Abstract
South African Black Theology of the 1960-1980s characterised its primary site of struggle as the racial capitalism of apartheid. Intersecting race and/as class has been a distinctively South African contribution to African biblical scholarship. Less common, but equally significant, is the intersection of culture and/as class. This article analyses this trajectory, reflecting on how three South African biblical scholars (Gunther Wittenberg, Makhosazana Nzimande and Hulisani Ramantswana) have discerned the need for the African decolonial project to recognise and recover the class divisions within a culture. A recurring cultural trope across the three scholars is their use of proverbs to discern class distinctions within culture. The works of each of these three scholars and their dialogue partners in South African Contextual Theology and South African Black Theology are interrogated for how they intersect notions of class and culture.
Highlights
South African Black Theology of the 1960–1980s characterised its primary site of struggle as the racial capitalism of apartheid
One of the contributions of South African biblical scholarship to African biblical scholarship has been its emphasis on class
“A Decolonial (Re)turn,” Old Testament Essays (OTE) 34/2 (2021): 530-553 531 characterisation of South Africa as “colonialism of a special type” constituted by “a relatively extensive European settler occupation of the territory; the survival of indigenous African people and their societies as an oppressed but overwhelming majority; and the decisive factor – the imperialist implantation of a highly developed ‘mature’ capitalist system into this colonial setting.”[2]. It is this “decisive factor” that is the focus of my article, what Lebamang Sebidi refers to as “racial capitalism” in his remarkable analysis of the “dialectical relationship” between class and race within the “four historical phases of the black struggle in South Africa.”[3]
Summary
One of the contributions of South African biblical scholarship to African biblical scholarship has been its emphasis on class. Economic class as a formative factor in the production of biblical texts and in the reception of biblical texts is central to South African socially-engaged biblical scholarship This has not meant, the neglect of culture or race, though there has been an extended debate about how to intersect class and culture. Gerald West, “A Decolonial (Re)turn to Class in South African Biblical Scholarship,” Old Testament Essays 34 no. 532 West, “A Decolonial (Re)turn,” OTE 34/2 (2021): 530-553 cultural hermeneutics” in various ways,[10] this article sets out to analyse a neglected dimension of South African biblical scholarship, namely, the class distinctions within a culture. Adamo is explicit about the cultural dimension of the decolonial African biblical scholarship project. My own contribution lies in the analysis of each example but in my weaving of notions of the decolonial across the three examples
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