Ecospiritual Practices in African Contexts

Alessandra Manzini is Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in Geography at CY Cergy Paris University, France. Her global research project, SPIRAL, investigates how indigeneity and ecospiritual practices contribute to socio-ecological resilience and biocultural diversity conservation to inform global sustainability policies.

Paula Uimonen is Professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, Sweden. She specializes in anthropology of art, digital media, visual culture, world literature, water and ocean. Her current research project Swahili Ocean Worlds (2022-2024) explores relationships with the sea and sustainability in fishing communities in Tanzania.

Houria Djoudi is a researcher and writer of Amazigh origin focusing on climate change, local knowledge systems, and social justice. Trained as a pastoralist, she researches natural resource management and amplifies Indigenous voices in global climate policy.

Ngambouk Vitalis Pemunta is a research fellow and visiting lecturer in Global Health at Heidelberg University, Germany. He specializes in marginalized populations, health equity, and the social dimensions of health, conducting ethnographic research in conflict and post-conflict regions.

Phosiso Sola is a Senior Scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF, specializing in natural resources governance, bioenergy, carbon, and livelihood development. She leads integrated restoration, livelihood, and carbon development initiatives in East and Southern Africa.

1.Introduction.- 2.Spiritual landscapes and sacred forests in afrodiasporic contexts along the inner African frontier.- 3.Ecospiritual Belongings: Madjini as Trackers of Change in the Comoros.- 4.Mangrove worldings: Ecospiritual practices and climate change adaptation in coastal Tanzania.- 5.Sacred Forests and Ecospiritual Governance: Enduring Elements of the Pare Worldview in the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania.- 6.The Role of African Traditional Religion (ATR) in Conservation of Mt. Elgon Forest Ecosystem.- 7.Indigenous Voices in Sacred Forests: Ecospiritual Practices of the Batwa and Mbuti in Central Africa.- 8.Are the sacred forests still sacred? An overview of the reconfiguration of Bamileke ecospiritual spaces in the western highlands of Cameroon.- 9.Plural Perspectives on strategies to govern Sacred Forests in West Cameroon.- 10.Green Infrastructures From Below: Eco-Spirituality and Indigenous Environmentalism in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.- 11.An Igbo Community’s Eco-Spiritual Practices: Ecological Adaptation, Social Integration and the Vital Resources Earth and Water.- 12.Multifunctionality and Institutional Resilience of Sacred Forests in Southern Togo.- 13. When Taboo and Totemism Conserve Forest Resources and Biodiversity in Guinea.- 14.Gnei-Gnei Law and Sacred Forest Governance in Diola Kassa cosmoecology.- 15. Relational Governance at the Crossroads of spirituality and political ecology.