“Looking into black eyes and feel the embarrassment.” A Selected and Selective Reading of The Africana Bible.

Abstract

Employing a hermeneutics of vulnerability to unmask privileged po-sitions, this article intends to provide a reading from a white per-spective of The Africana Bible. Reading Israel’s Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. The hypothesis is that the book constitutes an exercise in reading the Old Testament/Hebrew Bi-ble/First Testament in terms of a coloniality of being. Firstly, the socio-political relevance of an open discussion of racism will be il-lustrated by a recent example of a dispute that originated within ra-cialized South African public discourse on the issue of white su¬p-remacy. Based on this example, the discussion will proceed to arguments regarding decolonial¬ity after which a reading of selected chapters of The Africana Bible will be presented.