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Title: | Silencing The Spirits Of The Shrines: The Impact of Tin Mining on Berom Religion And Ecology |
Authors: | Mwadkwon, Simon Davou |
Issue Date: | Dec-2010 |
Series/Report no.: | ;Pp1-417 |
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. Furthermore, pride of place is given to
the role played by religion and the variegated responses of the Berom to these agents of
change. In order to help maintain an eco-friendly society, this study sets to demonstrate that
socio-cultural and religious practices are important. The thesis therefore focuses on Berom
religion and ecology prior, during and after the tin mining industry. It examines how the tin
mining industry has impacted on Berom traditional religion and the extent to which it has
affected traditional ecological ethics of the people. Qualitative method of data collection was
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employed in this study including in oral interviews, focus group discussions and participant
observation in his field work. Secondary sources on Berom history, traditional religion and
in relation to religion and ecology, and on nature or green religion were also used. The
phenomenological, historical, comparative and limited thematic approaches of data analysis
were used. The researcher thus utilized what Aylward Shorter refers to as the multidimensional,
and what Harold Turner calls the poly-methodic and/or what is known as the
interdisciplinary approach to research. Results indicate that over three hundred and sixty
sacred sites were defiled, destroyed and decimated by tin mining activities, activities of
foreign religions (Christianity and Islam) and agents of modernity, such as the introduction
of Western education, monetary economy and coinage, urbanization, disruption of
traditional demographic patterns with the influx of migrant labour populations in search of
black gold (tin) and the introduction of a northern vernacular (Hausa) and other cultural
items, among others. Furthermore, this study reveals that the tin mining industry left over
1000 artificial killer ponds in which animals and human beings very often get drown. It also
left behind numerous artificial mounds on the environment. |
Description: | A Thesis in the DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES, Faculty of Arts,
Submitted to the School of Postgraduate Studies, University of Jos,
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION of the
UNIVERSITY OF JOS |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/226 |
Appears in Collections: | Faculty of Arts
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