Abstract

WABYANGA, Robert Kuloba. "I Am Black and Beautiful": A Black African Reading of Song of Songs 1:5-7 as a Protest Song. Old testam. essays [online]. 2021, vol.34, n.2, pp.588-609. ISSN 2312-3621.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2021/v34n2a16.

Adamo's article on Ebed-Melech's protest brings fresh insight into my earlier article on Song of Songs 1:5-7, prompting me to reread the text as a protest song (essay) against the racial stigmata that continue to bedevil black people in the world. The current article, using hermeneutics of appropriation, maintains the meaning of —“‘••’—’• as a black person, who in the Song of Songs protests against the racism, which transformed her status to that of a socioeconomic other. The study is informed by the contemporary and historical contexts of racial injustices and stigma suffered by Blacks for 'being' while Black. The essay investigates this question: In which ways does Adamo's reading of Jer 38:1-17 influence an African reading of Song 1:5-7 as a protest against racism? The article employs African Biblical Hermeneutics, as part of a creative and literary art in the protests against racism, to read the biblical text as our story-a divine story, which in the language of Adamo, has inherent divine power that can empower oppressed black people.

Keywords : Song of Songs 1:5-7; Protest; "I am black but beautiful".

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