BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
reading Psalm 137:1-4 with Basarwa, I also followed methods used by
Leonardo Boff where by communities are allowed to engage the text
from their own situation. From my reading of the Bible with Basarwa, I
am persuaded that this is the best way to involve indigenous communi-
ties in a contextual theological discourse because through it Basarwa
were able to compare their present situation with the Jews in Babylonian
captivity. I found Basarwa knowledge of the Bible no matter how little it
might be, to be useful in reading Psalm 137:1-4 with them. Basarwa also
believed that the Bible was somehow relevant to their political lives as
indicated during Bible reading. The Judeo-Christian tradition of libera-
tion from which both Psalm 137:1-4 is universally recognized, and there-
fore assists theological reflections on issues relating to Bible and politics.
Both books talks to us explicitly about what it is like being in exile, but
also points us to various ways in which people can be exiled other than
through the usual physical form of exile which was experienced by the
Israelites. They are also useful because they show how different forms of
exile may bring about an indelible psychological scar, both on the vic-
tims and the perpetrators. In this regard, I can safely share Bruggerman,
s (1984) view that Psalm 137:1-4 has provided communities beyond the
Babylonian captivity with the Bible as a valuable resource for doing poli-
tics (Bruggeman 1984:15). Peter Sedgwick (1992) is even more direct on
this issue as he argues that there is a clear relationship between the
nature of society as represented in politics and nature of God in the Bi-
ble. According to him the Church by its actions in witness points to the
political nature of the world that God has created and that this has pro-
found implications for individual Christians in taking theo-political
positions. Thus it becomes necessary for Christianity as an institution
and a biblical religion play a role in politics. This is so because human
freedom is one of the presuppositions of Christian understanding of
God’s relationship to the world and it is on that basis that Christian
political ethic can be developed. In other words, political freedom is a
critical term not only for the enterprise culture, but also for Christianity
because God is just (Stout 2003). Coming back to the issue of contextual
reading of the Bible with Basarwa, reading sessions were conducted as
group discussions, facilitated either by myself, or by a member of the
group who was willing to do so. The discussions of these groups were
recorded in short-hand. I distributed Bibles and make an invitation to
open them. (Realising that it takes long, I helped others) and ask for a
volunteered to read. Nashadi (a literate Mosarwa participant with little