Theopoetics from Below: A South African Black Christological Encounter with Radical Theology (original) (raw)
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The Great Trek of 1838 brought about a belief in the supremacy of the Dutch descendants in South Africa. Their 1948 election victory authenticated for them their interpretation of theology and their historical experiences of God’s involvement in their lives. Black Theology challenged the perception of Afrikaner supremacy and their theological hegemony, although Mosala argued against the blindness of black theologians in their criticism of “white theology” because they were actually using the same tools of analysis that whites had traditionally used to justify their case (Mosala and Tlhagale 1986:175–196). Mosala . This article discusses a paper presented at a conference in Cairo by Takatso Mofokeng on the issue of land, and further outlines the challenges and contributions of Black Theology today. Keywords: Interpretation, White Theology, land, Black Liberation Theology.
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies
Black theology, which is linked to black power in the context of the United States of America and black consciousness in the context of South Africa is often regarded as having nothing to do with spirituality, faith and salvation. It is often regarded by critics as radical, militant and political. In some circles its theological character is questioned. Advocates of liberation theology, past and present are accused of mixing religion with politics. The article traces the history of black theology, as part of liberation theology, which started in the 1960s in three contexts, namely Latin America, United States of America and South Africa. The article argues that spirituality, faith and salvation are central to black theology of liberation. The critical theological reflection that black theology of liberation is all about happens in the context of the spiritual journey of the poor believer and oppressed.Contribution: The contribution that this article makes is to serve as a corrective...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2019
Abstract The Paper discusses South African kind of liberation theology called South African Black Theology showing that it is a unique liberation approach which has crucial lessons to other African Christian liberation theologians just as it too learns from them in mutual enrichment. It will explicate that liberation theology in this region of Africa concerns itself with the struggle and reaction against apartheid and the after effects of it together with other oppressive factors with the finality of emancipation towards freedom and re-establishment of life in Christ as the Liberator par excellence. This will mainly be done using secondary sources in libraries to get insights from renowned South African Black theology scholars like Boesak, Moore, Buthelezi, Tutu, Sebidi, Motlhabi, Mosala, Tlhagale, Goba and Mofokeng and a few others from North America like Conn and Wilmore. The term “black consciousness” will be accentuated as the key concept in their theologizing illumined by North American related slogans like “Black is Black,” “Black is Beautiful” and “Black Power.” It will be pointed out that the concept is further triggered by blacks’ “ontological” music with exponents like the legendary James Brown’s soul music of “I am Black and I am Proud”, Martin Luther King Jr of “I have a dream” and Marcom X- among others. It will further be elaborated as founded on socio-religio-cultural belief that Jesus is the “Black Messiah,” a title they attribute to Him functionally not ideologically hence its specificity. In this regard, a brief exposition of Mofokeng’s Black Christology will come in handy. The Paper will then end by drawing out SABT lessons to other African Christian liberation theologians. The Paper has two fundamental objectives. The first one is to explore and verify that South Africa has a unique mode of liberation theology which when properly perused has significant teaching to other African Christian liberation theologians. The second objective is to discuss South African Black Christology, with Mofokeng’s Black Christology as a model, to find out whether there are useful lessons to other African scholars. The main hypothesis is that South Africa has a unique mode of liberation theology which when properly perused has significant teaching to other African Christian liberation theologians. The second assumption is that South African Black International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 9 , No. 6, June, 2019, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2019 HRMARS 842 Christology whereby Jesus is viewed as the “Black Messiah,” as exemplified by proponent Mofokeng, provides both positive aspects and shortcomings to learn from. The procedure the paper will follow to realize the above is: introductory remarks; distinctiveness of SABT; operationalizing key concepts in SABT; brief historical setting of SABT; black consciousness as the key concept and its meaning; six main sources of SABT; Jesus the “Black Messiah”; Mofokeng’s liberation black Christology within the context of SABT; SABT lessons to other African Christian liberation theologians; concluding remarks followed by references. Among the findings is that of intrinsic employment of an African title “Black Messiah” analogically attributed to Jesus in specifically liberational orientation since the other African titles analogically attributed to Jesus are fundamentally in Inculturation approach. Keywords: Black Theology, Black Consciousness, Black Power,Black Messiah, Conscientization, Liberation Theology, Feminism/Women Liberation Theology.
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 2021
I want to speak on behalf of the voiceless black masses in the name of Jesus whose gospel I believed had been greatly distorted by the preaching and theology of the white churches. (vii) Cone's argument starts by acknowledging the work performed by the Civil Rights Movement. Just like in the South African context, BC became a philosophy that inspired BTL. The point is that for BTL, faith and ideology are central. Steve Biko (1979:94) argues that black theology is a theology which wants to communicate God and Jesus to the very situation facing black people every day of their lives. He continues to say that the role of BTL is to have a God who participates in the reality a black human faces daily. The role played by BTL in black communities was good news for BC because the majority of black people were Christians who were disorganised by the missionary enterprise that demonised black people's culture. Its counterpart, white orthodox theology, heavily criticised BTL, but BTL persisted with its project nonetheless (Ntintili 1996). Whilst the project has many milestones, the oppression of women and the rigidity of patriarchy within the discourse that speaks about liberation raise pertinent questions that this article poses. Black Theology of Liberation (BTL) has done significant work for many decades in the struggle for the liberation of black people. Black Theology of Liberation is a theology which restores human dignity and identity for black humanity, and it needs to be acknowledged and celebrated. One of the most important contributions BTL made was the creation of new forms of ecclesiological knowledge, resulting from a critical look at the use of the Bible with Eurocentric perspectives, and the organisational structures of the church divided between black and white, leading to, amongst others, the dismantlement of black African knowledge, systems and their culture. From a black theological perspective, ecclesiology focused on restoration of the dignity of black persons by dismantling Eurocentric views about faith and ecclesiology that have continued to demonise black lives. Black theology, with its positive contribution, focused on racism and other constructs of oppression such as class, with very little and limited focus on sexism and patriarchy. This article will demonstrate how significant the contribution of BTL has been and also decry or denounce the fact that patriarchal violence and the liberation of women were not given equal attention. Contribution: The article contributes to theological discourse in South Africa (SA) today. It is written from the perspective of BTL and premised by the experience of oppressed black persons. In this article, it has been stated that black persons and their lived experiences are epistemologies in the quest for liberation of black humanity as a whole. The article will therefore bring forth BTL epistemologies that have been put in the periphery by western theology.
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Black theology became popular in South Africa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a result of the contradictions of White oppression that spanned over three centuries. The height of white oppression of Blacks and other races in that country was the formal legalization of apartheid in 1948. The Black theology movement played a significant role in the collapse of apartheid and the introduction of democracy in 1994. Following the demise of apartheid, scholars like Charles Villa-Vicencio, Valpy Fitzgerald, and Jesse Mugambi have argued that Black theology is no longer relevant in South Africa. They contend that it should be replaced with the theology of reconstruction. The predominant question from the foregoing is whether Black theology is still relevant in the transformation of South Africa or not. This paper proposes that Black theology is still relevant in the sense that most of the problems that stimulated its emergence —racialism, poverty, and cultural imperialism still exist in ...
The Relevance of Black Theology in Post Aparthied South Africa
Black theology became popular in South Africa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a result of the contradictions of White oppression that spanned over three centuries. The height of White oppression of Blacks and other races in that country was the formal legalization of apartheid in 1948. The Black theology movement played a significant role in the collapse of apartheid and the introduction of democracy in 1994.
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In this article, Black Theology as a strand of continent-wide African theology is seen through the eyes of African Black Theologians other than South Africans. The article is based on the premise that, whereas up to 1994 Black Theology in South Africa was distinct from other strands of African theology (especially in its emphasis on the urgency of liberation from White racism and its attendant suffering and exploitation), that dividing line is now blurred: Black Theologians in South Africa are moving closer to other theologians from the rest of the continent (Motlhabi 1994). In particular, their present concerns with gospel and culture, a phenomenon that did not previously receive much attention, comes to much the same as joining other African theologians in seeking a theology of reconstruction. Certainly, African theologians in the twenty-first century have all united to address the common challenges that the continent is grappling with. These concerns include HIV and AIDS, xenophobia, gender injustice, tribalism, poverty, moral regeneration, corruption, re-emerging forms of dictatorships, and global warming among others. As to methodology, the article starts by tracing the historical background of South African Black Theology and proceeds to survey some of its past concerns as articulated by its proponents. It then addresses some of the current concerns of theology in twenty-first century Africa, a trajectory that points to a reconstructive as opposed to an Exodus motif.
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