and Ecology.
Abstract
The Jos Plateau environment in general and Beromland in particular has witnessed severe decimation and change due to a number of agents of change.
These agents of change have created a great ecological imbalance on the land, even as tin mining activities have left behind human-made ponds, dumps,
bare vegetation, and have precipitated an avalanche of gully erosion and other activities of denudation that are now a common phenomenon on the Jos Plateau landscape.
Many researchers have ventured into several aspects of mining activities with no recourse to the aspect of religion.
The work further highlight on religion, considered as an important aspect of Berom existence that was destroyed through tin mining, thus precipitating an ecological crisis.
Religious and cultural practices can and should be adopted as blueprints to address the present environmental crisis. This is because religious and cultural practices have demonstrated a high sense of love and care for the environment.
Aside from other agents of change, however, the tin mining industry seems to be the major determining factor of huge and rapid changes in Beromland.
The work aims at demonstrating the reality that a thorough grasp of the interplay between religion and ecology is needed to provide a holistic analysis of the factors that have influenced Berom land including the role played by the Tin mining industry.
Introduction
Background of Study
The conceptual and theoretical framework which has helped in bringing to better focus the ideas, theories and strategies that have been examined or proposed in this study include the theories propounded by Ikenga-Metuh’s work,
The Gods in Retreat, which is an edited volume of a collection of works and theories on the concept or notion of religious change.
Among the theories reflected in this monumental work, is the intellectualist theory of religious change (conversion) propounded by Robin Horton, Richard Bruce and D.N. Wambutda.
The anthropologist Robin Horton was thoroughly influenced by the works of J. Spencer Trimingham, which Ikenga-Metuh simply titled ‘the shattered microcosm’.
Another theory of religious changed discussed by Ikenga-Metuh is the materialist or instrumental theory of religious change by Caroline Ifeka-Moller, which was reflected in her work published in a Canadian Journal of Religion titled ‘White Power’.
She was in turn influenced by the works of Karl Marx. A third theory reflected in the study of impact of change on the religious landscape of Africa is the historical theory of renown British historian Humphrey Fisher.
All these theories and the numinous theory of religious change have influenced the writing of the impact of change among the Berom by the researcher.
This is because the influence of tin mining activities on the Jos Plateau adversely affected traditional religious beliefs of the Berom thereby, literally silencing the spirits of the shrines.
References
Albanese, L. Catherine. Nature Religion in America from the Algonquians India to the New Age. London: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Alexander, M. J. “Physical Environment and Resource use on the Jos Plateau”, International Seminar, Jos Plateau Environment Resource Development Programme(JPERDP), Jos Durham University Linkage. Sponsored by European EconomicCommunity (EEC), 1992.
Anigbo, O. A. C. The Igbo Elite and Western Europe. Nigeria: Africana-Fab Publishers, 1992.
Anigbo, O. C. Commensality and Human Relationship among the Igbo. Nsukka: University Press, 1987.
Aschwanden, H. Karanga Myhthology: An Analysis of the Consciousness of the Karanga in Zimbabwe, Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo, 1989.
Audrey Smedley. “The Implications of Berom Cicisbeism”, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1986.
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