The Sacred Connection Between Black Women and the Earth

By Christian Brooks

In Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage, Rev. Dr. Diane Glave describes the relationship between African Americans and the environment as “the interconnectedness of the human, spiritual, and environmental realm… harm toward or care for one necessarily affected the others.” Environmentalism is a personal issue for Black people, especially Black women. For centuries, Black women have held a sacred and spiritual connection with the environment. The environment has served as a source of provision, a place of worship, and a means of escape from bondage. Unity with the earth has always been an essential aspect of the Black woman’s experience.

Often, when we think of environmentalism, the first image that comes to mind is not of a person of African descent. Yet, historically, African women were explorers and caretakers of the earth, many still are today. They cultivated the earth to grow food and walked the land to gather water and fuel. They used their knowledge of environmental resources to make medicine for the sick and elderly and supply nutritional balance for children. Through these societal responsibilities, Black women developed a deep relationship with the earth and a divine understanding of its role in protecting and sustaining life.

This intimate bond with nature was passed down from generation to generation. It endured the middle passage and manifested itself as a tool for survival for many enslaved Africans. Nature served as a covering for enslaved Africans, allowing them to engage in uninhibited worship. They gathered in hush harbors to preach, pray, sing, shout, and truly commune with God.

Nature also served as an avenue for escape. Harriet Tubman, like many Black women before her, had an intimate ancestral connection with nature. God spoke to her through the earth. It was through this sacred bond with nature that she was able to survive the woods, navigate waterways, overcome treacherous landscapes, and use the stars as a guide to freedom. Tubman made 19 trips to the South and escorted over 300 enslaved persons to freedom.

In recent years, this sacred bond has been disrupted due to unequal access to natural resources and the current ecological state of many Black communities in America. Low-income Black neighborhoods are disproportionately burdened with air toxins as well as a host of other environmental injustices.  Every day, Black women stand on the front lines of the environmental justice movement fighting for the right to exist in unpolluted spaces. These women recognize the importance of the quality of spaces around them and how it impacts daily life.

Rev. Dr. Angela Cowser, Presbyterian minister, sociologist, and Associate Dean of Black Church Studies at Louisville Theological Seminary, has lived into this understanding. Cowser has a holistic view of the environment, seeing societies as a construction of the human imagination for the earth.  This construction has strategically placed some people in a position of safety and privilege with access to clean air, clean water, beautiful parks, etc.  While others, particularly people with low-wealth and people of color, have been subjected to the dangers of living in poisoned spaces and spaces prone to natural disasters.

This construction of structural racism and wealth inequality has led to higher rates of chronic health conditions, low access to healthcare, limited access to livable wage jobs and many other disparities. Because of this, during times of crisis and disaster, low-wealth communities and communities of color are more devastatingly impacted. The Coronavirus pandemic has proven this as communities of color, particularly Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities, are experiencing higher rates of infection and death. We must address these inequities. Cowser urges the church that it is our job to work at the local, congregational, and governmental levels to reimagine our society to be equitable for all.

Through the Black woman’s experience, we see humanity’s tie with the earth. The earth is essential in sustaining life for us all.  As we continue to advocate to protect the earth, it is our collective call and responsibility to dismantle structures of oppression and ensure everyone has equitable access to the earth and human resources.