The drum and its significance for the interpretation of the Old Testament from an African perspective: Part one

Rudolph De Wet Oosthuizen

doi:10.4102/ve.v37i1.1395

Abstract

Recent developments in South Africa opened the doors of opportunity for Old Testament scholars to position themselves in terms of Africa and to allow the African context to play a more explicit role in the interpretation of the Bible. An awareness of the significance of the (South) African context for the interpretation of the Old Testament in South Africa can inform the construction and refinement of the comparative paradigm as a reading strategy. In consequence, it might not only serve the communication of the message, but also facilitate a dialogue between the text and the contemporary reader and imbue the comparative method as a reading strategy. Being aware of the significance of music and its function regarding expression of African religion and spirituality, the article explores aspects of music and its potential to inform a particular �reading�, with specific reference to the drum. (Whilst the focus in Part 1 is more on some hermeneutical aspects as pertaining to a specific reading strategy, Part 2 is to explore the significance of music for the interpretation of the Old Testament with specific reference to Psalm 150).Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The contribution attempts to illustrate that, in our encounters with the biblical text, we need to move beyond a historical descriptiveanalysis of the text or defining its significance in linguistic terms only. In so doing, the �comparative paradigm� is augmented by allowing insights from various disciplines to inform the reader.Keywords: Music; 'Hemeneutics'; 'African Reading' of the Old Testament

Highlights

One finger cannot play the drum alone ...For many years South African society was shaped and is continued to be influenced by the coexistence of two worlds, that is, the ‘first world’ and the ‘third world’ where, to a certain extent, the first world consists of the ‘white part of the society’ and the other the ‘black or non-white part’
As indicated by Holter (1998:20), ‘Contemporary biblical scholarship is increasingly acknowledging that there is no “innocent” interpretation of the Bible; all interpretation reflects some of the ideological, historical and material context of the interpreter’. It comes as no surprise, that two strands of biblical scholarship are being identified in South Africa (Ukpong 1999): What one finds in Africa today is two strands of biblical scholarship
The demise of historical criticism2 as well as the methodological openness that characterises biblical scholarship in South Africa today carries a lot of promise for the development of an authentic African Old Testament scholarship (West 2005:48; Human 1997:572)

Summary

Introduction

One finger cannot play the drum alone ...For many years South African society was shaped and is continued to be influenced by the coexistence of two worlds, that is, the ‘first world’ and the ‘third world’ where, to a certain extent, the first world consists of the ‘white part of the society’ and the other the ‘black or non-white part’. The impact of the African context on the interpretation of the Bible (West 1997b:99) comes amidst the crisis of orientation in Old Testament exegetical studies on the one hand (Utzschneider 1996:2)1 and

Results

Conclusion