Postcoloniality, Translation, and the Bible in Africa

by Musa W. Dube (Editor), R. S. Wafula (Editor)

Overview

This book is critically important for Bible translation theorists, postcolonial scholars, church leaders, and the general public interested in the history, politics, and nature of Bible translation work in Africa. It is also useful to students of gender studies, political science, biblical studies, and history-of-colonization studies. The book catalogs the major work that has been undertaken by African scholars. This work critiques and contests colonial Bible translation narratives by privileging the importance African oral vitality in rewriting the meaning of biblical texts in the African sociopolitical, political, and cultural contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498295154
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	07/14/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	236
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Musa W. Dube is Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Botswana. She is the author or editor of a number of books, including Postcolonial Perspectives in African Biblical Interpretation (coeditor, 2012) and The HIV & AIDS Bible (2008).

R. S. Wafula is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He is the author of Biblical Representations of Moab (2014), a coeditor of The Postcolonial Church (2016), and the coauthor with Joseph Duggan of Knowledge Activism beyond Theory (forthcoming).

Table of Contents

List of Contributors ix

Acknowledgments xi

Abbreviations xii

Introduction: Silenced Nights, Bible Translation and the African Contact Zones Musa W. Dube xiii

Part I The Colonial Discourse and African Bible Translations

1 Consuming A Colonial Cultural Bomb: Translating "Badimo" into "Demons" in Setswana Bible Musa W. Dube 3

2 Postcolonial Translation Theory and the Swahili Bible Aloo Mojola 26

3 A Postcolonial Analysis of Bible Translation and Its Effectiveness in Shaping and Enhancing the Discourse of Colonialism and the Discourse of Resistance: The Gikuyu New Testament-A Case Study Johnson Kiriaku Kinyua 57

Part II Gender, Postcoloniality and African Bible Translations

4 Translating the Divine: The Case of Modimo in the Setswana Bible Gomang Seratwa Ntloedibe-Kuswani 97

5 How Local Divine Powers were Suppressed: The Case of Mwari of the Shona Dora R. Mbuwayesango 115

6 (Con)figuring Gender in Bible Translation: Cultural, Translational and Gender Critical Intersections Jeremy Punt 129

Part III Savage Readings of Colonialized African Bibles

7 The Bible in the Bush: The First 'Literate' Batswana Bible Readers Musa W. Dube 159

8 Novel Biblical Translation of Ngugi wa Thiong'o Malebogo Kgalemang 176

9 On Reading the Inculturated-Hybridized Bibles of the African Post-colony: Charting the Way Forward R. S. Wafula 192

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“‘All translations are re-writings,’ as Musa Dube observes in her introduction to this absorbing anthology, and when biblical translation is the issue and Africa the context, the theological and ideological stakes in such re-writing are immense. Anyone with interests in postcolonial biblical criticism or Christian mission will find this collection to be important and illuminating.”

—Stephen D. Moore, Edmund S. Janes Professor of New Testament Studies, The Theological School, Drew University



“Through the lens of the African context, each of the essays in Postcoloniality, Translation, and the Bible in Africa presents an insightful and critical examination of texts that illustrate the vital role re-writing has on the construction of identity. This volume is a valuable interdisciplinary contribution to the fields of cultural studies, biblical studies, history, and translation theories.”

—Lynne St. Clair Darden, Associate Professor of New Testament, Interdenominational Theological Center



“Dube and Wafula have assembled a critically-needed anthology querying the impact of Western biblical translation for Africans, laying bare the colonial values smuggled into biblical and other texts. The contributors lay bare the colonial patriarchal agenda that assigned male gender to God in African languages in which God was not previously a male construct, and elucidate the fabrication of an anti-black Christianity hostile to indigenous cultural religious and spiritual practices. This collection will be a valuable pedagogical tool for unmasking the supposed neutrality in translation of any literature, and for assessing the continuing consequences of the colonial enterprise for all who read, teach, preach, study, and translate the scriptures.​”

—Wil Gafney, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Brite Divinity School



“In this important gender-, race-, and culture-sensitive volume, the eight competent contributors provide the reader with a compelling account from the postcolonial perspective of Africa in the Global South as to how the translation of the Bible in Africa is anything but ideologically innocent. Highly recommended.”

— Gosnell L. Yorke, The Dag Hammarskjӧld Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, The Copperbelt University, Zambia

Editorial Reviews

‘All translations are re-writings,’ as Musa Dube observes in her introduction to this absorbing anthology, and when biblical translation is the issue and Africa the context, the theological and ideological stakes in such re-writing are immense. Anyone with interests in postcolonial biblical criticism or Christian mission will find this collection to be important and illuminating.”

—Stephen D. Moore, Edmund S. Janes Professor of New Testament Studies, The Theological School, Drew University



“Through the lens of the African context, each of the essays in Postcoloniality, Translation, and the Bible in Africa presents an insightful and critical examination of texts that illustrate the vital role re-writing has on the construction of identity. This volume is a valuable interdisciplinary contribution to the fields of cultural studies, biblical studies, history, and translation theories.”

—Lynne St. Clair Darden, Associate Professor of New Testament, Interdenominational Theological Center



“Dube and Wafula have assembled a critically-needed anthology querying the impact of Western biblical translation for Africans, laying bare the colonial values smuggled into biblical and other texts. The contributors lay bare the colonial patriarchal agenda that assigned male gender to God in African languages in which God was not previously a male construct, and elucidate the fabrication of an anti-black Christianity hostile to indigenous cultural religious and spiritual practices. This collection will be a valuable pedagogical tool for unmasking the supposed neutrality in translation of any literature, and for assessing the continuing consequences of the colonial enterprise for all who read, teach, preach, study, and translate the scriptures.​”

—Wil Gafney, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Brite Divinity School



“In this important gender-, race-, and culture-sensitive volume, the eight competent contributors provide the reader with a compelling account from the postcolonial perspective of Africa in the Global South as to how the translation of the Bible in Africa is anything but ideologically innocent. Highly recommended.”

— Gosnell L. Yorke, The Dag Hammarskjӧld Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, The Copperbelt University, Zambia

From the Publisher