Ujamaa Centre Related Publications by Gerald O West
Going the Extra Mile: Reflections on Biblical Studies in Africa and the Contributions of Joachim Kügler, 2024
In honouring both Joachim Kügler’s commitment to biblical scholarship
and to African contexts, th... more In honouring both Joachim Kügler’s commitment to biblical scholarship
and to African contexts, this essay reflects on the Ujamaa Centre’s work
over more than twenty-five years with organised communities of those living with disability. The essay follows the See-Judge-Act process, so familiar to Kügler, beginning with See: the reality of those living with disability in South Africa (and further north in the continent). The essay then turns to actual biblical text (Judge), from three different perspectives. First, I reflect on texts used against those living with disability, recognising a pervasive voice in scripture which discriminates against and stigmatises those living with disability. Second, I reflect on texts selected by those living with disability as potentially useful resources in their struggle for a full and dignified life. Third, I reflect on the kind of Bible that these two trajectories evidence, a Bible that is inherently a site of struggle with respect to disability – a disabled Bible. Fourth, the essay also reflects on the pervasive interlocking theological system of retribution that stigmatises, discriminates, and condemns those living with disability, alongside their HIV-positive, unemployed, and queer compatriots. Finally, the Act component of the essay reflects on the ongoing work of the Ujamaa Centre in this area and the kinds of actions particular organised groups of people living with disability take up.
While Volume I of Health-Promoting Churches provides health education on several health issues, i... more While Volume I of Health-Promoting Churches provides health education on several health issues, including suggestions for practical actions, and Volume II provides a framework for establishing programmatically strong health promotion ministries, this third volume accompanies churches in their in-depth reflection on difficult health. issues. The WCC has previously used the Contextual Bible Study methodology to good effect in helping churches address various challenging issues.1 The participatory way in which this manual was developed has ensured that various voices and experiences are represented, enriching the publication for a global audience. These contextual Bible studies will accompany churches into deeper reflection on often difficult health issues in the context of the Ecumenical Global Health Strategy, the health-related expression of WCC’s Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.
Ta vare: En bok om diakoni, sjelesorg og eksistensiell helse, 2022
In this article we reflect on a participatory process in which Bible study resources have been co... more In this article we reflect on a participatory process in which Bible study resources have been constructed to address the realities of health and healing around the world. The project on which our article reflects was initiated by the Health and Healing Programme of the World Council of Churches. Contextual Bible study is a powerful tool for accompanying and equipping local congregations to re-frame their faith in these changing global and local contexts.
Religion, Patriarchy, and Empire, 2021
It was clear in the struggle against apartheid that there was
nothing about the race-based system... more It was clear in the struggle against apartheid that there was
nothing about the race-based system of ‘separate development’
that should be salvaged. Apartheid as a system must be
abolished; there was no room for apartheid being reformed.
“Phansi apartheid! Phansi!” meant precisely this. Should the
same be said about patriarchy? Does “Phansi patriarchy!
Phansi” mean that patriarchy as a system must be abolished?
That All May Live! Essays in Honour of Nyambura J. Njoroge, 2021
Contextual Bible Study as it has developed within the Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and... more Contextual Bible Study as it has developed within the Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and Research over the past thirty years has been focussed on systemic change. Contextual Bible Study (CBS) has
been formed in the intersections of South African Contextual Theology, South African Black Theology, and African Women’s Theology. What is common to these forms of African theology is that they are all committed
to systemic or structural analysis and change. What the South African Kairos Document (Kairos 1985) referred to as “Church Theology” has its focus on individual and personal change, while what the Kairos Document
referred to as “Prophetic Theology” has its focus on structural or systemic change. CBS Prophetic Theology, but it is a form of Prophetic Theology that is produced by collaboration between ordinary African Christians and
socially engaged African biblical scholars and theologians. It is how Prophetic Theology is produced that makes it Prophetic Theology. In this essay,
which is dedicated to the life and work of one of the champions of Contextual Bible Study, Nyambura J. Njoroge, I will discuss the significance of ‘how’ theology is done, and why the process of doing Prophetic
Theology offers resources for forms of interpretive resilience.
Concilium, 2020
Genesis is the starting point for an African queer biblical trajectory in this
article. Locating ... more Genesis is the starting point for an African queer biblical trajectory in this
article. Locating queer African bodies as subjects of interpretation of the
Bible, this article demonstrates how the book of Genesis has been used
within actual African contexts to recognize a queer trajectory in scripture.
The Bible, we argue, is a site of struggle, with contending trajectories/
voices, some of which are queer, particularly when read from LGBTIQA+
African social locations.
Th ere is a long history of collaboration between "popular" or "contextual" forms of biblical int... more Th ere is a long history of collaboration between "popular" or "contextual" forms of biblical interpretation between Brazil and South Africa, going back into the early 1980s. Th ough there are signifi cant diff erences between these forms of Bible "reading", there are values and processes that cohere across these contexts, providing an integrity to such forms of Bible reading. Th is article refl ects on the values and processes that may be discerned across the Brazilian and South African interpretive practices aft er more than thirty years of conversation across these contexts.
Uploads
Ujamaa Centre Related Publications by Gerald O West
and to African contexts, this essay reflects on the Ujamaa Centre’s work
over more than twenty-five years with organised communities of those living with disability. The essay follows the See-Judge-Act process, so familiar to Kügler, beginning with See: the reality of those living with disability in South Africa (and further north in the continent). The essay then turns to actual biblical text (Judge), from three different perspectives. First, I reflect on texts used against those living with disability, recognising a pervasive voice in scripture which discriminates against and stigmatises those living with disability. Second, I reflect on texts selected by those living with disability as potentially useful resources in their struggle for a full and dignified life. Third, I reflect on the kind of Bible that these two trajectories evidence, a Bible that is inherently a site of struggle with respect to disability – a disabled Bible. Fourth, the essay also reflects on the pervasive interlocking theological system of retribution that stigmatises, discriminates, and condemns those living with disability, alongside their HIV-positive, unemployed, and queer compatriots. Finally, the Act component of the essay reflects on the ongoing work of the Ujamaa Centre in this area and the kinds of actions particular organised groups of people living with disability take up.
nothing about the race-based system of ‘separate development’
that should be salvaged. Apartheid as a system must be
abolished; there was no room for apartheid being reformed.
“Phansi apartheid! Phansi!” meant precisely this. Should the
same be said about patriarchy? Does “Phansi patriarchy!
Phansi” mean that patriarchy as a system must be abolished?
been formed in the intersections of South African Contextual Theology, South African Black Theology, and African Women’s Theology. What is common to these forms of African theology is that they are all committed
to systemic or structural analysis and change. What the South African Kairos Document (Kairos 1985) referred to as “Church Theology” has its focus on individual and personal change, while what the Kairos Document
referred to as “Prophetic Theology” has its focus on structural or systemic change. CBS Prophetic Theology, but it is a form of Prophetic Theology that is produced by collaboration between ordinary African Christians and
socially engaged African biblical scholars and theologians. It is how Prophetic Theology is produced that makes it Prophetic Theology. In this essay,
which is dedicated to the life and work of one of the champions of Contextual Bible Study, Nyambura J. Njoroge, I will discuss the significance of ‘how’ theology is done, and why the process of doing Prophetic
Theology offers resources for forms of interpretive resilience.
article. Locating queer African bodies as subjects of interpretation of the
Bible, this article demonstrates how the book of Genesis has been used
within actual African contexts to recognize a queer trajectory in scripture.
The Bible, we argue, is a site of struggle, with contending trajectories/
voices, some of which are queer, particularly when read from LGBTIQA+
African social locations.
and to African contexts, this essay reflects on the Ujamaa Centre’s work
over more than twenty-five years with organised communities of those living with disability. The essay follows the See-Judge-Act process, so familiar to Kügler, beginning with See: the reality of those living with disability in South Africa (and further north in the continent). The essay then turns to actual biblical text (Judge), from three different perspectives. First, I reflect on texts used against those living with disability, recognising a pervasive voice in scripture which discriminates against and stigmatises those living with disability. Second, I reflect on texts selected by those living with disability as potentially useful resources in their struggle for a full and dignified life. Third, I reflect on the kind of Bible that these two trajectories evidence, a Bible that is inherently a site of struggle with respect to disability – a disabled Bible. Fourth, the essay also reflects on the pervasive interlocking theological system of retribution that stigmatises, discriminates, and condemns those living with disability, alongside their HIV-positive, unemployed, and queer compatriots. Finally, the Act component of the essay reflects on the ongoing work of the Ujamaa Centre in this area and the kinds of actions particular organised groups of people living with disability take up.
nothing about the race-based system of ‘separate development’
that should be salvaged. Apartheid as a system must be
abolished; there was no room for apartheid being reformed.
“Phansi apartheid! Phansi!” meant precisely this. Should the
same be said about patriarchy? Does “Phansi patriarchy!
Phansi” mean that patriarchy as a system must be abolished?
been formed in the intersections of South African Contextual Theology, South African Black Theology, and African Women’s Theology. What is common to these forms of African theology is that they are all committed
to systemic or structural analysis and change. What the South African Kairos Document (Kairos 1985) referred to as “Church Theology” has its focus on individual and personal change, while what the Kairos Document
referred to as “Prophetic Theology” has its focus on structural or systemic change. CBS Prophetic Theology, but it is a form of Prophetic Theology that is produced by collaboration between ordinary African Christians and
socially engaged African biblical scholars and theologians. It is how Prophetic Theology is produced that makes it Prophetic Theology. In this essay,
which is dedicated to the life and work of one of the champions of Contextual Bible Study, Nyambura J. Njoroge, I will discuss the significance of ‘how’ theology is done, and why the process of doing Prophetic
Theology offers resources for forms of interpretive resilience.
article. Locating queer African bodies as subjects of interpretation of the
Bible, this article demonstrates how the book of Genesis has been used
within actual African contexts to recognize a queer trajectory in scripture.
The Bible, we argue, is a site of struggle, with contending trajectories/
voices, some of which are queer, particularly when read from LGBTIQA+
African social locations.
each of the two variant accounts in the MT and the two variant accounts in the LXX. Having identified these four variant narratives, literary-narrative analysis is used in order to delimit an economic narrative remnant (1 Ki 12:1–18, 2 Chr 10:1–18, 3 Reigns 12:1–18, and 3 Reigns 12:24p-t), with a special emphasis on 3 Reigns 12:24p-t. The article then turns to a
preliminary socio-historical ideo-theological analysis of 3 Reigns 12:24p-t, in order tosituate this variant remnant socio-historically. Finally, the article argues that this particular economic-oriented remnant narrative (3 Reigns 12;24p-t) provides critical resources with which to engage aspects of South Africa’s contemporary post-colonial economic struggle.
As I have reflected on work that was done during the 1980-90s in South African Black Theology and South African Contextual Theology I have become more and more sure that the notion of the Bible as ‘a site of struggle’ is crucial to our contemporary South African context. I have begun, therefore, to work on a series of papers, articles, and essays that will be reworked into a book. The De Carle Distinguished Lectureship at the University of Otago gives me an opportunity to explore the shape of such a book. The book will be published internationally by Brill (Leiden, the Netherlands) and in South Africa by Cluster Publications.
“The Bible as a site of struggle” allows me to bring my biblical scholarship work and my community-based activist work together. The Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and Research, established in the late 1980s as part of the struggle against apartheid, is the site of much of my work, intersecting the academy and the community. After nearly thirty years of work with the Ujamaa Centre I have recognised more clearly what it is that our work with the Bible offers to local communities of the poor and marginalised. Central to what we offer is a participatory praxis in which we work with the Bible as ‘a site of struggle’ – of multiple, often contending ideo-theological voices. Working with a Bible that is ‘a site of struggle’ offers forms of interpretive resilience to poor and marginalised communities who are often stigmatised and victimised by dominant monovocal appropriations of the Bible. In this lecture series I will reflect on both the academic and community dimensions of this work.
distinctive features of African biblical scholarship. The first form
of entanglement is African biblical scholarship’s entanglement
with the colonial realities that brought the Bible to Sub-Saharan
Africa. The second form of entanglement is an intentional
ideo-theological dialogue between African contexts and biblical
texts. African biblical scholarship is only accountable, this article
argues, in so far as it engages directly with these forms of
entanglement.
The Stolen Bible emphasises African agency and distinguishes between African receptions of the Bible and African receptions of missionary-colonial Christianity.
Through a series of detailed historical, geographical, and hermeneutical case-studies the book analyses Southern African receptions of the Bible, including the earliest African encounters with the Bible, the translation of the Bible into an African language, the appropriation of the Bible by African Independent Churches, the use of the Bible in the
Black liberation struggle, and the ways in which the Bible is embodied in the lives of ordinary Africans.
The Bible has the unfortunate legacy of being associated with gross human rights violations as evident in the scriptural justification of apartheid in South Africa as well as slavery in the American South. What is more, the Hebrew Bible also contains numerous instances in which the worth or dignity of the female characters are threatened, violated or potentially violated, creating a situation of dehumanization in which women are viewed as less than fully human.
And yet the Bible continues to serve as a source of inspiration for readers committed to justice and liberation for all. But in order for the Bible to speak a liberative word, what is necessary is to cultivate liberating Bible reading practices rooted in justice and compassion. Restorative Readings seeks to do exactly this when the authors in their respective readings seek to cultivate Bible reading practices that are committed to restoring the dignity of those whose dignity has been violated by means of racial, gender, and sexual discrimination, by the atrocities of apartheid, by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and by the dehumanizing reality of unemployment and poverty.