A Week with Malawi’s Trees

I have lost count of the number of theological conferences I have attended in my life. If I try to remember, I must admit that they tend to blur into one another. But the conference hosted this week by the Hara Research Centre at Zomba Theological University will stand out in the memory.

The reason is that it was focussed on Malawi’s trees – not a topic that had previously been at the centre of theological attention. This new focus arose from a conference on ecotheology run by the University of Pretoria and Zomba Theological University in Liwonde Game Reserve. Discussions kept returning to the trees as a critical point of engagement and this set the research direction.

ZTU students have been gathering data about trees and how communities relate to their trees. This was presented to the conference and a series of papers offered perspectives on Malawi’s trees from a range of theological disciplines. A common confession is that, once you start to notice them, trees are prominent in the Bible, in history, in theological reflection and in practical everyday life. 

The conference was once again a collaboration of the University of Pretoria and Zomba Theological University. This time we met on the ZTU campus but we could not just sit in a conference hall talking about trees without going to see some. Fortunately Zomba has a lot to offer – we made a very instructive visit to the Botanic Garden, saw the destruction caused by a recent mud slide on Ndangopuma Hill which has been stripped of its trees, and the efforts of a conservation committee in Sadzi to restore the tree cover to a hill that had been deforested. 

A hopeful sign for the future is the extent to which students are engaged with what they like to call “green theology.” As the direction of travel points towards ecological disaster, their enthusiasm generates hope for a better future.