AbstractThe paper explores the African communal ethic of ubuntu and its possible contribution to prevention of HIV and AIDS and tocommunal healing in general.

AbstractBiblical texts are assumed by communities that use them to be authoritative texts that should guide human relations positively. The phrase 'liberating the word', originating among biblical feminists, however, suggests two issues: first, it points to inherent limitations of the biblical scriptures; second, it places an ethical call on the reader/interpreter to take responsibility for liberating the word. Drawing from her experience as a Tswana African woman, the author analyses Matthew 23, which she reads as colonizing rhetoric of suppressing the Other. She discusses this text in the context of the colonial missionary approach in Africa, which was characterized by condemnation of all that was unfamiliar and a celebration of European culture. She argues that this approach was also scripturally informed.

AbstractMbuya Nehanda, an African indigenous priestess and freedom fighter, uttered the words “my bones shall rise again” when the British colonialists sentenced her to death in 1862, for leading a resistance movement against the infiltration of colonizers in her motherland, contemporary Zimbabwe. Her story and words articulate resistance against bodily, spiritual, cultural, economic, political, and intellectual annihilation through the forces of colonization. Her story and words provide a decolonizing African feminist framework discourse, which is Earth and spiritually centered. This chapter congregates the narratives of various legendary African women to highlight decolonizing, depatriarchalizing, and anti-anthropocentric feminist knowledge production they model. By reading the narratives of African legendary women, who were spiritual, environmental, political, and freedom icons, this chapter seeks to highlight Africa-informed knowledges about gender construction and liberation from various forms of oppression.

AbstractAs a child of Zimbabwean migrants who relocated to Botswana when black people were dispossessed of their land, my own historical context is postcolonial. Like other Two-Thirds World populations, modern imperialism has remained a narrative woven into our bodies, spirits, minds and lands, ever demanding to be read and interpreted. Postcolonial framework of reading is thus the art of wrestling with the past and the present in the quest to glean our shared futures, changed and healed futures. Postcolonial literary theories describe myriad ways of reading that explore how imperialism was imposed on various nations/populations and times; its impact on the colonized populations and lands, and how the colonized responded/resisted/collaborated/survived. In literary studies, postcolonial theories explore the production and role of literature and cultural texts in the modern imperial–colonial relationships by examining texts that arise from both ends as well as the role of pre-existing literature. The application of postcolonial theories to biblical literature falls to the latter.

AbstractAssesses the traumatic experiences of Batswana, exploring concepts of remembering and forgetting healing and positive living.

AbstractIn response to K. N. Ngwa's study of Exodus 2 (see #1038), D. begins by recounting African regional wars during his high school and university years, then turns to Ngwa's essay as a "multilayered cultivation of a language that enables us to talk and think about the past, the present, and the future not only in the war-torn African state of Cameroon . . . as well as throughout the world," but where, however, there are "no motifs . . . of complete escape from Pharaoh" (p. 899). How might Africa reengage colonialism? D. points to the African traditions of hospitality and tricksterism. The midwives were such tricksters, as were Moses's mother and sister. D. casts Ngwa's reading as an example of the kind of trickstering that needs to take place today in Africa. See also ##1036, 1038, 1039. [Abstracted by: Paul L. Redditt] Abstract Number: OTA39-2016-JUN-1037

Abstract"African Biblical Interpretation" published on by Oxford University Press....

AbstractThe chapter’s exposition highlights that African eco-feminisms are founded upon African cosmologies; African histories; and contemporary experiences and movements; and that they are intersectional, interreligious, ecumenical, and activist in character. The chapter also explores the linkage and experiences of Mother Earth and Mother Africa and their intersections with slavery, colonialism, neo-liberalism, gender, class, race, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, gender-based violence, and postcoloniality. The chapter’s exposition further indicates that African eco-feminisms are a depatriarchal, decolonial and an oppositional discourse, seeking to be in solidarity with Mother Earth and all groups that find themselves marginalized by the exploitation and oppression of Planet Earth. The chapter highlights how the book contents explore African eco-feminisms from the perspectives of African women writers. This book is therefore a contribution to African literary criticism, African Indigenous knowledges, Global South theologies, earth-care theologies and feminist /womanist eco-critical movements.

AbstractThis chapter presents a narrative reflection of all the chapters in this volume. Highlighting the transformative role of African women, particularly elderly women, in shaping philosophical and ethical narratives within the traditional hearth setting. It places an interest in the interconnectedness of humans and nature, spotlighting the symbolic inclusion of animals within the community and the philosophy of ubuntu, encapsulated in “umuntu ngu muntu nga bantu,” which underscores human interdependence as emphasized in the volume. The chapter identified the displacement of women from traditional power spaces, leading to, among others, the establishment of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in 1989. It highlights how African women scholars within the Circle challenge patriarchal philosophies, contributing to gender-inclusive liberation. Written in a poetic style, the chapter invites a global dialogue, emphasizing the crucial interconnectedness of all individuals (and all creation) in fostering liberated and just societies for current and future generations.

AbstractUsing contextual, postcolonial, gender and liberation perspectives, the article seeks to read the Bible in the light of aging processes

Abstract[republication]

AbstractAlthough the arrival of the Bible in Africa has often been a tale of terror, the Bible has become an African book. This volume explores the many ways in which Africans have made the Bible their own. The essays in this book offer a glimpse of the rich resources that constitute Africa's engagement with the Bible. Among the topics are: the historical development of biblical interpretation in Africa, the relationship between African biblical scholarship and scholarship in the West, African resources for reading the Bible, the history and role of vernacular translation in particular African contexts, the ambiguity of the Bible in Africa, the power of the Bible as text and symbol, and the intersections between class, race, gender, and culture in African biblical interpretation. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of African biblical scholarship. In fact, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of African biblical scholarship available in print.

AbstractDiscussing the connections between the phenomenon of traveling and texts, this article aims to show that narratives present plots and maps that invite readers to become particular travellers (and hosts/hostesses) on either side of the power divide. This is done by juxtaposing the kind of traveller posited in the Gospel of John with the maps and stories of the author as representative of citizens of Botswana and southern Africa. By putting the story-maps of pre-colonial, colonial and post-indipendence encounters on the table when reading John's narrative, John's road-signs are checked against the author's story-maps for similarities, differences, and consequences. Resisting the subordination of characters like John the Baptist, Moses, Sophia and the non-believers in the fourth evangelist's narrative, the narrator's ideology is problematised as one which legitimises a selective and exclusive empowering and the rejection of difference. This is seen as an oppertunity for biblical scholars to take different paths, to plit new journeys, to draw new maps and to establish new rules for travelling and hosting others.

AbstractMother Earth is home to an unprecedented number of translations of the Bible, making it the most widely translated book in the world. The pages of this book have traversed a variety of physical and metaphorical borders, navigating diverse geographical, political, economic, cultural, linguistic, and religious intersections. Across space, time, and cultures, millions of readers have found various reasons to read it through diverse lenses. The Bible was frequently translated and brought to the colonized territories with colonial movements. Regrettably, it was often utilized as a tool for subjugation and dominance. However, the colonized people also used this resource for their own goals. Do contemporary biblical studies have the courage to look upon the tomes and tons of translated Bibles lying upon the surface of Mother Earth? What responsibilities and opportunities does the Global Translated Bible(s) lay upon academic biblical studies? What research questions, challenges, and opportunities for collaboration does it open? What are the pedagogical obligations and implications of acknowledging the Global Translated Bible(s)? In other words, what does faithfulness and unfaithfulness to the translated biblical corpus entail, imply, and demand? This lecture proposes and emphasizes the imperative of mainstreaming the Global Translated Bible(s) into academic biblical studies.

AbstractThis article reviews the gendered Pentecostal Bible as documented by various researchers. It assesses how the prophetic-spirit framework encounters and functions within the framework of the inerrant but patriarchal written word. The Spirit framework is an oral canon that opens spaces of gender empowerment. Yet Pentecostal scholars problematise the supposedly liberating Spirit, highlighting that it sometimes denies the materiality of human existence and inhabits the constraining parameters of patriarchal church structures. The article suggests that in addition to the Spirit-Word framework, new Pentecostal theological categories, such as healing and deliverance and the prosperity gospel need to be investigated for the new spaces they open for gender justice. ‘The authority of the Bible as the word of God, and the experience of the Holy Spirit form two of the most important sources of Pentecostal theology’ (Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 2004:390).

AbstractThe relationship between postcolonialism and feminism is often complicated and conflict-laden in its struggles against empire and patriarchy and its related social categories of oppression. The question is, How have African women in former colonies balanced their act ? To address this question, the article focusses on Boleo, A Setswana Novel . Firstly, theories of post-coloniality and feminism are explored. Secondly, four creative African women writers are analysed for their take on the intersection of postcolonialism and feminism prior to reading Boleo, A Setswana Novel. Thirdly, the analysis of Boleo indicates boundary crossing and cross-border oppressions and solidarity in the struggle against apartheid that features a female protagonist and other minor characters. It is proposed that because the novel equates apartheid with sin ( boleo ), it thus constructs salvation as the concerted communal efforts of resistance and suspicion towards the institutions of the oppressor, characterised by baitiredi [independent or self-actualising workers], a political movement founded by Boleo. The analysis of the African novel indicates that the struggle against colonial and patriarchy gave rise to the First Things First; Second Things First and Both Things Simultaneously approaches, which are evident within African women creative writers. Contribution: This article adheres to the journal’s scope and vision by its focus on a systematic, historical, exegetical and practical reflection within a paradigm in which the intersection of philosophy, religious studies, social sciences and humanities generate an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary contested discourse.

Abstract[republication] Musa W. Dube As a young girl, one of the derisive comments I frequently heard at our family retail shop was: “Dilo ke lona le tsile le tlola melolwane le melolwane; dinoka le dinokana, le tsile go bapala kwano. ” That is, “you came crossing one boundary after another, one river after another to trade in our country. ” The subtext in the statement was that we were foreigners who did not deserve, or had merely been favored to access economic resources in Botswana. My parents and five of my eldest siblings were born in Zimbabwe, and the last five of us were born in Botswana. Before we migrated to Botswana, it had happened that the village where my parents lived was declared a white man’s ranch. Indigenous people in the area were given two choices: to remain in their homes and assume the status of servants to the owner...

AbstractThe article first compares the apocryphal Acts with the ancient novel, highlights the function of nostalgia in both sets of texts, and considers the connection between the tendency to characterize women as rich and the authorship of the apocryphal Acts. Next it compares the apocryphal Acts with the Pastoral epistles (especially 1 Timothy) in an attempt to illuminate the agenda of the former (nostalgia for a past that actually existed but is now under threat). Finally it considers the history of women in African Independent Churches in Southern Africa in light of the apocryphal Acts to empower women in Southern Africa and elsewhere to claim their his/herstory against gender discrimination in the church and society.--C.R.M. Abstract Number: NTA44-2000-2-1477

AbstractChristianity and translation in the colonial context - 1

Abstract[republication]

Abstract[republication] This paper investigates how native languages were used by colonizers to subordi nate the colonized. The paper uses an example from the Setswana language of Botswana to investigate the colonial translations of the Bible and compilation of the first dictionaries and to show how they were informed by their time. It focuses on the translation of Badimo (Ancestral Spirits) and other related words to show how the Setswana language was employed for imperial ends in colonial times. The paper also examines how the subsequent versions of the Setswana Bible and dictionaries reflect the growing spirit of decolonization as colonized subjects became involved in writing their own languages. Given that colonial translations remained in circulation beyond the period of colonization, this paper also documents how native readers developed strategies of resistance by reading the Bible as a divining text to get in touch with Badimo, thereby subverting the colonial translations that equated the latter with evil powers.

Abstract[Republication of a journal article of the same name] This paper investigates how native languages were used by colonizers to subordinate the colonized. The paper uses an example from the Setswana language of Botswana to investigate the colonial translations of the Bible and compilation of the first dictionaries and to show how they were informed by their time.1 It focuses on the translation of Badimo [Ancestral Spirits] and other related words to show how the Setswana language was employed for imperial ends in colonial times. The paper also examines how the subsequent versions of the Setswana Bible and dictionaries reflect the growing spirit of decolonization as colonized subjects became involved in writing their own languages. Given that colonial translations remained in circulation beyond the period of colonization, this paper also documents how native readers developed strategies of resistance by reading the Bible as a divining text to get in touch with Badimo, thereby subverting the colonial translations that equated the latter with evil powers.

AbstractThis paper investigates how native languages were used by colonizers to subordinate the colonized. The paper uses an example from the Setswana language of Botswana to investigate the colonial translations of the Bible and compilation of the first dictionaries and to show how they were informed by their time. It focuses on the translation of Badimo (Ancestral Spirits) and other related words to show how the Setswana language was employed for imperial ends in colonial times. The paper also examines how the subsequent versions of the Setswana Bible and dictionaries reflect the growing spirit of decolonization as colonized subjects became involved in writing their own languages. Given that colonial translations remained in circulation beyond the period of colonization, this paper also documents how native readers developed strategies of resistance by reading the Bible as a divining text to get in touch with Badimo, thereby subverting the colonial translations that equated the latter with evil powers.

Abstract[a translation]

AbstractThe article carries out a postcolonial feminist reading of Genesis 34, taking up the intersection of gender, race, class and violence in the colonial space.

Abstract[republication]

AbstractTranslation of Scripture, feminism and post-colonial contexts

AbstractIn the globalization era, justice-seeking feminist theologies are challenged to sharpen and reposition themselves to speak to the issues of the time by adopting new methods, topics, and frameworks. Consequently, “the boundaries of theology need to be redrawn in the light of the creation of new global cultures” and “crucial to the task of rewriting the story of feminist theology in the light of globalization is reflecting on the nature of a theological perspective it makes.” This chapter explores the interrelations of globalization, a world scripture (the Bible), and the vision of feminist theologies.

Abstractpublished in three different international languages and republished in 'Talitha Cum! Theologies of African Women.'

AbstractBiAS 39 is an essay collection on women’s Liberation Theology in West Africa, issued as one of three regional volumes commissioned in preparation of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ (CIRCLE) return to Ghana, its place of birth, after 35 years. The volumes rose within the context of preparing the meeting in July 2024 by remembering the founding members of the CIRCLE. The three regional volumes focus on exploring South (BiAS 41), East/Central (BiAS 40) and West African (BiAS 39) womanist/feminist Liberation Theology generated since the launch of the CIRCLE in 1989. The contributions on the lives and works of groundbreaking African women in the Theology of Liberation constitute an international, interreligious, and interdisciplinary compendium for redemptive theological research. The book is dedicated to Rabiatu Deinyo Ammah, the first Muslim woman in the CIRCLE and one its founding matriarchs.

AbstractThe article was first written for the SECSOR SBL, eastern regional meeting held in Atlanta in 2008. The theme of the conference was healing and the author of this article was the keynote speaker. This article outlines the attempts that have been made by biblical scholars and faith activists to address their reading and interpreting strategies within the overall context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. This article offers a comprehensive survey of the literature and the ongoing developments at creating an engaged mode of biblical scholarship and practical reading strategies that will be of service to all people suffering from the blight of HIV/AIDS. A particular concern of the author is that such reading strategies should seek to provide liberation and healing for those struggling with this most pernicious of human scourges.

AbstractThis article discusses the different families of the New Testament literature; its the historical and cultural background. Thereafter, the article samples from each genre to analyse constructions of gender in the gospels, history, epistles and apocalyptic literature of the New Testament.

AbstractAl drie decennia leeft onze wereld nu met hiv en aids. Deze tijd is een reis van openbaring, groeiend inzicht en opnieuw ontwaken geweest, waarin …

AbstractThe link between inequality, poverty and gender discrimination on the other hand is very strong.... The starting point for an adequate response is the understanding that any bid to halt the AIDS epidemic has to include determined efforts to eradicate poverty.

AbstractA cultural text is not confined to the borders of its written pages, but to the whole culture that embraces its interpretations. To understand its meaning(s), one needs to go beyond and read also the cultural conditions that have sur­ rounded its production and consumption. ...A cultural text should be read not just for the history it reflects, but also for the history it has made: the political, moral, economic, and social consequences that the text has affected in the culture (Leticia Guardiola-Saenz 1997:72)

AbstractThe chapter explores translations of Christian hymns and scriptures during the modern colonial times, investigating how colonial ideology permeated these works. It also summaries African scholarly research that has investigated the area, from various regions and languages of the continent.

AbstractThe chapter investigates the link between modern colonialism, violence and biblical texts in the African context.

AbstractThis article explores how the HIV and AIDS epidemic became a revealing moment in history--highlighting the structures of power within the relationships that we inhabit and their ill-health. This stretched from highlighting the fractures of gender relations, marriage, social ethics, economic distributions, sexual and age disparity, among other things. In so doing, the HIV and AIDS epidemic turned the light on the darkness of our relationship, calling for new imaginations and for justice to be served to and with all.

Abstract[republication]

AbstractThe global HIV and AIDS epidemic has been a context of great suffering: stigmatization, death, grief, orphaned children and impoverishment. It is an attack on life and its quality. Moreover, the most marginalized groups such as women, homosexuals, youth, blacks and the poor have been at the center of the storm of the epidemic. With millions dead, and other millions living with HIV, and with millions of orphaned children globally, the epidemic has been an apocalyptic event that raises significant theological questions. Who is God? Where is God? Does God Care? The same questions are asked about Christ by communities and individuals who are living with HIV and AIDS. How then should we read the Bible in such a global context? This lecture will share the imperative to read the Bible in the context of HIV&AIDS, which calls for frameworks of reading for the affirmation of life, justice, the body, sexuality and compassion among others. "There will be no end of AIDS without ensuring respect and dignity of all people, equity in access to health services and social justices," Prof Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, AIDS 2014 International Conference.

AbstractThe first part of the paper will spend much of its introductory energies on globalization. The rest of the paper will then explore in broad outlines how globalization is related to postcolonialism, gender and religion. My approach, as the title suggests, is through "looking back in order to look forward", which basically means I will briefly assess some of my published works and their position towards globalization.

AbstractThis chapter uses African verbal arts to examine African traditional religion for the illumination, provides about the location and role of the African woman in selected African communities. Religion and religious consciousness are common denominators of every society's quest for self-knowledge. Growing up in the colonized and Christianized African world, the author was introduced to Western religious thought through both church and school. Most societies across the world have accepted Western Christian thought about women in general and its impact on African women in particular. For contemporary African nations and with regard to colonization, part of the rupture experienced by citizens in general and leaders in particular is the lessening of the place of women in many aspects of social experience. The contemporary African Christian continues to have the option to subscribe to various alternatives, especially with regards to where the African ancestors spend eternity.

AbstractFeasting on the Gospels is a new seven-volume series that follows up on the success of the Feasting on the Word series to provide another trusted preaching resource, this time on the most prominent and preached upon books in the Bible: the four Gospels. With contributions from a diverse and respected group of scholars and pastors, Feasting on the Gospels includes completely new material that covers every single passage in the Gospels, making it suitable for both pastors who preach from the lectionary and pastors who do not. Moreover, these volumes incorporate the unique format of Feasting on the Word, giving preachers four perspectives to choose from for each Gospel passage: theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical. Feasting on the Gospels offers a unique resource for all who preach, either continuously or occasionally, on the Gospels. Feasting on the Gospels-Mark: A Feasting on the Word Commentary (9780664259914)

AbstractFeasting on the Gospels is a new seven-volume series that follows up on the success of the Feasting on the Word series to provide another trusted preaching resource, this time on the most prominent and preached upon books in the Bible: the four Gospels. With contributions from a diverse and respected group of scholars and pastors, Feasting on the Gospels includes completely new material that covers every single passage in the Gospels, making it suitable for both pastors who preach from the lectionary and pastors who do not. Moreover, these volumes incorporate the unique format of Feasting on the Word, giving preachers four perspectives to choose from for each Gospel passage: theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical. Feasting on the Gospels offers a unique resource for all who preach, either continuously or occasionally, on the Gospels. Feasting on the Gospels-Mark: A Feasting on the Word Commentary (9780664259914)

AbstractThe Global Bible Commentary invites its users to expand their horizon by reading the Bible with scholars from all over the world and from different religious persuasions. These scholars have approaches and concerns that often are poles apart. Yet they share two basic convictions: biblical interpretation always matters; and reading the Bible “with others” is highly rewarding. Each of the short commentaries of the Global Bible Commentary is a readily accessible guide for reading a biblical book. Written for undergraduate and seminary students and their teachers, as well as for pastors, priests, and Adult Sunday School classes, it introduces the users to the main features of the biblical book and its content.Yet each short commentary does more. It also brings us a precious gift, namely the opportunity of reading this biblical book as if for the first time. By making explicit the specific context and the concerns from which she/he reads the Bible, the scholar points out to us the significance of aspects of the biblical text that we simply took for granted or overlooked.Need more info? Download Global Bible Commentary Marketing Brochure PDFFree Adobe Acrobat Reader!If any book demonstrates the value of cultural criticism and the importance of particularity in interpretation, this is it! Scholars from diverse social locations in every continent bring their distinctive context to bear on the act of interpreting. In so doing, they shed eye-opening light on the biblical texts. The resulting critical dialogue with the Bible exposes the oppressive as well as the liberating dynamics of the texts while at the same time showing how the Bible might address the social, political, cultural, and economic dynamics of our world today. This collection can change the way you read the Bible—scholars and students, clergy and laity alike. -David Rhoads, Professor of New Testament, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, ILContributors:Daniel Patte, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. A French Huguenot (Église Réformée de France), he taught two years in Congo-Brazzaville, and “read the Bible with” people in France, Switzerland, South Africa, Botswana, the Philippines, as well as in the USA. His publications include books on hermeneutics and semiotics (such as Early Jewish Hermeneutics, 1975; The Religious Dimensions of Biblical Texts, 1990); on Paul and Matthew (such as Paul's Faith and the Power of the Gospel, 1983; The Gospel according to Matthew: A Structural Commentary on Matthew's Faith, 1987), as well as, most directly related to the GBC, Ethics of Biblical Interpretation (1995), The Challenge of Discipleship (1999), Reading Israel in Romans: Legitimacy and Plausibility of Divergent Interpretations (ed. with Cristina Grenholm, 2000), The Gospel of Matthew: A Contextual Introduction (with Monya Stubbs, Justin Ukpong, and Revelation Velunta, 2003). José Severino Croatto,. Professor of Exegesis, Hebrew, and Religious Studies, at Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos (ISEDET). A contributor to Revista de Interpretación Bíblica Latinoamericana (= RIBLA) and the Movement of Popular Reading of the Bible, he published 22 books, including three volumes on hermeneutics, Exodus, A Hermeneutics of Freedom (1981); Biblical Hermeneutics. Toward a Theory of Reading as the Production of Meaning (1987); Hermenéutica Práctica. Los principios de la hermenéutica bíblica en ejemplos (2002); three volumes on Génesis 1-11 (1974; 1986; 1997), the last one, Exilio y sobrevivencia. Tradiciones contraculturales en el Pentateuco; three volumes on the book of Isaiah (1988; 1994; 2001), the last one, Imaginar el futuro. Estructura retórica y querigma del Tercer Isaías (Isaías 56-66); two volumes on Religious Studies (1994; 2002), the last one, Experiencia de lo sagrado y tradiciones religiosas. Estudio de fenomenología de la religión (2002). Rev. Dr. Nicole Wilkinson Duran, after teaching New Testament in the USA, South Africa (Zululand), in Turkey, is currently teaching part-time at Rosemont College and Villanova University, and with her husband raising twin sons in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. She has published articles on topics ranging from gender and race in Esther, to the unread Bible in Toni Morrison’s novels, to body symbolism in the story of John the Baptist’s execution, and edited (with G. Phillips) Reading Communities Reading Scripture (2002). She is an ordained Presbyterian minister and does occasional preaching and adult Christian education. Teresa Okure, SHCJ, a graduate from the University of Ibadan, La Sorbonne, École Biblique of Jerusalem, and Fordham University (Ph.D.), is Professor of New Testament and Gender Hermeneutics at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She is or has been a member of the executive committees of several associations, including EATWOT (Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, as Executive Secretary), the International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS), and the Society for New Testament Studies (SNTS). She published more than 100 articles and six books including The Johannine Approach to Mission: a Contextual Study of John 4:1-42 (1988), ed. Evaluating the Inculturation of Christianity in Africa (1990) and ed. To Cast Fire upon the Earth: Bible and Mission. Collaborating in Today’s Multicultural Global Context (2000). Archie Chi_Chung Lee, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. A specialist of cross-textual hermeneutics, especially Chinese text and the post-exilic biblical tradition. He is the author of several books including A Commentary on the Book of Koheleth, (in Chinese 1990), Doing Theology with Asian Resources: Ten Years in the Formation of Living Theology in Asia (1993, ed.) and Interpretation of the Megilloth (in Chinese 2003) and numerous articles including "Genesis One and the Plagues Tradition in Ps. 105," Vetus Testamentum, 40, (1990): 257-263, "Biblical Interpretation in Asian Perspective," Asia Journal of Theology, 7, (1993): 35-39, "The Chinese Creation Myth of Nu Kua and the Biblical Narrative in Genesis 1-11," Biblical Interpretation 2 (1994): 312-324, "Cross-Textual Hermeneutics on Gospel and Culture". Asia Journal of Theology 10 (1996): 38-48 and "Biblical Interpretation of the Return in the Postcolonial Hong Kong," Biblical Interpretation, 9 (1999): 164-173.

AbstractThe article utilises narrative, feminist, postcolonial and HIV and AIDS frameworkd to read Mark 5:21-43

Abstract[a translation]

AbstractMositi Torontle was born and raised in Francistown, Botswana. She is a graduate of the University of Botswana with a B.A. Hum. (1989) and a teacher by profession. She is actively involved in the Botswana Writers Association, the church, women issues, and singing. The Victims was Torontle’s first major work. She has published several short stories in the monthly journal Kutlwano. She has also published several poems in various journals and books.

AbstractThe article explores biblical texts and African oratures, foregrounding new questions concerning HIV and AIDS and the various context of precolonial, struggle for independence, post-independence, cold war and globalization. The story of Mark 5: 21-43 is read within these various contexts, underlining the possibility of liberation through the trope of resurrection.

AbstractThis paper discusses my activities in the classroom and beyond to address African contexts of the HIV and AIDS crisis. Alongside an account of my strategies, encounters and journeys, I discuss the activist Gugu Dlamini and Mmutle, a trickster of African folklore. Both act as inspirations for the role of change agent.

AbstractThe HIV pandemic has caused serious challenges for the Church as well as for theology. The pandemic has brought enormous human suffering to individuals and has affected families and entire societies. In this context, churches need to listen and to learn, and not least to respond, to thereby mold their own actions and futures. In so doing, this book aims to enable churches to become more HIV and AIDS competent. Vulnerability, Churches, and HIV includes two kinds of contributions. First, researchers present their thoughts about theology, the church, and HIV. A pastoral letter from the bishops of the Church of Sweden provides a second perspective. The letter makes recommendations to decision-making bodies, patent holders, and decision makers in the pharmaceutical industry. The letter also guides parishes and church workers.Contributors include editor Göran Gunner, Musa W. Dube, Susanne Rappmann, Kenneth R. Overberg, Edwina Ward, and the bishops of the Church of Sweden. The book is the first volume in the Church of Sweden Research Series.CONTRIBUTORS:Prof. Musa W. Dube, University of Botswana, Botswana;Dr. Edwina Ward, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa;Prof. Kenneth R. Overberg, Xavier University, USA;Dr. Susanne Rappman, Sweden;Archbishop Anders Wejryd, Church of Sweden, Sweden.Göran Gunner is a researcher at the Church of Sweden Research Department and an associate professor at the University of Uppsala. He is author and editor of several books in Swedish about freedom of religion and other human rights issues.

AbstractThe article theorises about various responses to an HIV and AIDS outbreak by comparing it to a burning hut in the village. These responses range from indifference to action oriented engagement with HIV and AIDS. It is a framework that challenges scholars of religion and other disciplines to place themselves within the story of HIV and AIDS and to plot their own response. The approach is both autobiographical and institutional in its analysis. The article thus highlights insights on curriculum transformation gathered from individual experiences and intuitional engagement by highlighting the writer’s response, organised efforts from the World Council of Churches, the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, the University of Botswana and other institutions. The conclusion emphasises that both research and teaching should be justice seeking.

AbstractThe chapter underlines and highlights ways of mainstreaming gender and decoloniality into the study of African Indigenous Religions. The chapter is an important introduction to the untutored by laying out the vital structures of African Indigenous Religions while highlighting points of gender-sensitive aspects. The chapter identifies the main structure of African Indigenous Religion/s as consisting of the Divine, Ancestors, and the Earth Community. It underlines that in West African cosmology, the Divine is followed by gods and goddesses, who precede ancestors. The paper investigates how gender was conceptualized across these key areas. It also highlights how the colonial history impacted the African worldview and shifted gender towards a patriarchal worldview, hence underlining decolonization as vital to the study of African Indigenous Religion/s.

AbstractIntroductionProblematizing of Frameworks of AIR(s)Community, Postcolonialism, and FeminismThe Future of Feminist African Religion

AbstractThe chapter explores the construction of space, postcoloniality, religion and gender among African writers.

AbstractDie postkoloniale Theologie ist in den letzten Jahren zu einem der wichtigsten und innovativsten Felder innerhalb der interkulturellen Theologie avanciert. TheologInnen aus Asien, Afrika und Lateinamerika haben begonnen, die Konstruktionen postkolonialer Identitäten theologisch zu reflektieren. Dabei nehmen sie Bezug auf kulturwissenschaftliche Diskurse, die in den letzten Jahren an Bedeutung gewonnen haben. Bislang sind allerdings postkoloniale theologische Entwürfe im deutschsprachigen Raum weitgehend unbekannt geblieben. Dieser Band führt zunächst in die Entwicklungsgeschichte und gegenwärtige zentrale Positionen der postkolonialen Theologie ein. Daran anschließend werden die wichtigsten Aufsätze aus den letzten Jahren erstmals in deutscher Übersetzung publiziert, um Studierenden und allen Interessierten den Zugang zu dieser theologischen Richtung zu erleichtern.

AbstractThe opening of Psalm 23 is captivating and remains one of the most memorable citations in the collection of world literature and scriptures. It states that, ‘God is my Shepherd, I shall lack nothing’ (v. 1, my translation). The rest of what follows, in my view, elaborates the opening statement, with many more powerful, memorable, and beautiful sentences. The opening statement is, therefore, the theme and meaning of the whole psalm. The power of the statement can be located, perhaps, in three factors for the believing reader who identifies with David the psalmist. First, the assurance that one is not alone; rather one has a shepherd. The image of a shepherd articulates continuous presence of someone or something that looks out for you. Second, the identity of the shepherd, who is named as God, is awesome. While shepherds come in all sorts of classes, genders, ages, and cultures, the idea (generally of low class) that God, the Creator of the universe and the ultimate power of goodness, cares so much so that God takes up the role of being ‘my Shepherd’ is overwhelmingly humbling, assuring, and powerful. It also asserts the importance of each person of faith who reads the Psalm. The third, and perhaps a logical part, is of course the assertion and assurance that this shepherd cares and ensures that all my needs are met, not just now, but also for the rest of my days – ‘I shall lack nothing!’ To fulfill such a role consistently, the shepherd cares for both the flock and its pastures. Psalm 23 is my favorite psalm for reasons stated here and many more. In this essay, I share my historical, autobiographical, and contextual journeys with Psalm 23 and its musical afterlives in Botswana....

AbstractThe article investigates how Purple Hibiscus utilizes intertextuality and explores the intersection of class, gender, race, postcoloniality and violence in a context of theological imagination represented by two siblings, who express their Roman Catholic faith differently. The character of Papa Eugene, whose extreme religiosity and violence pervades the book, is depicted as a colonized subject, who embodies epistemic violence of a colonial past. The decolonizing postcolonial feminist perspective of the book is best modeled by the character of Aunty Ifeoma and how she expresses her Christian faith as an African woman. Whereas, Aunty Ifeoma is an articulate intellectual, women of different status are shown to use different means of resisting patriarchy and violence in the quest for liberating relationships, thereby modeling various expressions of feminist agency. This paper, therefore, explores the intersectionality of gender, class, race, religion, postcoloniality and power in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s debuting novel, Purple Hibiscus set in a political context of a military coup in Nigeria.

AbstractThis wide-ranging reader provides a comprehensive survey of the interaction between postcolonial criticism and biblical studies. It examines how various empires such as the Persian and Roman affected biblical narratives. It demonstrates how different biblical writers such as Paul, Matthew and Mark handled the challenges of empire. It includes examples of the practical application of postcolonial criticism to biblical texts. It considers contemporary issues such as diaspora, race, representation and territory. It features editorial commentary that draws out the key points to be made and creates a coherent narrative. - Theoretical practices -- Empires old and new -- Empire and exegesis -- Postcolonial concerns

AbstractThis book brings together twelve essays on a wide and rich range of topics, discussions and methodologies in African theology today. Even the book's limitations provide an insight into the situation: its variety also indicates the absence of comprehensive and sustained discussion flowing from the economic and institutional limitation of Africa where research in theology is often beyond the means of many theologians. Then there is the difficulty of staying abreast of continually changing contexts and events in Africa itself. For all of these reasons then, a compelling introduction to a dynamic analysis and conversation.

Abstract[republication]

AbstractIn this article, the biblical Rahab and I ؛ill pay a visit to Precious Rawiotswe or a cup of red bush tea. That is, the narrative of Rahab will provide a reading grid by which to analyse a Botswanan woman character. Precious Ramotswe, created and popularized by Alexander McCall Smiths’ nod. The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. This postcolonial feminist reading of the nods analyses the characterization of Mma Ramotswe through Rahab’s context, highlighting how McCall Smith’s narrator serves as a spy who investigates, reports, and translates Botswanan cultures for the Western world by using her as his mouth piece. The article explores how McCall Smith constructs colonialising feminism through the paradigm of saving brown women from brown men. The article highlights that such a strategy depends on a colonial portrait of black men as docile and over-sexed. While The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has won worldwide popularity, this article highlights its dependence on colonially-cultivated tastes of constructing Africa as the Other and a readership that still yearns for such literature in the Western world. McCall Smith thus indulges in colonial images, metaphors, and narrative designs of the Other and through them sates the reading appetites of millions in the Western world.

AbstractExploring the implications of teaching in the HIV and AIDS death zone of the early 2000s, this article underlines how the context generated a teaching crisis and demanded multiple responses. HIV and AIDS called into question established scientific knowledge, methods, and theories, highlighting their inadequacy. University classroom boundaries had to be extended to include the community outside the academic halls, thereby necessitating curriculum transformation concerning the content, justification, and methods of teaching. While HIV and AIDS generated silence and death, responsive teaching methods had to create a space of breaking the silence, healing, and working out a theology of resurrection.

AbstractThe book explore biblical portrayal of commercial sex and analysis the interpretation, particularly feminist readers.

AbstractThe article theorizes the Ghanaian Sankofa symbol and applies the framework to assess the work of the Circle of African Women Theologians in the past thirty-five years (1989–2023). It is highlighted that the Sankofa symbol denotes movement and activity in the cosmology and African Indigenous Religious and cultural thought, for history, culture, spirituality, economics, and political relationships, among others, are not regarded as static. It is proposed that the Sankofa philosophical framework entails a three-time framework: namely, the present, the past, and the future, which are repeated multiple times on the journey of life, reading, interpretation, and theologizing. The Sankofa symbol also denotes the interconnection between these three phases of life. The article thus assesses The Circle of African Women’s Theologian’s multiple Sankofa acts in African Indigenous Religions in the past thirty-five years. The work of women from East, West, South, and the African diaspora is assessed, and their major ideas are highlighted.

AbstractThis substantially revised edition has been expanded to include 16 new essays and a new section on postcolonial readings of scripture. It also contains a new introduction and an afterword by the editor, calling attention to new developments in biblical interpretation.

AbstractEver since independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho has been an experimental laboratory of various governance models. The country has experienced multi-party models, plain dictatorships, one-party dominated models, military juntas and, recently, coalition governments. The advent of coalition politics since 2012 has brought a paradigmatic shift in the entire socio-political landscape in the country. This era has, hitherto, largely remained under-studied. Coalition Politics in Lesotho is the first book-long study specifically dedicated to this significant era in the country's history. Edited by the two leading politico-legal scholars on Lesotho, the book is a multi-disciplinary study of the implications of coalitions for governance and development.

Abstract[republication]

AbstractClick to read more about Talitha Cum! : the grace of solidarity in a globalized world by Mario Degiglio-Bellemare. LibraryThing is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers

AbstractIn this article I begin with Laura Bohannan's 1966 celebrated essay "Shakespeare in the Bush;' which is where I derive the title "The Bible in the Bush." I then discuss some of the first written responses of Batswana to Robert Moffat's translation of the Setswana Bible of 1857. The third and final part of the article looks at some implications for biblical translations in the context of globalization and localization.

AbstractReligion, ethnicity and race are facets of identity that have become increasingly contested. The modern discipline of biblical studies developed in the context of Western Europe, concurrent with the emergence of various racial and imperial ideologies. The essays in this volume deal both with historical facets of ethnicity and race in antiquity, in particular in relation to the identities of Jews and Christians, and also with the critique of scholarly ideologies and racial assumptions which have shaped biblical studies.

AbstractThis special issue of Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies is dedicated to the interpretation of the results of the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey 2013 (henceforth BAIS IV), and seeks to highlight their implications for HIV and AIDS programmes in Botswana as well as for further research.  Through the facilitation of the University of Botswana HIV and AIDS Coordination office, the National Council of AIDS Agency (NACA) was invited to collaborate with the University of Botswana researchers. NACA accepted this invitation by expressing an interest in BAIS IV-based research project. Interested University of Botswana researchers were identified and BAIS IV data and report were made available to them for further investigation.  The authors of the articles in this volume, therefore, interpret and analyse BAIS IV within the national, regional and international literature on HIV and AIDS.

AbstractAfrica has seen many political crises ranging from violent political ideologies, to meticulous articulated racist governance system, to ethnic clashes resulting in genocide and religious conflicts that have planted the seed of mutual suspicion.The masses impacted by such crises live with the past that has not passed. The Healing of Memories: African Christian Responses to Politically Induced Trauma examines Christian responses to the damaging impact of conflict on the collective memory. Troubled memory is a recipe for another cycle of conflict. While most academic works tend to stress forgiving and forgetting, they did not offer much as to how to deal with the unforgettable past. This book aims to fill this gap by charting an interdisciplinary approach to healing the corrosive memories of painful pasts. Taking a cue from the empirical expositions of post-apartheid South Africa, post-genocide Rwanda, the Congo Wars, and post-Red Terror Ethiopia, this volume brings together coherent healing approaches to deal with traumatic memory.

AbstractFor generations, the Bible has been employed by settler colonial societies as a weapon to dispossess Indigenous and racialized peoples of their lands, cultures, and spiritualties. Given this devastating legacy, many want nothing to with it. But is it possible for the exploited and their allies to reclaim the Bible from the dominant powers? Can it serve as an instrument for justice in the cause of the oppressed? Even a nonviolent weapon toward decolonization? In Unsettling the Word, over 60 Indigenous and Settler authors come together to wrestle with the Scriptures, rereading and re-imagining the ancient text for the sake of reparative futures.

AbstractThe article uses the format of ten commandments to give 10 critical issueds of HIV and AIDS engagements

Abstract[republication] The massive growth of Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (PCCs) constitutes a Pentecostal kairos in the global history of the Christian movement. In its current form, the Pentecostal movement spreads itself into politics, economics, cultural and social spheres, interacting with various disciplines all at once. Yet the massive growth and impact of PCCs has not attracted equivalent attention from scholars of religion in the African continent. This article highlights the PCCs’ kairos and the pentecostalisation of religion and society. It also challenges African scholars of religion to undertake interdisciplinary collaborative research projects in order to make meaningful contributions to the methods and theoretical implications for teaching religion in the PCCs kairos

AbstractAfrican oratures consist of a significant corpus of trickster stories. This article investigates indigenous frameworks of reading texts by exploring the philosophical stance of Mmutle, the trickster of Southern Africa, by analyzing eight stories. The analysis of the Mmutle trickster discourse highlights four postures of reading for liberation. First, the vulnerable and oppressed should keep a permanent vigil toward the powerful and always watch out for their interests without fail. Second, the vulnerable and oppressed should be willing to be in solidarity with other vulnerable and oppressed members of the society and to use teamwork. Third, sharp and transgressive thinking skills are vital weapons of resistance, survival, and liberation. Fourth, the Mmutle trickster philosophical framework demands skills of rewriting and redirecting a story toward new and unexpected ends in the service of resistance, survival, and liberation.

AbstractD. presents fictional letters of Orpah to Ruth, which would never have been preserved because they reflect an oral culture. Those letters depict Orpah as one who returned to her own older mother, just as Ruth followed Naomi, her older mother-in-law. See also #1854. [Abstracted by: Jon L. Berquist.] Abstract Number: OTA24-2001-OCT-1857

Abstract[republication]

Abstract[republication]

Abstract“Botho (Ubuntu)… must permeate every aspect of our lives, like the air we breathe” (Vision 2016: 2) “Botho (Ubuntu) will be the cornerstone that guides our lives in the future” (Vision 2036)

AbstractThis article seeks to trace the fussy boundaries of religion and the public space in the modern colonial archive of southern Africa. It investigates how drawing such boundaries became a central strategy in translating indigenous cultures into sin and creating guilt in communities that did not observe the sacred and secular boundaries. The article uses the attestations of the 19th century letters to Mahoko a Becwana, a London Missionary Society public paper, printed from Kuruman. While the Batswana worldview kneaded religion and all spheres of individual and collective public space, modern western colonial perspectives claimed otherwise. This paper analyses the letters for the intrusion of colonial religion into the public space of Batswana; the colonial agenda to translate key cultural beliefs and activities into the realm of evil and the various responses it initiated - thereby uncovering that perhaps the separation of religion from state has always been a mythological and ideological construction.

AbstractThe world is increasingly assuming the characteristics of a "global village," as transportation and information technologies make travel and communications around the globe ever quicker and easier. The world of biblical scholarship has not been immune to such changes. Increasingly, biblical scholars everywhere recognize that they are "reading the Bible in the global village," and that as they do so they must be aware of their particular contexts for reading the Bible, and of the relationships and tensions between the global and the local, the general and the particular. This volume, which derives from the 2000 SBL International Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, presents essays by eight scholars who all either come from Africa or have strong interests in African biblical scholarship. Taken together, their work provides a good overview of and introduction to some of the key issues, themes, theories, and practices that are characteristic of the best contemporary biblical study in Africa.

AbstractBlog post based on the inauguration of President Victor Aloyo at Columbia Theological Seminary, 11/11/2022

AbstractThis article is an amalgam of four talks given over several days at The Community of Women and Men in Mission Conference. The overall title `Who do you say that I am?' covers the subjects of Jesus the Liberator, The Healer, The One Who Empowers, and The One Who Sends Us. The author explores these issues in the context of Africa and opens a very illuminating set of questions.

AbstractChurches need to engage with men in order to transform dangerous ideas about manhood in Africa. The HIV epidemic calls for the immediate action on attitudes to sex and sexual violence (Chitando 2007: 46). In the age of HIV and AIDS, masculinity and

AbstractOverview of efforts by some churches in Botswana to help children orphaned by the death of their parents from AIDS. Includes interviews with some church leaders.

AbstractNoting that the ways of interpreting the Bible now practiced in the West are patriarchal and oppressive of those in other parts of the world, Dube offers an alternative interpretation that attends to and respects needs of women in the two-thirds world. In a provocative and insightful reading of the book of Matthew, she shows us how to read the Bible as decolonizing rather than imperialist literature.

Abstract"The HIV and AIDS Bible "opens a new chapter in African religious discourse by placing the pandemic at the forefront of theological discussions. In a series of incisive essays Musa W. Dube examines the HIV/AIDS crisis in light of biblical and ethical teachings and argues for a strong theological presence alongside current economic, social, and political efforts to quell this devastating disease. "The HIV and AIDS Bible "will be helpful for teachers, clergy, social workers, health care providers, and anyone else seeking creative ways to integrate their religious beliefs with their efforts to alleviate the suffering caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

AbstractThere has rarely been an effort to address the missing dialogue between British and African scholars, including in regard to the role of British missionaries during the introduction ofthe Bible and Christianity to many parts of Africa. To break this silence, Musa W. Dube and Johanna Stiebert collect expressions from both emerging and established biblical scholars in the United Kingdom and (predominantly) southern African states. Divided into three sets of papers, these contributions range from the injustices of colonialism to postcolonial critical readings of texts, suppression and appropriation; each section complete with a responding essay. Questioning how well UK students understand Africancentred and generated approaches of biblical criticism, whether African scholars consider UK-centric criticism valid, and how accurately the western canon represents current UK based scholarship, these essays illustrate the trends and challenges faced in biblical studies in the two centres of study, and discusses how these questions are better answered with dialogue, rather than in isolation.

AbstractThe Trump neo-liberal and global warming era has intensified migration, highlighting the diasporic space and global structures as the context of theological inquiry. It is signified by the rise of overt sexism, racism, classism, anthropocentricism, Islamophobia and intensified conservatism that determine who crosses the boundaries, the terms of their crossing and the hospitality they receive. President Trump's shocking statement that characterized some Two-Thirds World countries as S.H.I.T. Holes as well as his travel ban policies that targeted countries of particular religious faith, attest to overt racism. In this volume, African theological scholars challenge euro-centric racist-global immigration policies and propose the paradigm of breaking the master's S.H.I.T. Holes.

AbstractThis book is critically important for Bible translation theorists, postcolonial scholars, church leaders, and the general public interested in the history, politics, and nature of Bible translation work in Africa. It is also useful to students of gender studies, political science, biblical studies, and history-of-colonization studies. The book catalogs the major work that has been undertaken by African scholars. This work critiques and contests colonial Bible translation narratives by privileging the importance African oral vitality in rewriting the meaning of biblical texts in the African sociopolitical, political, and cultural contexts.

AbstractA special issue focusing on HIV/AIDS & Theological Discourse

AbstractThis volume foregrounds biblical interpretation within the African history of colonial contact, from North Atlantic slavery to the current era of globalization. It reads of the prolonged struggle for justice and of hybrid identities from multifaceted contexts, where the Bible co-exists with African Indigenous Religions, Islam, and other religions. Showcasing the dynamic and creative approaches of an emerging and thriving community of biblical scholarship from the African continent and African diaspora, the volume critically examines the interaction of biblical texts with African people and their cultures within a postcolonial framework. While employing feminist/womanist, postcolonial, Afrocentric, social engagement, creative writing, reconstruction, and HIV/AIDS perspectives, the authors all engage with empire in their own ways: in specific times, forms, and geography. This volume is an important addition to postcolonial and empires studies in biblical scholarship. The contributors are David Tuesday Adamo, Lynn Darden, H. J. M. (Hans) van Deventer, Musa W. Dube, John D. K. Ekem, Ernest M. Ezeogu, Elelwani B. Farisani, Sylvester A. Johnson, Emmanuel Katongole, Malebogo Kgalemang, Temba L. J. Mafico, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele), Andrew M. Mbuvi, Sarojini Nadar, Elivered Nasambu-Mulongo, Jeremy Punt, Gerrie Snyman, Lovemore Togarasei, Sam Tshehla, Robert Wafawanaka, Robert Wafula, Gerald West, Alice Y. Yafeh-Deigh, and Gosnell L. Yorke.

AbstractRooted in the rich story-telling tradition of Africa, this volume of essays, the first of its kind, highlights the unique approach African women bring to reading and interpreting the Bible in their diverse historical and cultural contexts. Early bible translation and interpretation in Africa was carried out primarily by foreign missionaries and so was deeply influenced by patriarchal and colonial ideologies. The strategies of resistance to these dominant traditions exemplified by the contributors to Other Ways of Reading include examining translations in their own languages and reading from a variety of perspectives. Featured methods include storytelling; postcolonial feminist reading; womanhood/bosadi and womanist reading; and reading from and with grassroots communities. The book provides important new ideas and tools for Bible study in Africa and beyond.

AbstractThe Trump neo-liberal and global warming era has intensified migration, highlighting the diasporic space and global structures as the context of theological inquiry. It is signified by the rise of overt sexism, racism, classism, anthropocentricism, Islamophobia and intensified conservatism that determine who crosses the boundaries, the terms of their crossing and the hospitality they receive. President Trump's shocking statement that characterized some Two-Thirds World countries as S.H.I.T. Holes as well as his travel ban policies that targeted countries of particular religious faith, attest to overt racism. In this volume, African theological scholars challenge euro-centric racist-global immigration policies and propose the paradigm of breaking the master's S.H.I.T. Holes.

AbstractThis article’s analysis of data from Gaborone Bridal showers used theories of agency propounded by Ashivat and Saba Mohammed, drawn from religious women. They highlight “agency as resistance that might also appear as “negotiation with oppressive social structures, and partial compliance” thereby indicating that “docility does not necessarily compromise agency” (Ashivat, 2016:67). Gaborone Bridal Showers are undoubtedly about women encouraging and accompanying another woman to enter a very patriarchal institution: heterosexual marriage, hence its agentic angle has to be interrogated carefully. The analysis of data collected from Gaborone Bridal Showers asked the following questions from interview guides: How does go laya (counselling of a bride) in the cultural setting and the urban-based bridal showers of Gaborone construct and reconstruct gender? How do they create new female spaces? Granted that they still buy a woman household items and that some voices are outright conservative, there is sufficient evidence-based conclusions that Gaborone Bridal Showers are still embrace patriarchy. Yet the analysis of the context and content of the Gaborone bridal shower, with its insistence on “outright freedom” and that every woman is welcome and must be free to talk, regardless of age and marital status, creates an inclusive space that resists equating women’s full humanity with heterosexual marriage. Even the most conservative voices acknowledged radical inclusivity as a change brought by Gaborone Bridal Showers in the go laya female space. Content wise, evidence-based findings indicate iconoclastic twists in go laya—insisting that a married woman must keep her voice, keep her friends, wear what she wants; hold the man accountable financially, insist on faithfulness, insist on shared household chores, watch out for intimate partner violence, enjoy her sexuality and pursue her profession.

AbstractThe book takes us to women-centred events in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. Data was collected from the conversations and events women hold with and for one another on the occasions of bridal, Naomi/Laban, and baby showers. Defining Ubuntu/Botho as the belief that our humanity is only measured by our capacity to welcome, respect and empower the other, this research-based book analyses how women practise Ubuntu/Botho in the urban spaces where the community easily disintegrates to individualism, isolation and poverty. It seeks to explore how Ubuntu/Botho intersects with gender and navigates its space around patriarchy, marriage, motherhood, family and community. It explores rituals and connections between women of different generations such as mothers and daughters, daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law, children and mothers, and their struggles to uphold Ubuntu/Botho in their families, communities and workspaces in the face of patriarchy, urbanisation, capitalism and neo-liberalism. The book employs and generates a multitude of methods and theories to highlight women mothering and delivering Ubuntu/Botho in the urban space communities.

AbstractThis volume focuses on African indigenous women legends and their potential to serve as midwives for gender empowerment and for contributing towards African

AbstractFocusing on the work of contemporary African women researchers, this volume explores feminist perspectives in relation to African Indigenous Religions (AIR). It evaluates what the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ research has achieved and proposed since its launch in 1989, their contribution to the world of knowledge and liberation, and the potential application to nurturing a justice-oriented world. The book considers the methodologies used amongst the Circle to study African Indigenous Religions, the AIR sources of knowledge that are drawn on, and the way in which women are characterized. It reflects on how ideas drawn from African Indigenous Religions might address issues of patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, racism, tribalism, and sexual and disability-based discrimination. The chapters examine theologies of specific figures. The book will be of interest to scholars of religion, gender studies, Indigenous studies, and African studies.

AbstractThis volume sets out to explore, propose, and generate feminist theories based on African indigenous philosophies and concepts. It investigates specific

AbstractBotho/Ubuntu is a community-building ethic that urges individuals to define their identity by caring, welcoming, affirming and respecting the Other. This paper investigates how Botho/Ubuntu ethic was understood and manifested in traditional Botswana communities. The article explores how Botho/Ubuntu is expressed in the preparation and arrival of a new daughter-in-law, the reception of the mother-in law and the preparation for the arrival of a new baby. The article analyses these three cases to investigate the possible co-habitation of Botho/Ubuntu with patriarchy by exploring the practices and rituals surrounding the welcoming of new members by the community and key hosts. The investigation focuses on marriage and the arrival of a new daughter-in-law (ngwetsi); mother-in-law (matsale) as a key host; and the arrival of a new baby, including the care for a wet mother (go baya botsetse). It seeks to examine how Botho/Ubuntu practices create female spaces and networks while it still co-habits with patriarchy in the Setswana rituals and practices of welcoming the Other. The paper will also explore how women are using some of these activities to create female cultures that construct and deconstruct oppressive gender roles. Keywords: Botho/Ubuntu, patriarchy, gender, marriage, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and botsetse, bridal and baby showers, wedding, Botswana

AbstractThis book is a collection of essays that explore the intersection of Earth, Gender and Religion in African literary texts. It examines cultural, religious, theological and philosophical traditions, and their construction of perspectives and attitudes about Earth-keeping and gender. This publication is critical given the current global environmental crisis and its impact on African and global communities. The book is multidisciplinary in approach (literary, environmental, theological and sociological), exploring the intersection of African creative work, religion and the environment in their construction of Earth and gender. It presents how the gendered interconnectedness of the natural environment, with its broad spirituality and deep identification with the woman, features prominently in the myths, folklores, legends, rituals, sacred songs and incantations that are explored in this collection.Both male and female writers in the collection laud and accept woman’s enduring motif as worker, symbol and guardian of the environment. This interconnectedness mirrors the importance of the environment for the survival of both human and non-human components of Mother Earth. The ideology of women’s agency is emphasised and reinforced by ecofeminist theologians; namely those viewing African women as active agents working closely with the environment and not as subordinates. In the context of the environmental crisis the nurturing role of women should be bolstered and the rich African traditions that conserved the environment preserved. The book advocates the re-engagement of women, particularly their knowledge and conservation techniques and how these can become reservoirs of dying traditions. This volume offers recorded traditions in African literary texts, thereby connecting gender, religion and the environment and helpful perspectives in Earth-keeping.

AbstractThis volume explores contemporary African women's creative writing, highlighting their contributions to ecofeminist theology. Contributors address the following questions: How do contemporary African women writers depict the Earth/land/environment and its relationship to women in various contexts? How is religion featured in African women's writing? How does religious literature (scriptures) form an intertextual layer in African women's writing? The contributors proceed by analyzing the intersection of religion, gender, class, sexuality, colonialism, and ecology in selected texts written by African women. They bring these texts into conversation with broader eco-feminist theological scholarship, exploring the potential of literary writing to contribute to theological discourse of liberation and social justice in the African and global arena. Enna Sukutai Gudhlanga is Associate Professor in the Department of Languages and Literature at Zimbabwe Open University. Musa Wenkosi. Dube is Professor of New Testament at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, USA. Limakatso Pepenene is Senior Lecturer in the French Department at the National University of Lesotho

AbstractMarriage in Setswana culture is a community of relationships. One of these important relationships is the mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law. This relationship has historically been wrought with tensions and difficulties. In 2014, a group of Pentecostal Christian women formed the mother-in-law and father-in-law showers. They chose biblical eponyms, Naomi and Laban to name parental showers. This article explores Naomi/Laban Showers. Our exploration is based on data collected in Gaborone and surrounding areas over a period of eighteen months (2016-2018). We examine critically how Naomi/Laban Showers build community. We investigate also how the showers construct and reconstruct gender. Our analysis of the data is framed by the intersectionality of Womanist (or Womanism) Social Theory and Botho/Ubuntu African Philosophy. We conclude that Naomi/Laban Showers create a Womanist-Botho/Ubuntu Ethic of Communal Living in which the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law exist in harmonious relationship. Furthermore, the showers create the mother-in-law subjectivity by insisting that her subjectivity must un- Other her daughter-in-law.

AbstractClimate change and its global impact on all people, especially the marginalized communities, is widely recognized as the biggest crisis of our time. It is a context that invites all subjects and disciplines to bring their resources in diagnosing the problem and seeking the healing of the Earth. The African continent, especially its women, constitute the subalterns of global climate crisis. Can they speak? If they speak, can they be heard? Both the Earth and the Africa have been identified with the adjective “Mother.” This gender identity tells tales in patriarchal and imperial worlds that use the female gender to signal legitimation of oppression and exploitation. In this volume, African women theologians and their female-identifying colleagues, struggle with reading and interpreting religious texts in the context of environmental crisis that are threatening life on Earth. The chapters interrogate how biblical texts and African cultural resources imagine the Earth and our relationship with the Earth: Do these texts offer readers windows of hope for re-imagining liberating relationship with the Earth? How do they intersect with gender, race, empire, ethnicity, sexuality among others? Beginning with Genesis, journeying through Exodus, Ruth, Ecclesiastes and the Gospel of John, the authors seek to read in solidarity with the Earth, for the healing of the whole Earth community.

AbstractLittle is known on the area of pastoral theological approaches used for premarital counseling during bridal showers in Botswana. Pentecostal pastoral counselors during Naomi/ Laban showers were interviewed about their premarital pastoral counseling work, on values and ethics of Botho/Ubuntu, how the ethic is manifested in a traditional society and how it can be used to construct and reconstruct gender. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected on 66 Naomi-Laban pastoral counselors who took part in the study in Gaborone and semi villages of Kanye, Ramotswa, Mochudi and Tlokweng between 1 st August 2016 and 31 st March 2017. The Naomi-Laban marital counseling group use the communal contextual, cross-cultural and hermeneutic pastoral theological approaches in their deliberations. They have adopted a new church family model that retains traditional values while taking contextual issues into cognizance. Naomi/ Laban constitute an engaging and useful group with experiences and skills that can be tapped by pastoral marital counselors. Their work represents a significant premarital counseling resource. Their approaches could however be made more relevant if they are beefed up with a participatory approach. The latter allows couples to explore their positions on several issues relating to marriage.

AbstractBotswana has experienced rapid urbanisation and industrialisation since independence, with people moving from the rural to the urban areas consequently. The quality of family and peer relationships and the spirit of communityhood have also deteriorated significantly over the years. However, few studies have investigated how people forge or reproduce significant values from the rural areas/traditional practices in the urban space. This study investigated the Botho/Ubuntu-driven practices of building community in the urban space in the form of Naomi and Laban, bridal and baby showers in Gaborone. Showers are gendered celebrations organised by women for a mother or father who will either receive a daughter or a son-in-law or for a woman who is engaged to be married or one who is about to become a mother, respectively. The study combined both quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry. The study first carried out secondary desktop analysis and, second, conducted fieldwork-based research. Themes such as social networks, social norms of mutuality, reciprocity, social support, collective efficacy, informal social control, mutual trust, empathy and reciprocity appeared in the study. Results show that participation in the showers could bring satisfaction, improved social relations, an increased sense of control and empowerment.

AbstractSince the introduction of economic practices and the ideas of neo-liberalism in many African countries, the indigenous ideas of mutual empowerment have become a dominant feature and the backbone of many societies. Though bridal showers have been in existence for a long while, few studies have investigated how people forge or reproduce mutually reinforcing practices in urban areas. The study investigated the Botho/Ubuntu driven practices of community building in the urban space in the form of Bridal Showers in Gaborone. Showers are gendered cultural, relational celebrations organized by women for a mother or father who will either receive a daughter or a son-in-law; a woman who is engaged to be married or one who is about to become a mother respectively. Themes such as mutually enhancing and growth-fostering relationships among participants, reciprocity, social support, mutual trust and empathy appeared in the study. Results show that participation in the showers could bring satisfaction, improved social relations, an increased sense of control and empowerment.

AbstractThe paper explores Setswana and biblical moral teachings on the environment as well as their functions in the preservation of the Earth. It will also look at how contemporary profit-oriented relationships with the Earth constitute moral degeneration. Lastly, the paper will discuss how some Setswana perspective on the environment can constitute Earth friendly ways of reading the Bible for the revitalization of the Earth community as a whole. This paper demonstrated that in reading the Biblical narrative of Genesis 8:20, 9:17 God was not making a covenant only with men but rather God was making a covenant with the Earth using Noah as a representative of the whole creation. Consequently, Setswana Ecological biblical hermeneutics used in this paper offers an Earth friendly perspective of reading the Bible.

AbstractEver since independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho has been an experimental laboratory of various governance models. The country has experienced multi-party models, plain dictatorships, one-party dominated models, military juntas and, recently, coalition governments. The advent of coalition politics since 2012 has brought a paradigmatic shift in the entire socio-political landscape in the country. This era has, hitherto, largely remained under-studied. Coalition Politics in Lesotho is the first book-long study specifically dedicated to this significant era in the country's history. Edited by the two leading politico-legal scholars on Lesotho, the book is a multi-disciplinary study of the implications of coalitions for governance and development.

AbstractThe paper explores Setswana and biblical moral teachings on the environmentas well as their functions in the preservation of the Earth, demonstrating withthe text of Genesis 8:20-9:17. It also explores how contemporary profit-orientedrelationships with the Earth constitute moral degeneration. Lastly, the chapterexplores how some Setswana perspectives on the environment can constituteEarth friendly ways of reading the Bible for the revitalisation of the Earth com-munity as a whole.

AbstractThe expectation and arrival of a baby has always played a significant role in many societies across the globe. For simple reasons, babies are perceived as blessings from God. Hence, there is the need to shower the mother-to-be and her unborn baby with gifts and advice in preparation for welcoming, not only the bundle of joy, but also the new additional member into the family. The article is based on data that were collected from baby showers in greater Gaborone over a period of twelve months. The concept of Botho/Ubuntu cuts across as one of the major initiatives that drive baby showers. The goal of this paper is to establish what baby showers entail, how these initiatives started and how they are conducted. But most importantly, the paper will argue that baby showers are a community building initiative in the urban space. The paper seeks to establish the extent to which baby showers are gendered, using analytical insights from the theory of the “good mother”.

AbstractThis volume highlights some of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians strategies. Circle ways of doing theology seek to confront all the factors that deny African women their human rights and dignity. It offers penetrating critiques of widely accepted theological frameworks, showing how embedded they are in colonial and patriarchal discourses. Pledges contained to transforming power come through the framework of Talitha Cum, the little girl who was called back to the circle of life.

AbstractThis volume highlights some of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians strategies. Circle ways of doing theology seek to confront all the factors that deny African women their human rights and dignity. It offers penetrating critiques of widely accepted theological frameworks, showing how embedded they are in colonial and patriarchal discourses. Pledges contained to transforming power come through the framework of Talitha Cum, the little girl who was called back to the circle of life.

AbstractExploring the concept botho/Ubuntu through bridal showers in the urban space, Gaborone Botswana

AbstractThe world is increasingly assuming the characteristics of a "global village," as transportation and information technologies make travel and communications around the globe ever quicker and easier. The world of biblical scholarship has not been immune to such changes. Increasingly, biblical scholars everywhere recognize that they are "reading the Bible in the global village," and that as they do so they must be aware of their particular contexts for reading the Bible, and of the relationships and tensions between the global and the local, the general and the particular. This volume, which derives from the 2000 SBL International Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, presents essays by eight scholars who all either come from Africa or have strong interests in African biblical scholarship. Taken together, their work provides a good overview of and introduction to some of the key issues, themes, theories, and practices that are characteristic of the best contemporary biblical study in Africa.

AbstractThe term "reading with" (which is explained more fully in the first essay) signifies a reading process in which the respective subject positions of ordinary, untrained readers and critical, trained readers are vigilantly foregrounded and in which power relations are structurally acknowledged. Who the reading subjects are is carefully specified in each essay. And just as "who" is reading is clearly accounted, so too is "where" the readings take place. The readings are all African readings, as the subtitle indicates. A more detailed explanation of the book's intent is outlined in the Introduction. "Semeia" is an experimental journal devoted to the exploration of new and emergent areas and methods of biblical criticism.

AbstractAlthough the arrival of the Bible in Africa has often been a tale of terror, the Bible has become an African book. This volume explores the many ways in which Africans have made the Bible their own. The essays in this book offer a glimpse of the rich resources that constitute Africa's engagement with the Bible. Among the topics are: the historical development of biblical interpretation in Africa, the relationship between African biblical scholarship and scholarship in the West, African resources for reading the Bible, the history and role of vernacular translation in particular African contexts, the ambiguity of the Bible in Africa, the power of the Bible as text and symbol, and the intersections between class, race, gender, and culture in African biblical interpretation. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of African biblical scholarship. In fact, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of African biblical scholarship available in print.

AbstractAlthough the arrival of the Bible in Africa has often been a tale of terror, the Bible has become an African book. This volume explores the many ways in which Africans have made the Bible their own. The essays in this book offer a glimpse of the rich resources that constitute Africa's engagement with the Bible. Among the topics are: the historical development of biblical interpretation in Africa, the relationship between African biblical scholarship and scholarship in the West, African resources for reading the Bible, the history and role of vernacular translation in particular African contexts, the ambiguity of the Bible in Africa, the power of the Bible as text and symbol, and the intersections between class, race, gender, and culture in African biblical interpretation. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of African biblical scholarship. In fact, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of African biblical scholarship available in print.