"Looking into black eyes and feel the embarrassment. " A selected and selective reading of the Africana Bible¹

 

 

Gerrie Snyman

Correspondence

 

 

---

ABSTRACT

Employing a hermeneutics of vulnerability to unmask privileged positions, this article intends to provide a reading from a white perspective of The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. The hypothesis is that the book constitutes an exercise in reading the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible/First Testament in terms of a coloniality of being. Firstly, the socio-political relevance of an open discussion of racism will be illustrated by a recent example of a dispute that originated within racialized South African public discourse on the issue of white supremacy. Based on this example, the discussion will proceed to arguments regarding decoloniality after which a reading of selected chapters of The Africana Bible will be presented.

---

 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adamo, David T. "Psalm 101-150 in African Context." Pages 229-33 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

_____. "The Bible in Twenty-first-Century Africa." Pages 25-32 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Akoto, Dorothe B. "Esther." Pages 268-72 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Althusser, Louis. Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. NLB: London, 1971.         [ Links ]

Anderson, Cheryl B. Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies. The Need for Inclusive Biblical Interpretation. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2009.         [ Links ]

Bailey, Randall C. "Review Article: 'How Did We Get Reduced to a Parenthesis?'" Black Theology 4/1 (2006), 107-15.         [ Links ]

Boer, Roland. Last Stop Before Antartica. The Bible and Postcolonialism in Australia. The Bible and Postcolonialism 6. Sheffield Academic Press: Sheffield, 2001.         [ Links ]

Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter. On the Discursive Limits of "Sex". Routledge: New York, 1993.         [ Links ]

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial thought and Historical difference. With a new preface by the author. PUP: Princeton, 2000.         [ Links ]

Cliff, Gareth. "Dear Government." No Pages. Accessed 9 November, 2010. Online: http://www.garethcliff.com/chronicles.php?articleid=791.         [ Links ]

Davidson, Steed V., Justin Ukpong and Gosnell Yorke. "The Bible and Africana Life. A Problematic Relationship." Pages 39-44 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Du Preez, Max. "Dié Skaamte verlam bloot." Rapport 3 Julie 2011, 6;         [ Links ]

Epstein, Brian. "The Diviner and the Scientist: Revisiting the Question of Alternative Standards of Rationality." JAAR 78/4 (2010): 1048-1086. DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfq091.         [ Links ]

Escobar, Arturo. "Beyond the Third World: Imperial Globality, Global Coloniality and Anti-Globalisation Social Movements." Third World Quarterly 25/1 (2004), 207-30.         [ Links ]

_____. "Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise. The Latin American Modernity /Coloniality Research Program." Cultural Studies 21/2&3 (2007), 179-210.         [ Links ]

Farisani, Elelwani. "Micah." Pages 189-93 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

_____. "Obadiah." Pages 180-82 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Foster, John D. "Defending Whiteness Indirectly: A Synthetic Approach to Race Discourse Analysis." Discourse & Society 20/2 (2009), 685-703.         [ Links ]

Gafney, Wil. "Reading the Hebrew Bible Responsibly." Pages 45-51 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Gates, Henry L. Jr. "Ending the Slavery Blame-Game." New York Times April 23, 2010. No Pages. Accessed 13 November 2010. Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/opinion/23gates.html?_r=1.         [ Links ]

Gerwel, Jakes. "Anti-rassisme verg aktiewe optrede," Rapport 10 Julie 2011, 2.         [ Links ]

Grosfoguel, Ramón. "The Epistemic Decolonial Turn. Beyond Political-Economy Paradigms." Cultural Studies 21/2&3 (2007), 211-23.         [ Links ]

Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Empire. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 2001.         [ Links ]

Holter, Knut. "Introduction." Pages 3-14 in Global Hermeneutics? Reflections and Consequences. International Voices in Biblical Studies. Edited by Louis Jonker and Knut Holter, Society of Biblical Literature: Atlanta, 2010.         [ Links ]

James, Leslie R. "The African Diaspora as Construct and Lived Experience." Pages 11-18 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Kelley, Shaun. Racializing Jesus. Race, Ideology and the Formation of Modern Biblical Scholarship. Routledge: London, 2002.         [ Links ]

Kirk-Duggan, Cheryl. "Life Reading Scripture, Scripture Reading Life: An African-American Biblical Hermeneutic," in "African and African Diasporan Hermeneutics. Reading the Hebrew Bible as Journey, Exile, and Life through my/our Place," written by Randall C. Bailey, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele) and Rodney S. Sadler Jr. Pages 21-22 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Landman, Willem."Pasop vir die strooipoppe." Burger 26 Julie 2011, 15.         [ Links ]

Mafico, Temba L. J. "Joshua." Pages 115-19 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Maldonado-Torres, Nelson. "On the Coloniality of Being. Contributions to the Development of the Concept." Cultural Studies 21/2&3 (2007), 240-70.         [ Links ]

Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele), Madipoane. "Jeremiah." Pages 147-56 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

_____. "Job. An African Reading." Pages 237-41 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

_____. "Women, Africana Reality, and the Bible." Pages 33-38 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Mbuvi, Andrew M. "Daniel." Pages 273-79 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Mbuwayesango, Dora R. "Joshua." Pages 64-73 Global Bible Commentary Edited by Daniel Patte. Abingdon Press: Nashville, 2004.         [ Links ]

_____. "Zephaniah." Pages 202-03 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

McKaiser, Eusebius. "Confronting Whiteness." No pages. Accessed 2 July 2011. Mail &Guardianonline, July 1, 2011. Online: http://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-01-confronting-whiteness.         [ Links ]

Mignolo, Walter D. "Introduction. Coloniality of Power and De-Colonial Thinking." Cultural Studies 21/2&3 (2007), 155-67.         [ Links ]

Mngxitama, Andile."The Face of White Supremacy." No Pages. Accessed 9 November, 2010. Online: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-11-08-the-face-of-white-supremacy.         [ Links ]

Naudé, Charl-Pierre. "Nee vir dié wit kombers." No pages. Accessed 29 June 2011. Beeld 28 Junie 2011. Online: http://www.beeld.com/Rubrieke/Gasrubriekskrywers/Nee-vir-die-wit-kombers-20110628.         [ Links ]

Ngwa, Kenneth N. "Haggai." Pages 204-05 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Nzimande, Makhosozana K. "Isaiah." Pages 136-46 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Patte, Daniel. "Acknowledging the Contextual Character of Male, European-American Critical Exegeses: An Androcritical Perspective." Pages 35-55 in Reading from This Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the United States, edited by Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995.         [ Links ]

Page, Hugh R. "The Africana Bible. A Rationale." Pages 3-10 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Perkinson, James W. White Theology. Outing Supremacy in Modernity. Edited by L. E. Thomas. Vol. Black Religion / Womanist Thought / Social Justice. Palgrave: New York, 2004.         [ Links ]

Quijano, Aníbal. "Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality." Cultural Studies 21/2&3 (2007), 168-78.         [ Links ]

Rousseau, Jacques. "White Supremacy Rant against Gareth Cliff Sullies Rational Political Debate." Mail & Guardian, November 12. 2010.         [ Links ]

Ruffin, Kimberly N. "The Hebrew Bible in Africana Art, Music, and Popular Culture." Pages 52-57 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Sadler, Rodney S. Jr. "Reading Africana: Reading from 'my' Place," in "African and African Diasporan Hermeneutics. Reading the Hebrew Bible as Journey, Exile, and Life through my/our Place," written by Randall C. Bailey, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele) and Rodney S. Sadler Jr. Pages 22-23 in The Africana Bible. Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Edited by Hugh R. Page. Fortress: Minneapolis, 2009.         [ Links ]

Saldívar, José David. "Unsettling Race, Coloniality, and Caste. Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera, Martinez's Parrot in the Oven, and Roy's the God of Small Things." Cultural Studies 21/2&3 (2007), 339-67.         [ Links ]

Schüssler Fiorenza, Elizabeth. "The Ethics of Biblical Interpretation. Decentering Biblical Scholarship." Journal of Biblical Literature 107 (1988), 3-17.         [ Links ]

Smith, Andrea. "Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy. Rethinking Women of Color Organizing." Pages 66-73 in Color of Violence. The Incite! Anthology. Edited by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. South End Press: New York, 2009.         [ Links ]

Snyman, Gerrie. F. "Playing the Role of Perpetrator in the World of Academia in South Africa." Bulletin for Old Testament Studies in Africa (2002), 8-20.         [ Links ]

_____. "African Hermeneutics' 'Outing' of Whiteness." Neotestamentica 42/1 (2008), 93-118.         [ Links ]

_____. "'Is it Not Sufficient to be a Human Being?' Memory, Christianity and White Identity in Africa." Religion & Theology 15/3&4 (2008), 395-426.         [ Links ]

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Pages 271-313 in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Edited by Cary Nelson, and Lawrence Grossberg. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1988.         [ Links ]

Van Niekerk, Anton. "Wittes hét baie skuld. Gesprek en nederigheid is nodig vir aanvaarding." Beeld 5 Julie 2011, 13.         [ Links ]

Vice, Samantha. "How Do I Live in This Strange Place?" Journal of Social Philosophy 41/3 (2010): 323-342.         [ Links ]

Walsh, Catherine. "Shifting the Geopolitics of Critical Knowledge. Decolonial Thought and Cultural Studies 'Others' in the Andes." Cultural Studies 21/2&3 (2007), 224-39.         [ Links ]

 

 

Correspondence:
Prof. Gerrie Snyman
Department of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
University of South Africa
P.O. Box 392, UNISA, 0003
South Africa
Email: snymagf@unisa.ac.za

 

 

1 This article is an edited version of a paper read at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta 2010. A grant by the University of South Africa for Foreign Conference Attendance is hereby acknowledged.