BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
character of the story giving advices to the people and to Pharaoh. Fur-
thermore, he is the giver of the land. In order to legitimize traveling to
and conquering of the land of Canaan, the introduction of the Exodus is
rhetorically used to arouse the reader’s sympathy with the Israelites.
The characterization of the targeted land, Dube points out, is positive.
The labeling of the land as “a land flowing with milk and honey” (e.g. Ex.
33:3) demonstrates the economic interests of the Israelites. Dube shows
that the targeted land is repeatedly described as an inhabited land. Even
the peoples living in the land are known. Though the land itself is posi-
tively characterized, the inhabitants of the land are not. There is the
typical opposition of colonizer and colonized: The colonized are de-
scribed negatively, especially regarding their religious practices. The
Israelites construct their own identity in opposition to the Canaanites; by
degrading the Canaanites, the Israelites become the holy and chosen
people of God (cf. Dube 2004:66).
The contrasting description of the Israelites and the Canaanites becomes
clearer when referring to the “contact zone.” Dube analyzes the quality
of the contact between the different cultures, and she observes that the
contact between the Israelites and the Canaanites is imagined in the
book of Exodus using verbs of destruction like “melt, blot out, drive out,
hand over” (Dube 2004:68). The “realization” of the contact as described
in the book of Joshua fits the images of contact as presented in the book
of Exodus; it is characterized by annihilation of the Canaanites.
Dube pays special attention to the gender aspect and links it with post-
colonial interests. As Dube shows, western feminist interpreters point
out patriarchal oppression in biblical texts but they do not take imperial-
istic structures into account. Therefore, Dube shows how the colonized
and the colonizing women are presented in the book of Exodus and in
the book of Joshua. In the first chapters of Exodus the situation of the
Israelites in Egypt is that of a colonized people. Interestingly, there are
several women presented who do not give in to the imperializing actions
of Pharaoh but who fight against imperialism and patriarchy. During the
trek up to the conquest of Canaan, the women change from the colo-
nized to the colonizing but the “the women’s role as the colonizer is
almost nonexistent” (Dube 2004:75). Once again, the focus is put on
colonized women: in the book of Joshua the focus is on Rahab, a Ca-
naanite prostitute.