http://hdl.handle.net/10500/430 2013-05-21T06:13:32Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5401 Is Ruth the Ēšet Hayil for Real? Womanhood Between African Proverbs and the Threshing Floor (Ruth1:1-13) Masenya, Madipoane Contradictory definitions of what worthy womanhood is have, in many contexts, including African contexts, caused divisions within religious institutions, families and communities at large. In Christian African contexts, definitions of worthy womanhood emerging from various Bible interpretations, and shaped by different African cultures, have wrought and continue to influence views concerning women and men, boy and girl children even as these mould our definitions of what affirming gender relationships (should) entail. In Ruth 3:11, Boaz, the wealthy Judahite man, informs Ruth, the poor foreign (Moabite) widow, that the assembly of Judahite men knows that she is the 'ēšet hayil, the woman of substance. Which images of womanhood are revealed when some African proverbs are read in conjunction with Boaz’s words in Ruth 3:11? Do these images indeed reveal Ruth as the woman of substance? Are they affirming of those in their search of affirming definitions of womanhood in our African contexts? These questions among others will be addressed by the present article. 2010-07-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5372 Teaching Western-oriented Old Testament studies to African students : an exercise in wisdom or in Folly? Masenya, Madipoane Since the colonial era, Africa, with South Africa included, has suffered alienation. With strangers imposing their cultures, languages, ideologies et cetera on the continent, Africa became a stranger, ironically on its own territory. As could be expected, this was not Africa's own making: the West, particularly Europe in the case of South Africa, has basically everything to do with this alienation. The colonial enterprise therefore, did much harm to African peoples in terms of identity. As one might expect, the education received by African students from Western/Western-oriented producers and professors also had the capacity to alienate these students from their cultural heritage. Old Testament studies in South Africa were no exception to this state of affairs. This has been the case because of the rooted-ness of South African Old Testament scholarship in the West rather than in Africa. The main question addressed in this article is: Given the extent of the harm done by colonial and apartheid education to African-South African students, is it a wise exercise to continue offering these students a theology which continues to alienate them from their real selves? In the light of the post-apartheid era, an era of self-recovery, self-affirmation, a search for one's roots, is teaching Western-oriented Old Testament studies an exercise in wisdom or in folly? As Old Testament scholars, are we offering the right word at the right time to the right people? This article attempts to grapple with these questions 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5344 Sacrificing female bodies at the altar of male priviledge : a bosadi reading of Judges 19 Masenya, Madipoane The present South African landscape is typified, amongst other evils, by violent acts committed on women and children. This violence is entrenched in some church and family contexts, not only by the women-unfriendly Bible interpretations, but also by the use of some of the violent biblical texts themselves by those benefiting from patriarchy. The present essay seeks to confront and challenge the violence perpetrated against the female folk depicted in Judges 19 from the perspective of African women Bible readers in South Africa. 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5343 Esther and Northern Sotho Stories : an African-South African woman’s commentary Masenya, Madipoane 2012-02-06T00:00:00Z