Environmental Ethics of African Women Theologians

The main question that undergirds this chapter is: Which African philosophies inform the ethics of African women’s eco-critical theology? This chapter explores the sub-questions: What liberating frameworks do these works propose? How effective are their ethical theories, models, and frameworks for the work of justice and liberation of women and the whole Earth community? African women theologians present key methods and Earth-friendly hermeneutics to engage with environmental injustice, such as African ecofeminism theology, African eco-womanist theology, Earth-Centered Trinitarian model, Earth-friendly hermeneutics, and African folk tales. Subsequently, this chapter engages the methodological approach and environmental ethics used by these African women theologians and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. The chapter also examines some philosophical imaginations, which influence both ecofeminism and ecowomanism among the circle scholars. Moreover, in exploring and mapping what has been achieved about gender and environmental ethics, this chapter argues that for the Circle to move forward, it has to interrogate that which has been achieved so far.