Conference report by Elelwani Bethuel Farisani

Published 2006-05-16 

The 2005 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion was held in Philadelphia, 19-22 November. I attended two sessions of the African Biblical Hermeneutics Section, organized by Musa W. Dube, and here follows a brief report.

The first session’s theme was Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation/s of the Bible: A Dialogue. This session featured panelists who critically engaged with Musa W. Dube’s Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, published by Chalice in 2000. The panelists demonstrated how Dube’s book challenges and contributes to the current Two-Thirds World, postcolonial, and feminist biblical discourse of liberation.¹

The second session’s theme was Modes of Social Engagement in Biblical Scholarships. I was one of the five presenters at this session. The first presentation was called Biblical Hermeneutics and "Social Engagement" in the work of Itumeleng Mosala. This was led by Edward Antonio from Iliff School of Theology. The second was by Sarojini Nadar from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, entitled Gerald West’s Biblical Hermeneutics and Social Engagement. The third presentation was by Emmanuel Katongole from Duke University. His presentation was titled Embodied and Embodying Hermeneutics of Life in the Academy: Musa W. Dube’s HIV/AIDS Work. The fourth presentation was by Andrew Mbuvi, also from Duke University, entitled The African Novel: An Unlikely Source for African Theology? And, finally, my presentation was on Mugambi’s use of Ezra-Nehemiah in a quest for an African theology of reconstruction.

My presentation was in three stages. Stage one’s focus was on outlining both Mugambi’s theology of reconstruction and how he uses Ezra-Nehemiah in his theology.² In stage two the focus was on other scholars’s critique on Mugambi’s reconstruction theology. Specifically,I discussed Tinyiko Maluleke³ and Musa W. Dube’s⁴ critique of Mugambi’s reconstruction theology. Furthermore, I also provided my critique of Mugambi’s proposal concerning Ezra-Nehemiah. Stage three focused on how Ezra-Nehemiah could be used in social engagements in Africa. The paper proposed several steps to be followed here. First, there is a need to identify the ideology in Ezra-Nehemiah,⁵ which tends to favour one group over against another, in a conflict over who should lead the reconstruction process in Jerusalem after the return of exiles from Babylon, in 539 B.C. Secondly, having identified such an ideology, we will have to engage in a sociological analysis of this ideology. And finally, the paper proposed an ideologically aware reading of the text of Ezra-Nehemiah. This reading will tend to read the Ezra-Nehemiah text against the grain, namely retrieving the silenced voice of the am ha‘aretz.⁶

Footnotes

1. The following panelists participated at this session: Steed Davidson, Union Theological Seminary; Yak-Hwee Tan, Trinity Theological College, Singapore; Jeremy Punt, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; Nienke Pruiksma, Theologische Universiteit Kampen; and Musa Dube was a respondent.
2. Cf. J.N.K. Mugambi, From Liberation to Reconstruction. Nairobi: East Africa Educational Publishers, 1995; M.N. Getui & E.A. Obeng (eds.) Theology of reconstruction. Nairobi: Acton, 1999; J.N.K. Mugambi, Christian Theology and Social Reconstruction. Nairobi: Acton, 2003.
3. Cf. T.S. Maluleke, "The Proposal for a Theology of Reconstruction: A Critical Appraisal", Missionalia 22 (1994) 245-258.
4. Cf. M.W. Dube, "Jesse Mugambi is calling us to move from liberation to reconstruction! A postcolonial feminist response", unpublished conference paper; M.W. Dube, "Let us change our gears! Ethical considerations in the HIV and AIDS struggle", paper presented at the 8^th General Assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches, held in Cameroon Yaunde, 20-27, November 2003.
5. Cf. E. Farisani, "The ideologically biased use of Ezra-Nehemiah in a quest for an African theology of reconstruction" Old Testament Essays 15 (2002) 628-646; E. Farisani, "The use of Ezra-Nehemiah in a quest for an African theology of reconstruction", Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 116 (2003) 27-50.
6. When one reads Ezra-Nehemiah, one immediately detects a contestation between the returned exiles and the am ha‘aretz. By the returned exiles here we are referring to all the Jews who were taken into exile by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., and returned back home with the assistance of the Persian king Cyrus in 539 B.C. The am ha‘aretz are those Jews who did not go into Babylonian exile but stayed in Palestine.

Dr Elelwani Bethuel Farisani, Lutheran Theological Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 29 Golf Road, Scottsville, 3201 Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. E-mail:farisanie@ukzn.ac.za