Teaching Western-oriented Old Testament studies to African students : an exercise in wisdom or in Folly?

Abstract

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