African Biblical Interpretation of Matthew 20:1-15 in relation to social justice for workers in Cameroon

Ernest Van Eck,Godlove S Ntem

doi:10.17570/stj.2021.v7n1.a12

Abstract

After the colonial era in the early sixties, the practice of employing and paying workers in Cameroon both in the civil service and in the private sector became very crucial, considering the fact that the situation of unemployment is so endemic to Cameroon as a paradigm for Africa’s unemployment. From an economic perspective, Cameroon has a booming labour force, but this robust manpower has been underutilized due to the provocative unemployment that is experienced in all sectors in the country. As an agrarian economy, the weakness of industrialization in Cameroon does not offer mass employment alternatives. Those who have the privilege to be employed are not satisfied with their remunerations to the extent that they try to use unorthodox means to add to their pay through corruption. This article highlights the desperate nature of Cameroonian workers through the lenses of Matthew 20:1-15. It is a society of unfair distribution of resources and this creates an imbalanced society between the privileged and non-privileged peasantry.

Highlights

IntroductionThe policy creates the illusion in the elites, and in the masses that everything is possible and that individuals must give the leader total support if they wish to maintain, or climb to high offices and get the favours that go with it (Nyamnjoh 1999:106)
Biblical exegesis had for a long time in the past been read by Africans from the perspective of the West
This article is a quest for a biblical theology of social justice for workers in the light of Matthew 20:1–15 from a Cameroonian perspective using an African biblical interpretation

Summary

Introduction

The policy creates the illusion in the elites, and in the masses that everything is possible and that individuals must give the leader total support if they wish to maintain, or climb to high offices and get the favours that go with it (Nyamnjoh 1999:106) Another serious problem which is endemic to Cameroon and which seems to paralyse social justice in the employment of workers is bribery and corruption. This idea of regional and ethnic balancing is carefully crafted into the constitution of the PCC, Article 112 on election of Moderator and Synod Clerk which states that “the Moderator and Synod Clerk shall not be indigenes of one and the same Region of the Country”. Another threat to social justice in the employment and appointing of workers in the PCC is that the more power is centralised, giving a greater capacity for corruption and abuse, as in Lord Acton’s dictum, “All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This is true for all authority, civil as well as ecclesiastical (Sorensen 2010:5). Neyrey (2005:467) has expressed a similar idea on “patronage and reciprocity” from the firstcentury Mediterranean world where a patron gives an appointment or a favour to a worker and expects a balanced reciprocity in the form of money, honour and loyalty

An insight into the ABHA approach

Conclusion