.
Ruether, Rosemary R. Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. NY: Harper Collins, 1994.
Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. London: Zed Books, 1988.
Siwila, Lilian. “An African Ecofeminist Appraisal of the Value of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Responding to Environmental Degradation and Climate Change.” In African Perspectives on Religion and Climate Change, 1st ed., 1:65–78. United Kingdom: Routledge, 2022.
https://www.academia.edu/93460679/An_African_ecofeminist_appraisal_of_the_value_of_indigenous_knowledge_systems_in_responding_to_environmental_degradation_and_climate_change.
Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. “The Doctrine of Discovery, 1493.” May 26, 2024. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493.
Thomas, Tashima. “An Ecocritical Look at Flint’s Water Crisis and Afro-Gothic Liquidity.” Liquid Blackness 6, no. 2 (October 1, 2022): 38–59. https://doi.org/10.1215/26923874-9930283.
United Nations World Water Development Report 2024. “Press Release | Water Crises Threaten World Peace (Report).” Sustainable Development Goals (blog), March 22, 2024. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2024/03/un-world-water-development-report/.
“United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to GBV Globally 2022.” 2022 Update. U.S. Department of State, 2022. https://www.state.gov/reports/united-states-strategy-to-prevent-and-respond-to-gender-based-violence-globally-2022/.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). “What Was Pangea?”May 24, 2024. https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-was-pangea#.
Van Aalst, Maarten K. “The Impacts of Climate Change on the Risk of Natural Disasters.” Disasters 30, no. 1 (March 2006): 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9523.2006.00303.x.
Vaughan, Don. “What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World?” Britannica | History & Society, May 19, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-most-widely-practiced-religion-in-the-world.
Webfeller. “Romanus Pontifex (Granting the Portuguese a Perpetual Monopoly in Trade with Africa) January 8, 1455.” Papal Encyclicals Online (blog), June 16, 2017. https://www.papalencyclicals.net/nichol05/romanus-pontifex.htm.
Whelchel, L. H. The History and Heritage of African American Churches: A Way Out of No Way. MN: Paragon House, 2011.
Zogbé, Mama. The Sibyls: Demystifying the Absence of the African Ancestress: The First Prophetess of Mami (Wata). GA: Mami Wata Healers Society of North America Incorporated, 2007.
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The Domination of Mother Earth, Gender-Based Violence, and the (Dis)Ease of Eve. (2025). African Journal of Gender and Religion, 30(2). https://doi.org/10.36615/jx7eke02
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The Domination of Mother Earth, Gender-Based Violence, and the (Dis)Ease of Eve. (2025). African Journal of Gender and Religion, 30(2). https://doi.org/10.36615/jx7eke02