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African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn

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A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2023) | Viewed by 13680

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hulisani Ramantswana

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Guest Editor

Associate Professor, Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, University of South Africa, Pretoria 0002, South Africa
Interests: biblical Hebrew; biblical exegesis and interpretation; African readings of scripture/reading of the Bible in the African context; decolonial reading of scripture; Old Testament creation accounts; biblical theology; Pentateuch

Dr. Michael Kodzo Mensah

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Guest Editor

Lecturer, Department for the Study of Religions, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
Interests: African biblical interpretation; interpreting sacred texts; canonical exegesis of the Hebrew psalter; African Christianity; history of African Christian Missions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

African Biblical Hermeneutics was born out of the desire by African scholars to develop approaches to the study of the Bible that both pass the test of scientific rigour and respond to the existential needs of the contemporary African reader. The premise of the relevance of this field of study to contemporary Africa, however, requires constant innovation in response to a rapidly changing social context. It demands that scholars keep abreast with the complex transformations in the religio-cultural landscape of the continent while continually developing new tools and approaches for engaging both text and reality. This call for papers invites scholars to engage African Biblical Hermeneutics from perspectives including but not limited to methods and approaches, gender, the interpretation of the Bible in pluri-religious contexts, mother-tongue exegesis, and post-colonial and decolonial readings. In your engagement, we invite you to also engage the following two fresh-from-the-press books, Kenneth N. Ngwa’s Let My People Live: An African Reading of Exodus. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2022, and Andrew Mbuvi’s African Biblical Studies: Unmasking Embedded Racism and Colonialism in Biblical Studies. London: T&T Clark, 2022.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors ([email protected]; [email protected]) or to the Religions editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Dr. Hulisani Ramantswana
Dr. Michael Kodzo Mensah
Guest Editors

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Keywords

pluri-religious contexts
mother-tongue exegesis
gender
ecological reading
bosadi/womanist
African Christianity
sacred texts
methods & approaches
post-colonial analysis
decolonial analysis

Published Papers (13 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 261 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Mode of Biblical Interpretation in the Light of African Biblical Hermeneutics: The Case of the Mother-Tongue Biblical Interpretation in Ghana

by Emmanuel Kojo Ennin Antwi

Religions 2024, 15(2), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020203 - 08 Feb 2024

Viewed by 932

Abstract

In establishing the Christian faith on African soil, the first missionaries to Africa came along with the Bible. They were determined to share the word of God with the indigenous Africans. This was undertaken effectively; however, it came at a cost. In an attempt to produce translated versions of the Bible for the natives, they ended up producing translations, some of which did not reflect the thoughts of the indigenous people. This has called for an enterprise whereby these texts need to be retranslated and interpreted to reflect the thoughts of the indigenous people. Mother-tongue biblical hermeneutics in Ghana has been advantageous to this enterprise since it seeks to remedy the situation by examining the mother-tongue translations and making proposals for retranslations and interpretation. This has attracted some scholars to come up with a methodology and approaches that would be appropriate in this direction. This paper seeks to assess and evaluate the use of the mother-tongue interpretation, as well as its methodology and approaches in Ghana in the light of African biblical hermeneutics. Though this enterprise is recommendable to African exegetes, it is a special area of biblical studies in search of a standard methodological approach. The paper calls for much attention to how the mother-tongue interpretation could bring the meaning of the text closer to the culture of the Ghanaian reader—however, not at the expense of neglecting the cultural milieu of the original author in which the text was couched. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

10 pages, 1681 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Orality in Translating Biblical Hebrew Proverbs in Sesotho

by Tshokolo J. Makutoane

Religions 2024, 15(2), 190; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020190 - 03 Feb 2024

Viewed by 786

Abstract

This paper evaluates how Sesotho translators have translated Biblical Hebrew proverbs in the 1989 Sesotho translation of the Bible. Because this 1989 translation is undergoing revision by the Bible Society of South Africa, it is important to determine the success of the translation. The orality of proverbs relates to their origin as orally transmitted sapiential sayings. In evaluating how some of the Biblical Hebrew proverbs are translated in Sesotho, the literal translation of 1909/61 will be compared to the 1989 dynamic equivalent translation. Using complexity thinking as a theoretical framework, the paper argues that the Hebrew proverbs are better translated in the 1989 version than they are in the 1909/61 version of the Bible in Sesotho in terms of numerous features of orality. In the 1989 version and its revision, proverbs are translated in a poetic format. This means that the translated proverbs in this version of the Bible, informed by the principles of orality, exhibit Sesotho poetic features or structures. The article is divided into the following components: proverbs in Hebrew and Sesotho, theoretical frameworks, how the theoretical frameworks are used to translate certain Hebrew proverbs in the 1989 version, and conclusions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

13 pages, 1284 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Foregrounding African Ontology/Epistemology: A Reading of Deuteronomy 23:3 and Ruth 4:18–22 Considering the Nature of God

by Ntozakhe Simon Cezula

Religions 2024, 15(1), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010125 - 18 Jan 2024

Viewed by 709

Abstract

Deuteronomy 23:3, says: “No … Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord”. This verse is motivated by a discriminatory tendency embedded in the ontology of the Deuteronomist. Interestingly, Deuteronomy 23:3 was used by Ezra-Nehemiah to discriminate against the “Moabites” during the Second Temple. Such ontology is countered by the author of Ruth in the narrative of Ruth during the Second Temple. This demonstrates an ontological “war” within the Bible itself. The primary contestation lies in whether God is exclusive or inclusive. This development necessitates a hermeneutics of suspicion. In the course of history, the “theology” of Deuteronomy has been used to grossly violate the human dignity of many God-fearing African people and many other people of the South for colonial purposes. To exacerbate the situation, there were persistent attempts from some quarters to universalise such a discriminatory biblical perspective. This would feed into the centre–periphery arrangement, with the centre feeding the periphery with such hermeneutics. For this reason, African scholars are implored to be very vigilant against ardent pressures put on the biblical texts by ontological, epistemological, and contextual biases of interpretations. Accordingly, Andrew Mbuvi identifies African Biblical Hermeneutics perfectly when he says it seeks to undo “the very construct of the ‘centre-periphery’ binary by allowing the possibility of multiple centres”). Kenneth Ngwa, thus, rightly asserts that African Biblical Hermeneutics considers African epistemologies and conditions “to be invaluable and legitimate contexts and resources in biblical interpretation”), drinking from our own wells). In consequence, this paper intends to set a dialogue between Deuteronomy 23:3 and Ruth 4:18–22. This paper aims to examine the understanding of God behind these verses. This paper will then compare the two theologies with the African philosophical concept of God. Harnessing the African concept of Ubuntu, this paper will de-ideologise the two texts and thus will provide a recommendation concerning the two texts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

17 pages, 312 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Decolonising Translated Bibles: The Tragic Erasure of the Vhavenḓa’s Concepts of God through the 1936 and 1998 Tshivenḓa Bible Translations

by Hulisani Ramantswana

Religions 2024, 15(1), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010117 - 17 Jan 2024

Viewed by 941

Abstract

The Bible translated into South Africa’s indigenous languages has a colonial history. For the Vhavenḓa people, the 1936 and 1998 Bible translations are revered as icons that hold a privileged position. However, this paper argues that these two translations should be seen as colonial language tools that do not serve the culture of the Vhavenḓa people. Instead, they can be viewed as weapons against them. These translations distorted the Tshivenḓa language by imposing distorted and foreign concepts of God, thereby rendering the Vhavenḓa people to have been without knowledge of God. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

10 pages, 3590 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mother-Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics and the Pursuit of Ethnic Harmony in Ghana

by Frederick Mawusi Amevenku

Religions 2023, 14(12), 1491; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121491 - 30 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 818

Abstract

Ethnic disharmony exists among the people of Ghana. What are the reasons for this? Ghana is an amalgamation of different ethnic groups, cultures, peoples and states to form one entity. The partition of Africa is mainly responsible for this, though there are other contributing factors. The project to partition Africa led, in large measure, to the erosion of the African identity. The 19th- and 20th-century European Christian mission to southern West Africa exploited this reality to their mission advantage. Unfortunately, the result seems to be counterproductive because the mission project, for the most part, produced a version of Christianity that failed to affirm the African identity. Concerned Africans, now on a mission to deconstruct the imperialist, European mission-constructed West African Christian identity, realise that biblical interpretation is one major source of this decolonial agenda. How does a mother-tongue reading of Ephesians 2 help decolonise Eυe Christianity and promote ethnic harmony in Ghana? Using mother-tongue biblical hermeneutics, this paper argues that the pursuit of ethnic harmony in Ghana is a decolonial hermeneutic with potential for fostering ethnic harmony in Ghana. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

11 pages, 1531 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Heḇelness of African Power: Hope or Despair: A Political Reading of Reading Qoh 3:16-17; 4:1-3.13-16

by Augustin Some S.J.

Religions 2023, 14(12), 1484; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121484 - 29 Nov 2023

Viewed by 593

Abstract

The mother continent Africa is known for its various, multiple, and repeated instabilities, the rationale being the great hope and desire for the permanence, fixity, stability, lasting or enduring things that characterize human beings. Irrespective of how great and noble this hope and desire might be, one should admit that permanence or stability in life under the sun is against human nature, which for Qoheleth is הבל, that is, fleeting, transitory, brief, “not stable”. The use of הבל applied to different areas of life draws attention to the fleetingness of human experience in the world compared to God’s eternity. In Qoheleth’s view, there is nothing eternal on Earth: everything is fleeting (הכל הבל). So is political power, which for Qoheleth is short-lived and unstable, whether oppressive or not. It is, therefore, the aim of this paper to explore the hermeneutical possibility of Qoheleth’s use of הבל, which could be used to understand the political instability in African leadership. As such, this study calls attention to Qoheleth’s use of הבל with a political focus. It reads the text against the context of the oppressive manipulative political control of the powerless, voiceless, and the downtrodden by the powerful in Qoheleth’s society, which is no less in today’s African society. Consequently, it proposes that a political reading of Qoheleth adds to its hermeneutical understanding, which then can become more meaningful to Africans in an oppressive and depriving social and political environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

12 pages, 806 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Remembering Hagar and Her Son (Gen 21: 9–21): A Narrative Reading of Helpless Victims and Hopeful Survivors in the Wheel of Providence

by Blessing Onoriode Boloje

Religions 2023, 14(12), 1474; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121474 - 28 Nov 2023

Viewed by 916

Abstract

Narratives are fundamentals of storytelling. In Biblical literature, narratives do not only tell what happened (the context for God’s revelation), they also indicate why what happened matters (the purpose of history). Employing a narrative methodology and a hermeneutic of identification as an interpretive approach, this article explores the Hagar–Ishmael narrative in Genesis 21: 9–21 against the background of those who have been marginalized, exploited, excluded, trafficked, and sitting in a wilderness of despair, struggle, and mistreatment and are in need of survival. The exploration seeks to understand the narrative structure, plot, characters, and themes within the text. The Hagar–Ishmael position is too painfully close to the realities of many today. In this narrative account, one finds a pitiable scene of human suffering and misery, and yet it is bounded by divine mercy and compassion. The stream of helplessness and consequent hope of survival shows that, no matter how mistreated people might have been, they can rise above their “victimization” and embrace the promises of God by staving off defeat, shaking off despair, and vanquishing discouragement. Thus with a hermeneutic of identification, readers are encouraged to identify with the characters, situations, and experiences described in the biblical narrative. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

8 pages, 728 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Oἱ Ἰουδαῖοι (The Jews) in John’s Gospel: An African Reading

by Michel Segatagara Kamanzi

Religions 2023, 14(11), 1441; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111441 - 20 Nov 2023

Viewed by 1290

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the loving memory of Bénézet Bujo and Laurenti Magesa, two giants of African Theology. The portrait of the Jews in John’s Gospel has been the object of a great debate among Western scholars. The negative portrait of many of the Jews of the fourth canonical gospel has led some to qualify John’s Gospel as the most “anti-Jewish” writing of the New Testament. Recent Western history, in particular the Shoah, has certainly had a heavy weight on this negative interpretation of John’s Gospel. But another perspective, here African Biblical Hermeneutics, may give a different understanding of this disputed theme. Following this non-Western approach, we want to show that maybe it is not John’s Gospel’s characterization of the Jews which is problematic, but the hermeneutics used to interpret it. In the end, what is at stake, is not the Jews or Jewish people as such, but how one, Jew or non-Jew, responds to Jesus’ message and gift of abundant life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

17 pages, 489 KiB

Open AccessArticle

African Biblical Hermeneutics Considering Ifá Hermeneutic Principles

by Moïse Adéniran Adékambi

Religions 2023, 14(11), 1436; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111436 - 19 Nov 2023

Viewed by 1174

Abstract

African contextual biblical hermeneutics, practiced mainly among those from the southern hemisphere, is framed by conflicting academic approaches, methods, epistemologies, rationalities, etc. The general challenge put before the Bible scholars in this part of the world mostly concerns methodologies. This paper focuses on the link between a biblical text and the context of its interpretation. To avoid any specific context or interpreter gaining hermeneutical hegemony over the text, in contextual biblical hermeneutics, the coherence should be first and foremost between the text and the context of its interpretation. The interpretation method of Ifá, the sacred orature of Yoruba and some non-Yoruba people in West Africa, helps to achieve that coherence. This paper is a theoretical presentation of what a contextual biblical hermeneutic can learn from this African Sacred literature reading in context. The hermeneutical rationale of Ifá stories is one of “speaking in proverbs”, considering both the stories and their interpretations as proverbs. In line with this rationale, the ideal link between a biblical text and its hermeneutical context is like the one between a “proverb story” and the many stories (contexts) of its harmonious utterances. The epistemological and hermeneutical functions of the context of interpretation are not to interpret the biblical text but to verify the validity of proposed interpretations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

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13 pages, 238 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Life of Integrity: The Maccabean Story

by Alexander G. K. Salakpi

Religions 2023, 14(11), 1428; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111428 - 16 Nov 2023

Viewed by 856

Abstract

The experience of ontological and epistemological dominations made Africans lose their self-consciousness and become unfulfilled in life. Every human being has a life of integrity that must be lived. The Maccabees in the Bible were dominated by Antiochus IV, the King of Syria. He desecrated the Temple, changed their religion, politics, economy, and social life and above all made himself a god to be worshipped. He deprived the Jews of their identity and dominated them ontologically, but they had a life of integrity to live. Some of the Jews accepted the new way of life by Antiochus and helped to betray those few Jews who stood against this new system of Antiochus. Many of the pious Jews lost their lives, but with hope in Yahweh and persistent endurance they regained their identity and life of integrity. The plague of coloniality made Africans invariably lose their identity, and consequently their integrity as others determined their pace of life. The African story is like the Maccabean story; this article studies selected texts in Maccabees (1 Maccabees 2 and 3; 2 Maccabees 6 and 7) and suggests their regaining of identity and life of integrity to the African situation. The paper uses biblical exegesis and intercultural interpretations to unearth the buried African treasures for an integrity of life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

10 pages, 427 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Afrocentric Ecoreading of ‘Coloniality of Power’ in Prophet Hosea’s Narrative

by Ucheawaji Godfrey Josiah and Blessing Jeffrey-Ebhomenmen

Religions 2023, 14(11), 1389; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111389 - 07 Nov 2023

Viewed by 744

Abstract

This work examines the environmental challenges occasioned by Samaria’s ‘imperial singleness’ in prophet Hosea’s text from an African perspective. The interaction between the ‘seat of power’ in Samaria and imperial forces in Hosea’s time appears to have negatively influenced Israel’s attitude towards land use (Hos 12:1, 2; 1 Ki 21:1–28; 2 Ki 9:26). Such interface becomes evident in a shift, by Samaria’s ‘seat of power’, from Yahweh’s prescribed land-use policy to those of their imperial masters—Assyria and Egypt. Despite Israel’s liberation from Egypt by Yahweh during the exodus (Hos 11:1), their susceptibility to treaty alliances with these imperial forces remains vivid in Hosea’s narrative (Hos 7:1–16; 12:1–2). Echoing the words of Ngwa, such an alliance seemingly classifies Samaria’s monarchy as a ‘localised imperial singularity’ and a ‘single hero’ as against the ‘communal oneness with the divine, humans and the earth itself’. This ‘localised imperial singleness’ and its effect on Israel’s land was subjected to a critical engagement premised on the principles of interconnectedness and the voice of the earth, while a combination of Mburu’s African Hermeneutics and Kavus’ Ecological Hermeneutics is employed for the purpose of critical decolonial discourse. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

16 pages, 881 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reading the Locust Plague in the Prophecy of Joel in the Context of African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn

by Michael Ufok Udoekpo

Religions 2023, 14(10), 1235; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14101235 - 26 Sep 2023

Viewed by 2039

Abstract

Joel is one of the 12 minor prophets (dōdekaprophēton). His prophecy aims at calling the nation and people to repentance through emphasizing that the Day of the Lord (yōm ădȏnay) is at hand (3:1–5 [2:28–32]). The locust plague (ʾarbbeh) in Joel’s message—which recalls the insects that threaten to destroy crops and vegetation in Africa and beyond, but which can also be used as food and livestock feed and offer other benefits as well—could be interpreted as Joel’s prophetic sign that the great Day of the Lord is near (1:2–2:17). Throughout history, scholars, theologians, and exegetes of differing schools of thought and from numerous locations have offered various interpretations for Joel’s prophecy and subjected it to diverse Eurocentric and Americo-centric hermeneutical methods. This work, however, with its focus on Africa, takes a different approach. Drawing from the work of many African hermeneuticians, it reads Joel’s prophecy using the tools of African Biblical Hermeneutics (ABH), a post-colonial enterprise, in light of the decolonial turn. The article exegetes and theologically analyzes the narrative of the locust plague (ʾarbbeh) in Joel 1:2–7, within the context of Joel 1–3, with the hopes that it will be transformational and beneficial for African readers within their faith context. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

12 pages, 1035 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Thy Law Is within My Heart” (Ps 40:7). Sacred Tradition in the Hebrew Psalter and in African Indigenous Texts

by Michael Kodzo Mensah

Religions 2023, 14(10), 1227; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14101227 - 25 Sep 2023

Viewed by 745

Abstract

Every society possesses systems for accessing, preserving, and transmitting its traditions. These are meant to ensure that privileged knowledge entrusted to reliable custodians is passed on unchanged between generations for the preservation of society. In Africa, scholars have advocated new hermeneutical approaches to the study of the Bible, arguing that the adoption of traditional methods of exegesis served as another instrument in the colonialists’ toolkit to undermine the reception and preservation of Africa’s sacred traditions. Using African Biblical Hermeneutics, this paper studies the processes for preserving Sacred Tradition in Psalm 40. Similar processes are found in African Indigenous Sacred Texts such as the mate masie of the Adinkra textual system. I argue, therefore, that a complementary reading of the texts of the two traditions could serve to de-link from the monocular vision of traditional exegesis and offer a much more fruitful approach to interpreting these texts and making them relevant to the contemporary African reader. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn)

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