"And the rulers of the nations shall bring their treasures into it": A Review of Biblical Exegesis in Africa

Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2006 by LeMarquand, Grant

As well as the quest to find answers for Africa in the light of the biblical text, another approach often found in studies by African scholars is the attempt to understand a biblical text in the light of Africa. African scholars have often asserted that since the cultures of Africa have more in common with the Bible than the cultures of the Western world, Africans have an access to the text that many Western readers do not have.16 During my years of teaching in Africa I certainly found it to be true that the first-hand understanding of circumcision rites, sacrificial rituals, the making of blood covenants, the belief in the proximity of the spiritual world of dreams and vision, of exorcism and healing, the reality of polygamy and levirate marriage-all made the text of the Bible a more easily accessible reality for African theological students than it was for students in the Western world.

An excellent example of the attempt to clarify the meaning of a biblical text by reference to a parallel in the African context is the Roman Catholic Nigerian Justin Ukpong's study of Luke 16:1-13.17 Ukpong argues that an examination of this parable by Jesus, often described as "puzzling, mystifying, and unedifying,"18 only appears this way because the reader has been conditioned to identify the rich man in the parable with God. However, in this story the rich man is clearly called unjust. In contrast to the usual reading Ukpong argues that seeing the story in the light of "exploited peasant fanners of West Africa as well as the concerns of the international debt burden of the TwoThirds World"19 produces quite a different reading. On this reading, "the manager of the estate is not the villain he is often thought to be, but the hero of the story, for having acted on behalf of the exploited peasant farmers."20

Another fascinating recent study is by Sammy Githuku, an Anglican priest who teaches in Limnni, Kenya. Githuku examines 2 Samuel 24:1-10 and asks a question that few other readers have been able to answer effectively: "Why does David feel guilty for counting his soldiers?" Verse 10, for example, says that Davids "conscience is stricken," that he admits his "sin," his "guilt," and his "foolishness" in taking this action of counting. Githuku argues that in his own culture (he is a Kikuyu from central Kenya) there are traditional taboos around counting livestock and even family members. He suggests that some similar taboo may have weighed on David's conscience.21 If Githuku s reading is correct, Africa has helped us to read a text which otherwise would have been difficult to understand.

Many of these short studies by African scholars are unknown in the West because they are published in Africa and few Western libraries have purchased these materials. As well as the Proceedings from PACE mentioned above, those interested in African biblical studies should see The African jonnwl of Biblical Studies, published by the Nigerian Association for Biblical Studies (NABIS). NABIS has also published a series of essay collections in their Biblical Studies Series which includes the following volumes under the general editorship of S. O. Abogunrin: Biblical Studies and Women Issue in Soutli Africa (2003), Christology in African Context (2003), and Decolonization of Biblical Interpretation in Africa (2005). Acton Publishers in Nairobi is now producing a series of volumes entitled Biblical Studies in African Scholarship, the latest volume of which is Interacting with Scriptures in Africa, edited by Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole and Ernst R. Wendland (2005).