Abstract
The article argues that “Abantu Book Festival” (Abantu) held in Soweto annually signifies a decolonising space for theological education in the urban areas surrounding Soweto. From the perspective of Black theology of liberation (BTL) paradigms, the clear focus on blackness as a methodological framework for the Abantu programme signifies Abantu as a festival reflecting critically on the black experience post-1994. Moreover, Soweto, with its resistance history, relates Abantu to black culture, and urban realities post-1994. In its programme, African Spirituality becomes the source of knowledge for Abantu’s decolonial project, thus, enabling the spirit of Ubuntu as a lived, and a living philosophy at Abantu. This article, therefore argues that Abantu exhibits BTL with a praxis-based spirituality for theological education in urban areas. Abantu’s use of blackness, and Soweto as interlocutors automatically connects Abantu to the Black Consciousness Movements (BCM), Pan Africanist narratives of return, thus enables Black Theology Liberation.
Highlights
The article argues that “Abantu Book Festival” (Abantu) held in Soweto annually signifies a decolonising space for theological education in the urban areas surrounding Soweto
I want to argue that Abantu exhibits Black theology of liberation (BTL) with a praxis-based spirituality for theological education in urban areas
One of the Fallists students, authors, and curator of Abantu, Panashe Chigumadzi, expressed that the festival provides Black authors and readers with the due recognition they deserved. It has become a space where Black authors and writers “are not forced into White spaces that have no room for Blackness and its different expressions.”5 Abantu Book Festival sets itself “as a literary movement that is not rooted on notions of coloniality.”6
Summary
The founder and the curator of Abantu Book Festival, Thando Mqgolozana, states that the festival has its foundations from the Fallist student call for decolonisation of the education system. One of the Fallists students, authors, and curator of Abantu, Panashe Chigumadzi, expressed that the festival provides Black authors and readers with the due recognition they deserved. It has become a space where Black authors and writers “are not forced into White spaces that have no room for Blackness and its different expressions.” Abantu Book Festival sets itself “as a literary movement that is not rooted on notions of coloniality.”. The performance was an adaptation of Saartjie Baartman who was transported and paraded in Europe as a savage monstrous woman In her death, Baron Georges Cuvier dissected Baartman’s body. The play was able to reflect current emotive traumas caused by how Black bodies are constructed within historical settings
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