Challenges of Outsider and Insider in Reading Scripture
For ever trapped? An African vox on insider/outsider dynamics within Due south African Old Testament gender-sensitive frameworks
Madipoane Masenya
Ngwan'a Mphahlele
Correspondence
ABSTRACT
The desire to "fit in" within one 's sphere of functioning does non seem to exist a challenge for teenagers only. It appears to exist inherently human. Those whose operational sphere is academia besides have such a desire. Since the inception of feminist theologies in South Africa in the early eighties, gender-identified biblical frameworks have started trickling in slowly but surely. But like many a scholar within mainstream biblical studies, gender-identified biblical scholars have been hard pressed betwixt mimicking what has been and continues to exist washed past mainstream biblical scholars elsewhere in the Global North and what would be more specific to their local context. Inside such a setting, insiders to academia, who cull to accept their gender frameworks first and foremost informed by the concerns of their own local (read: African) contexts, rather than outside, admitting hegemonic contexts, are familiar with the challenge of a split identity. Within a scholarly context whose mimicking of Eurocentric frameworks remains a norm if not natural, an insider/outsider who chooses to remain first and foremost relevant to the context of many a person on the basis becomes trapped, about similar a majestic cow; damned if one accompanies information technology and damned if one leaves it unattended. The present article is an attempt at elaborating on such insider-outsider dynamics as they are played out inside selected S African OT gender-sensitive biblical scholars' works.
A WHAT Now OF Artificial HORNS?
Those who accept been trained in the discipline of Psychology of Educational activity are familiar with the fact that a secondary school adolescent succumbs to peer-pressure without attempt. An developed-in-the-making has a deep desire to fit in! Even those who are non well-versed with the preceding subject area, only had played a role of primary educators (read: parents), are surely conversant with some of the teenagers' "strange" behaviour, 1 which was definitely not learnt from the dwelling front end. Every bit a young girl, I grew up in a "foreign" abode context. Already then, I had begun the painful struggle of having to deal with a split identity. In apartheid South Africa, white female beauty was the norm. In order to fit into such a model of beauty, young and adult black females alike, used peel lightening creams such as highlight, ambi and bright and lovely among others, to modify the shade of their skin colours. Within such contexts, a slogan such as "Black is beautiful" (cf. Steve Biko), would not have fabricated any sense at all. Being frustrated by the coarse texture of our hair, we would utilise a hot fe / stone to "stretch" our hair in a bid to make information technology resemble the hair of white children. A existent predicament!
Such a struggle did not terminate with i's maturity into adulthood. Neither was it restricted to the realm of female dazzler. It permeated our lives as a whole. Although a context in which one was nurtured taught that naka t š a become rwe š wa ga di gomarele hlogo (counterfeit horns cannot stick permanently on a different head),1 due to repression and political powerlessness, I found myself hard pressed to be validated by the dictates of the white condition quo. I struggled hard to fit in, to be what I was non! One therefore had to learn the dynamics of plumbing fixtures into the outsider ascendant white (read: Afrikaner) culture, while also remaining true-blue to African culture. The insider/outsider dynamics became fifty-fifty more visible as I enrolled for Biblical Studies at a historically blackness university. None of my lecturers shared my racial and gender identities. The (theological) offerings which were consumed had basically naught to exercise with the African context that South Africa was or is supposed to exist.
Does it then occasion any surprise that within the preceding setting, there would have been a deliberate disjoint between academia and the political lives of the power-less? Does it create any wonder that in 1'due south later academic endeavours, one'southward split identity would be further revealed within one'southward position equally an insider/outsider in a "strange" home front end, in one case more? As can be expected, one's efforts to foreground the African context in i's OT studies would not be that easy. It indeed continues to be a struggle, even many years into a republic. An case can be cited in this regard. In an commodity where an attempt was made to re-read the text of Jer 21:1-10 through the lens of an African woman in South Africa, a adult female who was portrayed as being in exile at home, one peer-reviewer remarked that although the article had a story to tell, such a story was not fit for an accredited journal, just for a magazine!
The repercussions of seeking to do justice to an African context in one's bookish endeavours, including in 1's try to foreground non only Africa, but the experiences of African women, volition earn one an insider/outsider status. The words of Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele) come to listen here:
... ours is a theological education characterized by ane assuming the role of an insider in 1 context and that of an outsider in some other context. One becomes an insider equally 1 is being trained as a student, an insider to the theologies which are foreign to oneself, an insider as one trains African students in Western-oriented studies of the Bible, an insider every bit i does research. If the research conducted is not played according to the rules inside the game, information technology will not earn this "insider/outsider" accreditation to the Western academic status quo, which itself remains basically an outsider to the African condition quo.2
Given the short background sketched in the preceding paragraphs, it makes sense that when 2 blackness male person academics persuaded me to prepare a paper on feminist theology, my first response would be negative. The fact that I am engaging a theme such as the present ane, gives the reader a small glimpse that since I presented my first paper on what I and so called Black feminist theology in 1991iii (Feminist Theology), ane never stopped reading, researching and writing on issues pertaining to African women's experiences in their interaction with the Christian Bible.
Given the preceding background on 1's insider/outsider condition within academia regarding the struggle to foreground Africa in one'south scholarly endeavours, the patriarchal contexts which have produced our theological offerings, the Eurocentric nature of theological instruction on the African continent (including in South Africa),4 the insider/outsider dynamics would besides characteristic in gender-conscious biblical hermeneutical frameworks. The preceding introduction was meant to show the links between the insider/outsider status of an African bookish both within the broader discourse of biblical scholarship and the specific discourse of gender-sensitive approaches to the Bible and Theology. Such a continuity is possible within an academic setting which continues to fix smashing store by Western (read: outsider) epistemologies and philosophies. Such a dependency syndrome by South African OT scholars was observed past Ferdinand Deist almost two decades ago when he lamented:
However, I must confess that I am sometimes irritated by a certain colonial inferiority complex that all the same haunts our academic work. This circuitous is best illustrated by a tendency in our piece of work to accept and follow without due critical cess every "latest tendency" from away as gospel for biblical interpretation. We are then decorated "keeping up with the Joneses" that we do not consciously ask ourselves whether what we are importing has any relevance whatsoever for our ain questions... Our inferiority complex makes it important for us to be "one upwardly" on our colleagues in the next congress. So we feverishly ride our individually imported hobby horses and memorise the latest jaw-breakers of our theory of biblical interpretation -only to lose sight of our continent and the contribution we can make from its perspective. 5
As it will exist hopefully revealed later in this article, it volition not exist an exaggeration to use the gist of what Deist says to the works of gender-sensitive scholars inside the circles of S African Old Testament (SAOT) scholarship. Despite the fact that feminist theology took root in South Africa in the early eighties, very few women (and men) seem to have been attracted to feminist/womanist/mujerisia/bosadi approaches to the Christian (Hebrew) Scriptures. A recent survey has too confirmed that on the whole, very few women scholars contribute their enquiry works to Former Attestation Essays which is a prestigious scholarly journal of the One-time Attestation Society of Southern Africa. Masenya [ngwan'a Mphahlele] and Ramantswana find: "S African scholarship is yet white male dominated as evidenced past the current membership of the OT and the outlook of staff in South African universities. The blackness female and male, and white female is still the 'other' in SAOT scholarship."6
Given the history of how Bible and Theology were taught in the South African past and fifty-fifty today, such a relatively low interest in the integration of gender within scholarly works comes every bit no surprise.
B SITUATING THE "CIRCLE" WITHIN THE DEBATE
The Circumvolve of Concerned African Women Theologians ("Circumvolve") was founded in Accra, Ghana by African women theologians. Most of the founding members were too members of the Ecumenical Association of Tertiary World Theologians (EATWORT). Having noted with business that inside EATWORT, women's experiences were not given the space which they deserved, the Circle foremothers under the leadership of Mercy Amba Oduyoye, founded the Circle in 1989. With the founding of the Circle, a forum was created in which African women theologians and biblical scholars of various religious traditions, could critically engage African women's varied experiences particularly in low-cal of African religious and cultural practices.
Since its inception, the Circle members have published many books. Some of the members accept published monographs and numerous scientific articles. Some of the SAOT scholars whose works will exist engaged with in the post-obit paragraphs, are Circumvolve members. Sarojini Nadar, one of them asked the following pertinent question at one of the SBL sessions in Washington, DC (2006): "Who, inside global scholarship read(due south) Circle works?" The preceding question begs attention inside the contend on insider/outsider dynamics as they are experienced past women scholars who operate mainly outside of mainstream gender-identified frameworks.7
Why? Enquiry has revealed that Western scholars basically do not refer or quote non-Western (read: African) canons. The preceding revelation was confirmed by my review of the twentieth ceremony edition of Women's Bible Commentary. I cited the example of HB womanist scholar, Renita Weems, whose framework is outside of mainstream feminist biblical hermeneutics. Most of the authors, who engaged some of the prophetic books, highlighted the problematic metaphor of Yahweh equally a faithful Hubby and State of israel every bit a disobedient married woman. They revealed the effects which such a metaphor had and continue to have on the lives of flesh and blood women. What I institute revealing is that despite the fact that Weems was ane of the earlier women scholars who engaged such metaphors, only one author, who is probably of African descent referred to Weems' work.
As previously mentioned, some of the women scholars whose works will exist engaged with in the present text are Circle members. The Circle, almost like South Africa's rainbow nation, comprises women of all races, Blackness/African, White, Coloured and Asiatic/Indian. In the context of the debate on insider/outsider dynamics, the following questions are worth asking: which female context qualifies as a legitimate context for interrogation past Circle theologians? May information technology be each woman's private context? Such a context will not merely do justice to the diversity of female experiences in South Africa, it volition likewise enrich various gender-witting frameworks both on the African continent and globally. Is the legitimate context of the Circle women'south interrogation that of the so-called "African women"? Why does at that place seem to exist a percep tion among Western or Western-identified8 scholars that the notion of readers' context should of necessity refer to an African context for example? Could it be that the Euro-American imperial context/culture is so universal that it defies naming or existence used as an object for research? Is this maybe the matter of the proverbial goat whose secrets are exposed with ease while the sheep's secrets remain hidden?9 Could the preceding observation be revealing that even within gender-sensitive advocacy scholarship, imperialism continues to thrive unsanctioned?
With the preceding brief Circle background in view, we now take a quick glance on the scholarship of six10 Southward African gender-sensitive OT scholars to come across which insider/outsider dynamics might be visible within some of their writings.
C Brief SKETCH OF THE WORKS OF GENDER-Conscious SAOT SCHOLARS
Frances Klopper embraces feminism as a framework within which she engages the HB. Her works on the springs and wells in the conceptual world of Israel through One iconography,11 desired and abhorred fountains,12 women, monotheism and the gender of God13 among others, bring an important and refreshing contribution to SAOT scholarship. Klopper as well engages themes such as lamentation, rape and the feminine portrayal of cities in the HB through a feminist lens in a bid to challenge patriarchy both within the biblical text and modern day readers' contexts.
Klopper'south scholarship, as is typical of mainstream feminist biblical scholarship, does not appear to foreground and appoint with a detail social location. The latter could be her social location as a white woman in Due south Africa with its divided racial history; or as a woman of Caucasian descent located within the African continent or as a white adult female located within a global white hegemonic civilisation. An important question to exist posed here is: What kind of insights could white women bring to the feminist global table if they had deliberately acknowledged their privileged socio-economic positions by challenging not only sexist ideologies but also classist and colonising ideologies within both biblical texts and readers' contexts? In my view, the scholar'southward deliberate appointment of her unique experiences within the Afrikaner civilisation could broaden and thus enrich her feminist contribution to SAOT scholarship.
In her earlier works, Sarojini Nadar embraces the Womanist framework within an Indian South African context.14 In other works though, Nadar claims her identity as an African woman and uses the experiences of African women as a hermeneutical lens through which to engage the HB. In her article titled, "Barak God and Die! Women, HIV and a theology of Suffering" Nadar chooses to proceed an ambivalence of the meaning of the Hebrew word barak (anoint or expletive), and uses African women's experiences as a hermeneutical lens through which to engage the theme of how non to talk most God in the midst of the challenge posed by HIV and AIDS.15 In later on writings, Nadar together with Phiri, utilise a "missiological feminist framework."16 In an earlier article though, Nadar had already interrogated and critiqued the example of the rape by Jacob Zuma within the context of the same framework.17 Having engaged pertinent issues such as dangerous fundamentalist readings of the Christian Bible and their adverse repercussions on women'south lives, the conspiracy of rape both inside the biblical text and in the lives of present day women,18 the challenge of HIV and AIDS amongst others, Nadar has in my view, made a much needed contribution to SAOT scholarship. Nevertheless, what would exist curious for the present appointment is Nadar'due south move from womanism through the "generalised" category of "African women," to a mainstream designation such equally "feminist." Could it be that hers has been a struggle to fit into the designation which albeit not necessarily sufficient for her Indian South African women'south context, would earn her credence within mainstream feminist discourses? Could it exist that in ane way or other, Nadar might exist struggling with the insider/outsider dynamics in her scholarship?
Having lived, studied and done inquiry in the United States for a number of years, the South African HB scholar, Juliana Claassens posed a question on how to situate herself in such a manner as to be faithful to her specific social location (cf. her native context such every bit Southward Africa) equally well as a 2d context such as the United States. Informed by such a dual, global location, Claassens employs a feminist lens to engage themes such every bit trauma, lamentation, gender-based violence19 in ways which affirm affected women. In her recently published piece of work, Claassens uses the feminine metaphors of God in order to foreground the experiences of modernistic day homo women in an assuring way.xx Charting a terrain of trauma and pain, one hardly addressed by SAOT scholarship, a needed terrain given non only the violent context which Due south Africa has get peculiarly postal service-1994, simply the deadly roads which our roads have get in recent years, Claassens'due south contributions to SAOT scholarship is a much needed breather. As an active fellow member of the Stellenbosch chapter of the Circumvolve, she has co-edited a volume with Stella Viljoen.21 The preceding volume reveals the authors' skilful intersection of gender, religion and popular civilization, all geared at affirming definitions of personhood. Claassens is one of the few white feminist biblical scholars who needs commendation for going beyond the category of gender, to include other pertinent categories such as race and class in her interaction with the HB text.
Not being comfy with Western-originated frameworks such as feminism and womanism, Makhosazana Nzimande has developed the Imbokodo 22 post-colonial, post-apartheid approach to the reading of the HB. In her doctoral thesis,23 Nzimande has used the imbokodo lens to engage the discipline of the gebbirah (queen mothers) in the HB. She investigates how helpful such a lens might be in doing biblical hermeneutics within the context in which blackness South African women are burdened by multiple factors such equally race, class, gender, geography, sexual orientation and empire. In an bookish setting in which white Eurocentric hegemonic civilization remains entrenched, within a country which has become an empire on the African continent,24 a scholarship such as Nzimande'due south, one which seeks to re-read the HB with a view to challenging multiple ideologies such as form, geography, race, gender, sexual orientation and empire amid others, tin only be a much needed contribution to the field.
Nzimande'due south boldness to choose a framework which, albeit non-mainstream, could in her view do justice to the experiences of black women in her social location, should be welcomed. She would probably have resonated with Okure's words that:
Our greatest, only not yet fully tapped resource, are these and so-chosen ordinary women. They are close to life at the grassroots; they encounter themselves in the texts of scripture and respect them as God's abiding discussion, sometimes too literally and in means that oppress than liberate them. The professionally trained African women theologians, on the other hand, tin be tempted to subscribe to abstract ways of theologizing in order to find acceptance in the field. Thus they can lose focus on life, or seek answers to hermeneutical questions put by others, instead of identifying and addressing their own questions. The sisterhood in reading is needed by all.25
Although Nzimande'south decision to seek answers for questions posed at her local context is commendable, within the context of insider/outsider dynamics, such a selection might be costly. Autonomously from criticisms which she might incur fifty-fifty from those of her own kind, is the possibility of a struggle to go upwardly bookish mobility due to the possibility of her canons failing to make sense to many a gate keeper.
She is one if not the just feminist scholar who works mostly with a volume which seems to be a no-go area for many a SAOT gender-witting scholar, the book of Judith. Helen Efthimiadis-Keith approaches the volume of Judith in a unique merely helpful mode, thus also bringing freshness to SAOT gender-witting scholarship. In her endeavor to engage patriarchy effectively, Efthimiadis-Keith employs in item the theories of Jung, the psychologist to investigate the "why" of patriarchy. In her view, the master challenge with patriarchy lies basically in the hurt and wounded male psyche. It is no wonder that she has opted for the psychoanalytic Jungian perspective to the reading of the book of Judith. For Efthimiadis-Keith, the volume of Judith functions equally a whole to stand for in a symbolic manner, the male psyche's fearfulness of castration, and the fear of the "other."26
In her article titled, "What Makes Men and Women Identify with Judith? A Jungian Mythological Perspective on the Feminist Value of Judith Today,"27 Efthimiadis-Keith engages the book of Judith in a way which may affirm both men and women. What inspired her to write the commodity was the amazingly positive response to the book by her African students. That Efthimiadis-Keith has made a major contribution to feminist hermeneutics with her book titled, "The Enemy is Within: A Jungian Psychoanalytic Arroyo to the Book of Judith"28 is without doubt. Yolande Steenkamp has captured the latter observation succinctly in her review of the book:
The author'due south approach is to be welcomed. Fresh and enthralling, information technology reads equally the opening of a beautifully wrapped souvenir, introducing every graphic symbol of the narrative afresh with the untying of every bow. Not simply does the author addresses the main inquiry problems of Judith, making marked contributions to the discussion from a distinctly different approach, but she also manages to sweep the reader along on a journey through the strangely enigmatic hills and valleys of the human psyche. Encountering Judith and its characters through the optics of Jung, the reader simultaneously encounters his/her own being and state of development. Putting the book down, the reader has grown in knowledge, understanding and (write it!) consciousness: of Judith, of him/herself, and even of the author, who presents herself openly as role of the research procedure. A fascinating read.29
Although the unique contribution of Efthimiadis-Keith in challenging the evil of patriarchy needs to exist lauded, 1 wonders how effective her contribution on a book such as Judith might be in a conservative grassroots context in which such books are either given second class status or no condition at all. Another question worth asking is: is the consciousness which the oppressor or oppressed come to gain after analysing a book such as Judith, only restricted to patriarchy? Within such a consciousness, is there room given to the multiple forms of domination bothering more often than not, the historically marginalised, that is, those who are located on the less advantaged parts of the world?
As nosotros introduce her narrative, we recall the proverbial apocryphal horns which cannot stick on a dissimilar head. Initially, later on becoming attracted to women's liberationist theologies through reading feminist resources, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele) underwent her first surgery and came out carrying feminist horns. In her connected research on gender problems, she came to realise that African American women clear their own experiences uniquely through their womanist framework. She noticed then that sooner rather than later, another surgical functioning would be needed. Why? The African American women's situation appeared to exist closer to that of African-South African women in terms of addressing bug of form and race. Her surgical procedures were prompted by her desire to name herself in line with her insider condition within an African context. While at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary every bit a visiting scholar, she became aware that despite the close points of resemblance between African American Womanism and what might exist an African-South African gender-sensitive biblical hermeneutical framework, Womanism was still uniquely African American. On business relationship of the latter discovery, and Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele)'s commitment to make "Africa" a hermeneutical focus30 in her interaction with the biblical text, she decided to name her framework a bosadi (womanhood) approach to the reading of biblical texts. Inside the latter framework, she has attempted to redefine what it means/ought to hateful to exist a woman inside an African-South African context. Her terminal session of surgery enabled her to put on horns which would in her view, for the offset time hopefully stick.31
Although her primary hermeneutical focus is the experiences of African-South African women, the bosadi concept was adult non only with national and continental concerns in mind, only also with global concerns. The word mosadi does not but occur in the Northern Sotho setting, it also occurs, though in different words, in other South African indigenous languages such as in the following examples: wansati (Xitsonga); umfazi (isiZulu); musadzi (Tshivenda); mosadi (Setswana and Sesotho).32 Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele) has deliberately made the African-South African women'southward context the main hermeneutical focus past using a familiar word, a male-construct,33 in her desire, to kickoff and foremost be committed to her own context, responding to questions asked first and foremost inside her ain context.34
Information technology tin exist argued that the major hermeneutical focus of the bosadi biblical hermeneutic is the unique experiences of an African-South African woman with a view to her emancipation. Information technology is get-go and foremost, an African gender sensitive hermeneutic. African women, facing such multiple life-denying forces such as sexism in the broader Due south African society which was exacerbated by the legacies of colonialism and apartheid, sexism in the African and broader South African culture, post-apartheid racism, classism, HIV and AIDS, xenophobia among others, are made the main hermeneutical foci. Using the bosadi approach, Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele) has re-read numerous HB texts including the book of Proverbs, Ruth, Genesis, Esther, Judges, Jeremiah and Job. She argues that she has had a constant taste of the bosadi framework beingness excluded from amongst other (mainstream?) gender-conscious hermeneutic frameworks as well equally the gustation of unwarranted criticism confronting the bosadi concept.35 She has also had a taste of witnessing emerging African women scholars who comprehend the bosadi concept every bit they found it to exist more relevant to the women'southward experiences in their own local contexts. She is able to navigate through all these, aware of her insider/outsider status within what in her view, continues to remain a "foreign" home front end.
D Determination
From the preceding engagement, information technology has hopefully get clear that the situation of a gender-conscious bookish with an insider/outsider condition, is reminiscent to that of a royal moo-cow. Damned if i accompanies such a cow and equally dammed if ane leaves it unattended. Choosing non to mimic mainstream gender-sensitive frameworks but to develop own home-grown, home-friendly frameworks, ones which would showtime requite priority to the needs of local women, will naturally come with a price, a price so high that one might struggle to gain upward academic mobility. However for activist scholars like gender-sensitive scholars, charity of necessity has to begin at home, particularly given the historical deprivation of such home fronts. At the same time, one cannot work in isolation in a global village. Forming synergies as gender-conscious biblical scholars, with a commitment to learning from each other irrespective of how developed (or not) our native continents are deemed to exist, can simply bear witness helpful according to the wisdom underlying the proverbial mitt which washes the other. The following questions are worth asking though: in our unequal global contexts where specific philosophies, epistemologies and frameworks have historically shaped and continue to shape knowledge in all its multifacetedness, a context in which knowledge productions from other continents accept been and go along to be marginalised, i where other scholars appear to be destined to be perpetual consumers of what they take non produced, could a daring scholar's urge for innovation and originality be entertained and nurtured? Could such an urge flourish? Answering the preceding questions in the affirmative should non have an effort for justice-seeking, gender-sensitive, margins-witting biblical scholars.
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Claassens, L. Juliana Thou. and Stella Viljoen, eds. Sacred Selves: Essays on Gender, Religion & Popular Civilisation. Greatcoat Town: Griffel, 2012. [ Links ]
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Efthimiadis-Keith, Helen. "Judith: Lorena Bobbit of Yesteryear? A Psychoanalytical Perspective on the Book of Judith According to the Castration Complex." Scriptum lxx (1999): 211-228. [ Links ]
_____. "What Makes Men and Women Identify with Judith? A Jungian Mythological Perspective on the Feminist Value of Judith Today." HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 68/ane (2012). Fine art. #1267, nine pages. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v68il.1267. [ Links ]
_____. The Enemy is Within: A Jungian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Book of Judith. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005. [ Links ]
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_____. "Women, Monotheism and the Gender of God." In die Skriflig 36 (2002): 421-437. [ Links ]
_____. "Springs and Wells in the Conceptual World of State of israel through Ancient Nigh Eastern Iconography." Pages 225-238 in Stimulation from Leiden: Collected Communications to the XVIIIth Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the One-time Attestation, Leiden 2004. Edited by Hermann G. Niemann and Matthias Augustin. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2006. [ Links ]
_____. "Oë in die Wildernes. Putte en fonteine in die ikonografie van dice ou Nabye Ooste." Journal for semitics thirteen/2(2004): 286-313. [ Links ]
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Masenya (ngwana' Mphahlele), Madipoane. "Teaching Western-Oriented Old Attestation Studies to African Students: An Exercise in Wisdom or in Folly?" Former Testament Essays 17/3 (2004): 455-469. [ Links ]
_____. How Worthy is the Adult female of Worth? Proverbs 31:10-13 in an African-South African Context. Peter Lang: New York, 2004. [ Links ]
_____. "An African Methodology for S African Biblical Sciences: Revisiting the Bosadi (Womanhood) Arroyo." Old Testament Essays 18/three (2005): 741-751. [ Links ]
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_____. "'Barak God and Dice!' Women, HIV and a Theology of Suffering." Pages 60-79 in Grant Me justice: HIV/AIDS & Gender Readings of the Bible. Edited past Musa Westward. Dube and Musimbi R. Kanyoro. Orbis Books: Maryknoll, 2004. [ Links ]
_____. "'Texts of Terror': The Conspiracy of Rape in the Bible, Church and Club: The Case of Esther 2:1-18." Pages 77-95 in African Women, Religion and Health: Essays in Honor of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye. Edited past Isabel A. Phiri and Sarojini Nadar. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2006. [ Links ]
_____. "Toward a Feminist Missiological Agenda: A Case Study of the Jacob Zuma Rape Trial." Missionalia 37/1 (2009): 85-102. [ Links ]
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Steenkamp, Yolande. Review of Helen Efthimiadis-Keith, The Enemy is Inside: A Jungian Psychoanalytic Arroyo to the Book of Judith. Quondam Testament Essays xix/ane (2006): 337-366. [ Links ]
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Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele)
University of Southward Africa, Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies
P O Box 392, 0003, Unisa, RSA
one The Northern Sotho proverb says: dinaka t š a become rweswa ga di gomarele hlogo (apocryphal horns cannot stick permanently on a different head). The saying'due south pregnant is: attempts at imitating others, nevertheless excellent they might be, will prove inefficient on business relationship of their simulated nature.
2 Masenya (ngwana' Mphahlele), "Teaching Western-Oriented Quondam Testament Studies to African Students: An Exercise in Wisdom or in Folly?," OTE 17/3 (2004): 460.
3 Masenya, Madipoane J. "A Feminist Perspective on Theology with Particular Reference to Black Feminist Theology." Scripturci 49 (1994): 64-74.
4 In this regard, Thiam et al. remark: "If Africa is to be rehabilitated in its historical role, if African Christians are to develop their confidence as citizens of a continent where Christianity has a future, there is a thorough-going work to be done. African theologians must end begging for European books which have been written for empty pulpits, and by authors virtually of whom no longer fix foot in a church. If African theologians are to make a commitment today to invest themselves in the evangelisation of the continent, to make their contribution to universal theology, and to comprehend their history which notwithstanding needs to be rewritten, and then they need to get to work." See Jean Pierre Thiam et al., "Moving Forward in Hope: What Prospects for Theological Education," MF 98-99 (2002): 58
5 Ferdinand East. Deist, "South African Sometime Testament Studies and the Future," OTE 5 (1992): 315-316.
six Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele) and Hulisana Ramantswana, "Anything New Nether the Sun of Old Attestation Scholarship? African Qoheleths' Review of OTE 1994-2010," OTE 25/three (2010): 598-637.
seven Refer to a chapter by Isabel A. Phiri and Sarojini Nadar on the naming of various gender-conscious frameworks within Circumvolve scholarship: Come across Isabel A. Phiri and Sarojini Nadar, "Introduction: 'Treading Softy but Firmly,'" in African Women, Religion, and Health: Essays in Honor of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye (ed. Isabel A. Phiri and Sarojini Nadar; Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2006), 1-xvi
eight Such a perception seems to exist among the scholars irrespective of whether they are physically located in the West or not.
9 The Northern Sotho proverb, O se os t š a bopucli magakala, t š a bonku di bipilwe ka mesela, literally, "practice not exist amazed when yous wait at those which belong to the goats when they are exposed, those which belong to the sheep, are too there, however, they are subconscious beneath the(ir) tails)." The tenor of the saying reveals that it is fine to betrayal the secrets of those who are powerless; information technology is only the powerful, who must exist spared embarrassment through their secrets in tact.
10 The present section is not meant to review the scholars' works as a whole, neither is it meant to ignore the works of emerging scholars within the field of Southward African OT gender-conscious scholarship. Within the infinite constraints of the present commodity, the survey is meant to give the readers a brief glimpse into the gender-identified frameworks within which the scholars operate in a bid to reveal how the dynamics of insider/outsider are played out in their works.
11 Frances Klopper, "Springs and Wells in the Conceptual World of Israel through Ancient Near Eastern Iconography," in Stimulation from Leiden: Collected Communications to the XVIIIth Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testamen t, Leiden 2004 (ed. Hermann M. Niemann and Matthias Augustin; Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2006), 225-238. See also her "Oë in dice Wildernis. Putte en fonteine in die Ikonografie van dice Ou Nabye Ooste." Journal for Semitics 13/2 (2004): 286-313.
12 Frances Klopper, "The Rhetoric of Alien Metaphors: A Fountain Desired in the Vocal of Songs just Abhorred in Leviticus," OTE 15 (2002): 675-686.
thirteen Frances Klopper, "Women, Monotheism and the Gender of God," IDS 36 (2002): 421-437.
14 Sarojini Nadar. "A Due south African Indian Womanist Reading of the Graphic symbol of Ruth," in Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (ed. Musa W. Dube; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature / Geneva: WCC Publications, 2000),159-175.
xv Sarojini Nadar, '"Barak God and Die!' Women, HIV and a Theology of Suffering," in Grant Me justice: HIV/AIDS & Gender Readings of the Bible (ed. Musa W. Dube and Musimbi R. Kanyoro; Orbis Books: Maryknoll, 2004), 60-79.
16 Isabel Phiri and Sarojini Nadar use indigenous resources to critique patriarchy in the context of HIV and AIDS. In their delivery to come up up with a transformative research, they are of the opinion that the inquiry practise tin can serve equally an instrument for mission. Cf. Isabel A. Phiri and Sarojini Nadar, "Talking Back to Religion and HIV & AIDS Using an African Feminist Missiological Framework: Sketching the Contours of the Conversation" (paper read at the Ph.D Seminar, University of Oslo, 2010). A question to be asked is: how convincing is the scholars' choice of the contested term "missiological" especially within an African context? Likewise, in their delivery to go indigenous resources in the fight confronting HIV and AIDS, could using a Western designation such as "feminist" for their framework fit the purpose?
17 Sarojini Nadar, "Toward a Feminist Missiological Agenda: A Case Study of the Jacob Zuma Rape Trial," Missionalia 37/1 (2009): 85-102.
eighteen Sarojini Nadar '"Texts of Terror' : The Conspiracy of Rape in the Bible, Church and Society: The Case of Esther ii:1-eighteen." Pages 77-95 in African Women, Organized religion and Health: Essays in Honor of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye. Edited by Isabel A. Phiri and Sarojini Nadar. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2006
nineteen L. Juliana Grand. Claassens, "Breaking the Silence virtually Gender Violence? In Conversation with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," in Sacred Selves: Essays on Gender, Religion & Popular Civilization (ed. 50. Juliana Thou. Claassens and Stella Viljoen; Cape Town: Griffel, 2012), 1-46.
xx 50. Juliana M. Claassens, Mourner Mother Midwife: Reclaiming God'south Delivering Presence in the Quondam Testament (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press), 2012.
21 L. Juliana Thou. Claassens and Stella Viljoen, eds., Sacred Selves: Essays on Gender, Religion & Popular Culture (Cape Town: Griffel, 2012).
22 In the Southward African political history, the popular expression in the affirmation of black women was: wa sparse ta abafazi, wa thin ta' imbokodo (t š hilo), o zu ku fa! Its literal pregnant is: strike a woman, y'all strike a stone (imbokodo), and yous will die! According to Nzimande, "Imbokodo was an important commodity in traditional Zulu African homesteads and villages, and then often utilized on a day-to-day ground that it could not exist loaned to neighbours... Without imbokodo there is no food in a traditional African household." Meet Makhosazana K. Nzimande, "The Gebirah in the Hebrew Bible in the Light of Queen Jezebel and the Queen Mother of Lemuel," (Ph.D diss., Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, 2005), 22. In claiming a discussion that designates the important function of women's work for the survival of black families for her gender-sensitive framework, in my view, Nzimande is affirming the bureau of black women themselves towards their well-being in the mail service-colonial, mail service-apartheid South African context.
23 Nzimande, "The Gebirah."
24 President Jacob Zuma'due south recent unfortunate remark about the Malawian "African" roads (which in his view, cannot compare with the "decent" South African roads) is i amidst many remarks birthed past an imperialist attitude of many a South African persons towards other countries on the continent in which Due south Africa is but a part, the African continent.
25 Teresa Okure, "Invitation to African Women's Hermeneutical Concerns," AJBS xix/ii (2003): 74.
26 Helen Efthimiadis-Keith, "Judith: Lorena Bobbit of Yesteryear? A Psychoanalytical Perspective on the Volume of Judith According to the Castration Complex," Scriptum lxx (1999): 211.
27 Helen Efthimiadis-Keith, "What Makes Men and Women Identify with Judith? A Jungian Mythological Perspective on the Feminist Value of Judith Today," HTS 68/1 (2012); Fine art. Fine art. #1267, ix pages. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v68il.1267.
28 Helen Efthimiadis-Keith, The Enemy is Within: A Jungicin Psychoanalytic Approach to the Book of Judith (Boston: Brill Bookish Publishers, 2005).
29 Yolande Steenkamp, review of Helen Efthimiadis-Keith, The Enemy is Within: A Jungian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Book of Judith, OTE 19/1 (2006): 337-366).
xxx In the light of this preoccupation with Africa and its concerns, it becomes a misunderstanding to regard the bosadi approach every bit a local arroyo, restricted just to the Northern Sotho. Run across Sarojini Nadar, "A South African," 159-175; Tinyiko S. Maluleke "African 'Ruths,' Ruthless Africas: Reflections of an African Mordecai," in Other Means of Reading: African Women and the Bible (ed. Musa W. Dube: Atlanta: SBL / Geneva: WCC Publications, 2001), 237-251. Although the Northern Sotho African-South African context serves equally betoken of departure within the bosadi framework, Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele)'s goal was to include other African-South African contexts. The latter, would as well not be far-fetched compared to other African contexts elsewhere on the continent.
31 Madipoane Masenya (ngwana' Mphahlele), "An African Methodology for South African Biblical Sciences: Revisiting the Bosadi (Womanhood) Approach," OTE eighteen/3 (2005): 744-45.
32 Masenya (ngwana' Mphahlele), How Worthy is the Woman of Worth? Proverbs 31:10-xiii in an African-Southward African Context (Peter Lang: New York, 2004), 122.
33 Come across Maluleke, "African 'Ruths,'" 243-244. Although Maluleke is correct in arguing that the bosadi concept is a male-construct, I find this to be an unfortunate criticism given the patriarchal history which has shaped the languages of the world. I am not aware of whatever words used to designate women for example, "woman," "feminine" and "female person" which were originally coined by women. In the lite of such a history, I take employed this male-constructed terminology, and redefined information technology, to affirm those who take not only been named, but those whose roles have been divers and prescribed by outsiders to their gender. See Masenya (ngwana' Mphahlele), How Worthy?, 122-158.
34 Deist, "Due south African," 315-316; Okure,"Invitation," 74
35 Refer to Phiri and Nadar, "Introduction,"' 16; Gloria K. Plaatjie, "Toward a Post-Apartheid Black Feminist Reading of the Bible: A Case of Luke ii:36-38," in Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (ed. Musa West. Dube; Atlanta: SBL / Geneva: WCC Publications, 2001), 114-142. Maluleke's remarks to such critiques are instructive: "It is my reticence that Masenya's proposal, although non always argued well and often misunderstood, blazes a new trail and holds smashing potential for future African hermeneutics. Unlike many critiques of Masenya, my reticence near bosadi has little to practice with its ethnic tenor. Bosadi is no more 'indigenous' than Alice Walker's womanism or Oduyoye'south bold and otherwise preposterous declaration that all African women are 'daughters of Anowa,' an Akan woman. It is inadequate and ineffectual to engage Masenya at this level." Maluleke "African 'Ruths,'" 243.
Source: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1010-99192014000100011
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