The Christic Okavango Delta of Botswana

Abstract

The term Christ or Messiah describes a saviour and liberator, who is identified through his or her deeds of liberation in a particular context. In the Hebrew Bible, the Christ was an anointed figure, set apart by God to serve his or her community. And so, kings and prophets were anointed ones. As the Israelites fell under a series of empires, they began to expect a military Christ, from the house of David, who would liberate them from the oppression of powerful empires, who took their land and exiled them or reduced them to dependence and taxation. Jesus was identified by his followers as a Messianic figure, thus popularly known as the Christ or Messiah. Liberation theologians, facing various forms of oppression have constructed Christologies that speak to their contexts, cultures and issues. Consequently, we have a Black Christology; women's Christology; HIV and AIDS Christology, amongst many others.In this chapter, we acknowledge the environmental oppression and seek to shift the liberation paradigm from its anthropocentric focus to an environmentally based Christology. The chapter will use the Okavango Delta of Botswana to propose an environmental Christology. Describing the arrival of the living waters of the Okavango as the mighty sap of life that awakens and supports the fauna and flora; the numerous heads of wildlife, big and small, and the human communities of that area, the discussion argues that the Okavango Delta is a Christic place.