Mission studies at South African higher education institutions: An ethical and decolonial perspective in the quest to ‘colour’ the discipline

Eugene Baron

doi:10.4102/hts.v76i1.5819

Abstract

The recent debate on decolonisation calls for all academic disciplines, including missiology modules, at public universities to reflect on its content, curriculum and pedagogies. However, the danger is always that to ‘de-…’ might lead to an exclusivist and essentialist pattern of a person or institution, and an act that does not take all epistemic communities seriously. The author argues in this article that such tendencies would not be conducive in South Africa, a country with a rich heritage of various cultures. Epistemologies at public universities should embrace all cultures in order to be relevant and transformative. The article oscillates between essentialism in social, racial identities and non-essentialism thereof – primarily contending for the inclusion and appreciation of all social and cultural identities in South African curriculum and content for higher education, in particular, the cultural tradition and heritage among the so-called ‘coloured’ communities. The article reassesses the contributions of theologians towards racial and ethnic identity. The author uses one particular ‘racial identity’ as a case study for racial essentialism and to argue for an inclusive approach in mission education. The article conclusively argues for the re-imagination and inclusion of ‘coloured’ as an African identity in the discipline of missiology.

Highlights

What1 is the state of affairs in South African mission education at public higher education institutions? Is there a place for ‘colouring’?2 This question has to do with the interlocutors3 and the conversation partners in mission studies in a post-apartheid South Africa
In the more recent response on contextual mission from the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) mission statement: ‘Together towards Life (TTL): Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes’ (Keum 2013,) the contributors emphasise that mission should no longer be about going to the margins, but to conduct the mission from the margins
The problem with studies related to this topic is that highlighting the distinctiveness of all of the oppressed might become an issue of particularities and come across as advancing racial essentialism, whereas this article does not aim to do this but rather to raise the alarm and accentuate the core business of missiology to take all epistemic communities seriously

Summary

Introduction

What is the state of affairs in South African mission education at public higher education institutions? Is there a place for ‘colouring’?2 This question has to do with the interlocutors and the conversation partners in mission studies in a post-apartheid South Africa. In terms of the situation of the so-called coloured people and their experiences in a post-apartheid situation, the question should be posed: how contextual is ‘contextual’ if it does not include and sufficiently address and articulate ‘coloured identity’ as an oppressed group in the South African context, taking into account that Bosch was a South African missiologist?. The article argues that missiology discourse will open up more space(s) for other marginalised and oppressed groups in South Africa, with reference to the so-called ‘coloured’ racial identity and category in South Africa who will become an added ‘interlocutor’ (discussion partner) that will shape all those who are students of missiology, and lecturers in missiology. This would, provide a good basis for the main argument of the article that teaching should be inclusive, experiential and multicultural, in its epistemology, pedagogy and curriculum

Conclusion

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