Project completed in 1999: Symposium, and in 2001: Symposium volume

  • Project title: International Symposium on Africa and the Old Testament, Nairobi, October 1999.
  • Responsible: Dr Mary Getui (Kenyatta University, Nairobi), Prof Victor Zinkuratire (Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi), Prof Knut Holter (School of Mission and Theology, Stavanger).
  • Funding: Norwegian Research Council (Oslo), School of Mission and Theology (Stavanger).
  • Project description: Thirty biblical scholars and theologians - mainly from Eastern Africa, but some also from South Africa and Europe - came together to discuss what it means to interpret the Old Testament in Africa today. Their contributions fall in five parts: (i) a mapping of the social, historical and academic context of Old Testament studies in Africa; (ii) exegetical studies of how Africa is portrayed by the Old Testament; (iii) examples of how the African socio-religious experience can serve as comparative material for interpretation of the Old Testament; (iv) examples of how Old Testament texts are experienced as relevant to contemporary African readers; and (v) various aspects of the efforts of translating the Old Testament in Africa today.
  • Publishing: The papers are collected and published in M. Getui, K. Holter & V. Zinkuratire (eds.),  Interpreting the Old Testament in Africa: Papers from the Symposium on Africa and the Old Testament in Nairobi, October 1999. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2001 (Bible and Theology in Africa; 2); republished as Interpreting the Old Testament in Africa. Nairobi: Acton Publishers, 2001 (Biblical Studies in African Scholarship Series).